If you follow flight options between Paris and NYC, you may remember L’Avion. In 2007 the company launched a low-cost all-business class service between Paris and New York only to be acquired by British Airways the following year and merged into Open Skies. Well now some of the airline’s founders are embarking on a new adventure called Dreamjet. Starting July 4, the carrier will operate an all-business class transatlantic service between Roissy Charles de Gaulle and JFK International airports.
Dreamjet is led by L’Avion’s co-founder Frantz Yvelin and former JetAirways Chief Operating Officer Peter Luethi. The company has raised €30 million from private investors, including Charles Beigbeider, who will serve as co-chairman of the supervisory board, and Michel Cicurel, former head of the Edmond de Rothschild Group.
The carrier will begin operating with one aircraft, a Boeing 757, configured with 80 Business Class seats (10 less than L’Avion, which also used B757s). Frantz Yvelin announced that the airline will offer attractive prices between 30% and 50% lower than the competition.
The carrier’s official launch will be announced on June 16, with its first aircraft scheduled to take off on July 4.
The competition isn’t worried, or at least it doesn’t show it. Air France CEO Alexandre de Juniac expressed his doubts about the new arrival at the national airline’s General Assembly of Shareholders last week. He emphasized that the all-business model, which was popular in the 2000s, only amounted to a series of bankruptcies.
Dreamjet’s shareholers, however, may be focused on a different outcome; when L’Avion was acquired by Brithish Airways they made €16 million in capital gains.
