Business Class Only Airlines

PREV 2 of 2

Flights to Paris
Paris has attracted its own all-business startup. L'Avion, which launched in January, flies between Newark and Paris' Orly Airport. L'Avion uses Boeing 757s configured with 90 reclining seats. Despite some teething problems—leave it to the French to complain about the in-flight wine selection—the airline plans to add a second daily flight in October. It launched with roundtrip prices as low as $999 and is running a summer sale that offers roundtrips at about $1,700. Peak-period, walk-up fares on L'Avion top out at around $5,100, compared to Air France’s approximate price of $8,100.

Flights to Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and Munich
The originator of the all-business concept, Lufthansa has steadily expanded its service. After experimenting with its routes, aircraft, and in-flight concept, the German carrier now offers three all-business services: Newark-Düsseldorf, Newark-Munich, and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Düsseldorf. The flights have up to 48 seats and duplicate Lufthansa’s traditional business-class service at traditional business-class prices. Late in October, the Newark-Munich flight will be switched to a larger plane with three classes of service. But the carrier will also be launching a new all-business route: Newark-Frankfurt, with an early-afternoon departure from the U.S. and early-morning departure from Frankfurt.

Lufthansa's subsidiary, Swiss International, employs a similar strategy. It offers all-business flights—56 seats on a specially outfitted Boeing 737—from Newark to its Zurich Airport hub. And the Dutch carrier KLM provides all-business service between Houston’s Intercontinental Airport and its hub, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

The Fine Print
The allure of all-business service may even cross the Pacific to Asia. Singapore Airlines' two "ultralong haul" routes, 18-hour nonstops to Singapore from Newark Liberty Airport and Los Angeles International, are currently outfitted with a business class and an upgraded coach cabin. But there are rumors that Singapore will convert the Airbus A340-500s to all-premium operations.

All-business flights are popular, but they haven't proved that they can work everywhere. Primaris Airlines was created in 2003 to fly all-business service between major U.S. cities, but it never launched its scheduled flights. And Eurofly, an Italian airline, dropped its all-business New York to Milan flights earlier this year after just a few months of operation.

PREV 2 of 2