French Airline La Compagnie to Upgrade Business Class Product Next April

French boutique airline La Compagnie will upgrade its inflight proudct next spring when it debuts a new aircraft type, the Airbus A321 Neo, outfitted with 76 fully flat beds in a two-by-two configuration.

The jet will also come equipped with high-speed Wi-Fi on its daily New York-Paris flights, in partnership with Viasat, which will  allow for “unmatched speed, quality and affordability,”  and connections to streaming services like Netflix, said Jean Charles Perino, executive vice president of sales and marketing for the carrier. A new inflight entertainment system will have 15.7 inch touchscreens and a wide range of movies and other entertainment.

Currently, the all-business-class airline operates a fleet of two 757 aircraft with 74 angled lie flat seats. It has garnered attention for its affordable fares, with periodic sale fares as low as $1,500 roundtrip, and its upscale amenities, including French Champagne and cuisine and airport lounge access.

With the new aircraft and seating, La Compagnie’s inflight product will be even closer to the business class product on mainstream airlines such as Air France, where fares in that service class can be as high as $9,000 roundtrip on the same route.  

“It is part of our DNA to be a low-fare airline,” Perino said in an interview.  “That doesn’t mean we are selling seats at the sale price every day, but we have an advantage that other airlines don’t – we don’t have a coach class, and our business class doesn’t have to subsidize the cheapest fares.”

The company will phase out its 757s in favor of the new plane type, with the first of the two A321s scheduled to arrive in April 2019.

In New York, the airline operates out of Newark Liberty International, and in France, it recently moved operations to Paris Orly from Charles De Gaulle.