Aigle Azur bankruptcy in September 2019 left a pool of over 12,000 flight slots up for grabs. The winners and losers of this fight for slots were revealed. While Air France-KLM, Wizz Air and Lufthansa (LHAB) (LHA) took the best bites, Ryanair was left empty-handed. Aigle Azur bankruptcy in September 2019 left a pool of over 12,000 flight slots up for grabs. The winners and losers of this fight for slots were revealed. While Air France-KLM, Wizz Air and Lufthansa (LHAB) (LHA) took the best bites, Ryanair was left empty-handed. The slots were previously held by the now-defunct Aigle Azur (ZI, Paris Orly). COHOR also awarded Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l ) the exact same number of slots. However, the Star Alliance carrier will fly the route 2x daily with its CRJ900 fleet beginning March 16.
A few months after the launch of the first 2 long-haul routes in its history, the 2nd largest French airline announces its best On-Time Performance ever, along with the reinforcement and the optimization of its long-haul network, as well as the continuous development of its historical short and medium-haul operations, on year-round services.
Optimizing the nonstop service from Paris-Orly to Beijing
From May 2019* on, Aigle Azur intends to reorganize its service to Beijing, inaugurated last year, in order to improve connections with the network to/from Beijing of its codeshare partner Hainan Airlines, the 4th largest airline in the whole China, which has won SKYTRAX World's 5-Star Airlines rating for 8 consecutive years. Pending additional approvals (including from the CAAC –Civil Aviation Administration of China), Aigle Azur indeed intends to keep operating 3 direct flights per week between Paris-Orly and Beijing, on new schedules, that would be released as soon as new departing slots from Beijing would also be granted. At the same time, Aigle Azur intends to enhance its cooperation with its Chinese partner Hainan Airlines in Beijing. This will then allow more efficient connecting options on Hainan Airlines' flights to/from the major Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming, Wuhan, Wenzhou, Haikou, and Fuzhou, all via Beijing. In parallel, this new schedule will also ensure a wider number of connections to/from Portugal with Aigle Azur and TAP Air Portugal flights, all via our main base of Orly. Aigle Azur will then continue its existing operations to Beijing until the end of March 2019, then the route will be suspended for a few weeks until resuming all direct flights, still on a-3-time-per- week basis, from Paris-Orly, with these new schedules and new connections fully implemented from May 2019**.
The Paris-Orly / Beijing one-way trip is currently available from 219€ VAT***
As part of the reinforcement of its collaboration with Hainan Airlines to/from France and to/from Beijing, Aigle Azur will also add its code on all flights already being operated by Hainan Airlines from Paris to Shenzhen* and Chongqing* in China, on top of their existing long-time codeshare on the Paris-Xi'an route (all these Hainan Airlines' flights being operated from Paris-CDG).
More direct flights to Brazil
Building on the success already achieved on this route since its launch on July 5th, 2018 (with an average load factor of about 90% from the beginning), Aigle Azur is happy to announce that its Paris-Orly / Sao Paulo-Campinas service is indeed increasing its frequencies from 4 to 5 direct flights per week from April 1st, 2019 on, every day but Mondays and Wednesdays. These flights will still be operated in partnership with Azul, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and will now all operate at the same times every day of operations, all week long.
Flight Schedule (local time):
Departure from Paris-Orly at 10:15 AM - Arrival in Sao Paulo-Campinas at 05:15 PM Departure from Sao Paulo-Campinas at 07:15 PM - Arrival in Paris-Orly at 11:45 AM (D+1)
The one-way trip Paris-Sao Paulo is currently available from 229€ VAT***
All these flights allow connectivity to Algiers, Oran, Moscow, and Kiev from Paris-Orly and to the whole Azul network in Brazil (more than 100 destinations) via Sao Paulo–Campinas.
Reinforcement of the Bamako service from Paris-Orly, which goes daily
As already announced by Frantz Yvelin, President of Aigle Azur, in Bamako on last January 28th, the service Paris-Orly / Bamako will increase from 3 to 4 frequencies per week from this Summer. Under its partnership with Corsair, the new service will become daily (3 frequencies per week for Corsair from June 2019, and 4 frequencies per week for Aigle Azur, all flights being operated by Airbus A330s aircraft). The already existing codeshare agreement on this route between the two key players in Paris- Orly is also extending and is now including business class too, in order to address the needs of all our clients, including corporate ones.
Flight schedule (local time):
Departure from Paris-Orly at 06:20 PM - Arrival in Bamako at 10:10 PM Departure from Bamako at 11:55 PM - Arrival at Paris-Orly at 07:30 AM (D+1)
The round trip Paris-Bamako is currently available from 529 € VAT***
Consolidation of the medium-haul network
Aigle Azur is also accelerating its development in Europe by confirming:
- The opening of the Paris-Orly / Kiev-Boryspil route with 3 frequencies per week (on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with a return the next day), from next April 18th. These flights will be operated in A320s aircraft, in partnership with TAP Air Portugal.
