OpenSkies, the new premium-class British Airways spin-off, will start selling tickets next week for its first route -- between JFK and Paris’ Orly Airport starting in June -- now that it's received U.S. Department of Transportation permission to start flying, the company announced today.
"This is a major step forward for OpenSkies, the first airline to be created as a result of the Open Skies agreement," a company spokesman told NewYorkology by e-mail this morning.
June 19 is the planned start date, according to a separate press release from British Airways.
And although company officials had been mum on which cities would come next, today's press release states the new airline "plans to service additional routes from European cities including Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Milan to New York."
Prices were not yet available, but in a March interview with NewYorkology, Dale Moss the airline's managing director, said OpenSkies will try to meet the prices of its competitors.
OpenSkies flights will be available for booking through flyopenskies.com, BA.com and by travel agents using British Airways codeshare flights. OpenSkies’ also received approval for a codeshare arrangement with L’Avion, the low-fare business class airline that flies between Newark and Orly.
Originally OpenSkies planned to fly into Charles de Gaulle airport rather than Orly, but the switch was made earlier this month because of the L’Avion codeshare. Orly was the first choice all along, Moss wrote on the company's blog:
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.
OpenSkies will start with only one plane, a retrofitted BA 757 that previously had 180 seats but now has only 82, allowing for less-cramped seating throughout.
Video: OpenSkies' footage of a British Airways 757 turning into the first OpenSkies plane.
