British Airways completes L'Avion deal
British Airways has completed a £54 million deal to buy French business class airline L'Avion.
British Airways has completed a £54 million deal to buy French business class airline L'Avion.
BA said the airline will operate as a subsidiary of British Airways and will become fully integrated with OpenSkies by early 2009.
OpenSkies is BA's new transatlantic, predominantly business-class subsidiary, which will fly direct between continental Europe and the US.
The small French carrier survived the recent spate of business-class bankruptcies, which have claimed UK airline Silverjet as well as US-based Maxjet and Eos.
BA launched its subsidiary last month following the open skies treaty between the US and the EU, allowing any EU carrier to fly to any point in the US, with reciprocal flights from the US to Europe.
OpenSkies launched services on June 19th this year with daily flights from Paris Orly to New York JFK. L'Avion currently operates two daily flights between Paris Orly and Newark.