Flight schedule (local time):
Departure from Paris-Orly at 10:00 PM - Arrival in Kiev at 02:10 AM (D+1) Departure from Kiev at 04:30 AM - Arrival at Paris-Orly at 07:00 AM
The one-way trip Paris-Kiev is currently available from 100€ VAT*** - The opening of a service between Marseille and Moscow-Domodedovo at the rate of 2 weekly flights (on Thursdays and Sundays from March 27th, 2019) operated by A320s aircraft based in Marseille, in addition to the 4 existing direct flights per week already operated between Paris-Orly and Moscow- Domodedovo. All these flights are operated in partnership with S7 Airlines, Russia's 2nd largest carrier.
Flight Schedule (local time):
Departure from Marseille at 09:30 PM - Arrival in Moscow at 02:25 AM (D+1) Departure from Moscow at 03:30 AM - Arrival in Marseille at 06:30 AM
The one-way trip Marseille-Moscow is currently available from 100€ VAT*** - The maintenance or strengthening of the Summer programme to the historical markets of the company: Algeria (from Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Mulhouse and of course Paris-Orly), Portugal, but also the services to Lebanon, Senegal and Italy
Frantz Yvelin, President of Aigle Azur, said: 'In a difficult context for the whole European airline industry, it is with great pride that we can announce all these great news less than a year after the launch of our first ever long-haul flight (to Sao Paulo) and the introduction of our first Airbus A330s. I want to thank all our teams at Aigle Azur who continue to write the history of the company by consolidating all of our historical routes, while continuously be seeking new levers for growth in Europe, but also in China and Brazil, where we clearly intend to have a significant role. We recorded excellent first results and feedback from our customers for all of our long-haul operations and we do have great ambitions for the future, including an expansion of such operations to fuel our development while always providing a high quality travel experience to all our passengers, who remain at the heart of our priorities on a daily basis. Our growth obviously goes along with a full respect to our long-time presence in Algeria, Africa, all around the Mediterranean Sea and in Portugal. We are always willing to go further, seeking the best possible connections and the most reliable partners who have legitimacy in their respective markets and territories, while ensuring our customers an always better experience. Last but not least, we have significantly improved our global on-time performance up to 80%**** in average network-wide last month, which is putting us among the best, and we have reached a reliability topping more than 99%***** (now making for example Aigle Azur one of the most on-time airline operating from Paris-Orly), and that's clearly a great achievement from our teams, to the benefit of our passengers.'
French airport slot coordinator COHOR has reallocated slots at Paris Orly vacated by bankrupt Aigle Azur (ZI, Paris Orly), granting rights to, among others, Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) and Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l).
Lufthansa will use the slots for 2x daily flights from Munich, while Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) will operate daily from each Budapest and Sofia. Neither of the carriers currently operates from Orly - Lufthansa serves the French capital via Paris CDG and Wizz Air via Paris Beauvais.
Slots Aigle Azur Classic
COHOR also allocated 'new entrant' slots to easyJet (U2, London Luton) for daily services from Glasgow Int'l and to HOP! (A5, Paris Orly) for 2x daily flights to Frankfurt Int'l. easyJet currently operates 189 weekly flights to Orly but all of them are operated by either easyJet Europe (169 weekly flights) or easyJet Switzerland (20). HOP! operates services to Orly on behalf of Air France but does not market any flights under its own code.
Slots were also allocated to:
Transavia
- Air Caraibes Atlantique (CAJ, Paris Orly) (2x daily),
- Corsair International (SS, Paris Orly) (2x daily),
- Transavia France (TO, Paris Orly) (2x daily),
- La Compagnie (B0, Paris Orly) (3x daily),
- TAP Air Portugal (TP, Lisbon) (66 slots in total for summer seasons only).
The new allocations will become effective with the start of the Summer 2020 season.
According to COHOR's statement, 12,335 annual slots were left unused after the demise of Aigle Azur. The French authorities decided to reserve 20% of these for Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes, leaving 9,868 slots for reallocation.
Other carriers which submitted applications for slots but failed to receive any were, among others, Ryanair, Vueling Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines, Tassili Airlines, and Volotea.
About Aigle Azur
The new allocations will become effective with the start of the Summer 2020 season.
According to COHOR's statement, 12,335 annual slots were left unused after the demise of Aigle Azur. The French authorities decided to reserve 20% of these for Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes, leaving 9,868 slots for reallocation.
Other carriers which submitted applications for slots but failed to receive any were, among others, Ryanair, Vueling Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines, Tassili Airlines, and Volotea.
About Aigle Azur
Slots Aigle Azur Hotel
| Type | Scheduled Carrier |
|---|---|
| Base | Paris Orly |
