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Hello friends. As we approach launch, things seem to be happening at light-speed. I have a couple of pieces of great news to share with you.
First, we passed our proving flight with flying colors as of 5:33 UK time yesterday we received our AOC from the CAA (Air Operators Certificate and Civil Aviation Authority for those keeping up on acronyms)!
Last week, I posted about embarking on our proving flight: an exciting and tense time. We had to make sure every “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed. Inspectors combed over every detail, making sure our plane and crew are ready to fly.
The CAA Flight Operation Inspector complimented our team on their thoroughness and professionalism. We flew a route over North Scotland and over Iceland to demonstrate our oceanic flight procedures before returning to UK airspace.
Secondly, we’re re-routing to Orly!
If you remember, we announced on February 21 that we planned to be flying from John F. Kennedy (JFK) to Charles de Gaulle (CDG). Even after that announcement we were working hard to obtain slots at our preferred airport, Orly. Just this week we got them through a codeshare agreement with L’Avion and made the switch. All of which becomes official once we secure all of our regulatory approvals. We chose Orly because it is more conveniently located to the center of Paris and offers faster access to and from the city than CDG. The distance from Orly to central Paris is roughly 19km or 12m, whereas the distance from CDG to central Paris is roughly 28km or 17m.
5 miles can make all the difference—especially in rush hour.
More headlines as they happen,
Dale
May 9th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Hi,
I’m glad you choose Orly instead of CDG, it will be easier for me !
But can you tell us more about the details of the code share agreement with L’Avion ? Is this agreement is limited to the ORY/CDG-EWR/JFK flights or will it be extended ?
Thanks,
Quentin
May 12th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Excellent to see OpenSkies opt for Orly – as nice as CDG is, Orly’s proximity to Paris will certainly be a winning choice for customer.s
May 12th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Hi Dale,
Have just seen video of your aircraft in flight.
It looks really great, I cant wait to fly it !
I wonder have you given any thought to “naming” the aircraft.
If not I would like to suggest “Spirit of Charles Lindbergh”.
On May 20,1927 Charles Lindbergh departed from Long Island, New York arriving 33 hours later at Paris.
Lindbergh’s achievement of directly linking these two great cities fuelled dreams of air travel between the great cities of the world.
A recognition and tribute to his brave and pioneering spirit would be great.
Derek.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:38 am
I can now understand why you are not giving us the take off date for the airline – it´s going to be 4th July under a blast of razzamatazz. I can even imagen you taking off for Brussels at the same time(or very soon after) so as to offer some meaty alternatives for your clients.
Six aircraft flying by the end of 2009 means roughly one entering service every three months. This does not provide much flexibility either in offering more flights per route nor in more routes. How many back-up aircraft do you plan on having?
Does your codeshare agreement with L´Avion also mean you will fly from/into Newark? The NY origen/destination is markedly absent from your statement. Your choice of Orly underlines that your aim is to be a point-to-point airline so the possibility of joining Oneworld is not considered. In my opinion this is a grave error and could lead to your fate being the same as Maxijet and Eos since you do not offer your clients the advantages of an alliance like Oneworld – the potential clients have no incentives to leave other alliances and fly you.
Even though L´Avion seems an attractive airline they offer a different product.It is an “all business airline” of 90 seats while Open skies is three classes. You fly from JFK while L´Avion flies from Newark. The idea of codesharing, therefore, is not quite understandable. These arrangements are usually reciprocal. So you will be using L´Avion slots to fly into Orly and you offer L´Avion a codeshare agreement for your flights into JFK? Will you have OS codes on L´Avion flights into Newark? It sounds that you are subject to this agreement as you do not have the slots at Orly. Does this bode for a closer union?
Please give us more news. As you can see the replies to this blog have dropped since January/February let´s not hope that this reflects the interest of the clientelle. Give us something substantial to provoke interest.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
G-BPEK already seems to have the name “Lauren” applied directly under the captain’s window. Fitting as Openskies was Project Lauren, however, I think Derek’s name would have been very appropriate.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:29 am
How does one book on Open Skies?
May 15th, 2008 at 11:03 am
From Fontainebleau its still quicker to CDG than Orly – N7 south is s**t – A6 in from south blocks quickly the mornings – by train going via Anthony is a pain. Avoiding Heathrow is a big plus -no more lost bagge and 1 hour waits on ground for a gate. But looks like I will have to go elsewhere to get CDG-DC direct. Waiting for that service to start.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Everything looks great with the new paintwork and the seats look like an improvement from the previous BA ones, so give yourselves a pat on the back guys. I notice there is no ‘oneworld’ roundel by the door, and as there has been no mention of oneworld on this blog by the openskies team I assume that openskies is not part of oneworld. It would be a shame not to use the benefits of oneworld and this does lead to a question about whether the BA executive club will be part of openskies?
Another point I would like to make is that it does seem rather ironic that BA is withdrawing from Manchester for its NY service and has no presence at all in the direct Scotland to US market. This is despite inroads by Continental, Delta and seasonal services by US airways and Virgin. I cannot use Continental to NY as I require oxygen on the flight and they do not provide this. I was hoping to use openskies (assuming that you offer oxygen inflight) to bypass LHR when CDG was stated as the departure point, but now that it is Orly this is not possible as there are no flights from Glasgow to Orly.
Good Luck with everything, I’m sure things will make a lot more sense when everything is up and running