London City & Luton to New York

Figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority show that in May La Compagnie (BO), the French-owned ‘Business Class only’ airline, carried 2,014 passengers against 1,152 in May, a 75% increase over 12 months earlier, the service starting that April. This compares well with BA’s London City product, which is not non-stop, and was down 6% to 1,745.

For the full year 2015, the London City operation was down 12% at 21,375 and in eight months La Compagnie carried 12,600 passengers and is predicted (by BTN) to reach 25,000 for 2016.

The La Compagnie five-times-weekly service to Newark – daily except Tuesdays and Fridays – is operated by B757-200 with 74 seats that convert to angled flatbeds. British Airways offers a 32-seat A318 but the seat is not fully flat.

In the meantime, BA is cutting its service at the end of October to a single flight each day and no Shannon immigration pre-clearance. London City passengers do have the alternative of routeing through Dublin with either BA or CityJet and then a choice of carriers to the US using the well-established passport control operation.

www.ba.com

www.lacompagnie.com/uk

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

Malcolm Ginsberg,

On Monday morning La Compagnie announced that the LTN-JFK route was closing (or as they put it – being suspended) from 25 September. Sadly, they were not the most communitive of operators and it is a pity that BTN was not informed with an embargo. Air travellers and the travel trade deserve a better service.