French premium start-up, Dreamjet, has made a formal application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for approval to launch flights between Paris and Newark Liberty International Airport from June 2014. The carrier aims to follow in the footsteps of L’Avion and Open Skies in offering a product tailored to the premium market from the Parisian capital using Boeing 757-200 equipment.

In its formal application for an Exemption and Foreign Air Carrier Permit, Dreamjet confirms it plans to offer an all-Business Class service between Paris and Newark from the second half of June 2014 but has plans to expand its transatlantic network and “possibly add flights” from other European cities in the future. It says approval of its application “will result in increased travel choices, greater service options and enhanced competition, thereby benefiting consumers in the United States, the Member States of the European Union and the European Common Aviation Area”.

Dreamjet first made an application to the French Direction générale de l'aviation civile (DGAC) in January this year and in late March 2014 was awarded its operating licence and authorisation to serve the Paris – New York market, subject to certain financial obligation and the award of a valid air operator’s certificate (AOC) by the French Department of Civil Aviation for Safety. The start-up is being backed by Frantz Yvelin, the former founder of L’Avion and Peter Luethi, a former chief operating officer at Jet Airways in India and now US resident.

Although there has been a growing interest in the transatlantic market over the past couple of years the main growth has been from the low-cost sector as the likes of Norwegian and later this year WestJet have expanded into this area. However, there has been little interest for more premium services between Europe and North America with previous carriers like Eos Airlines and SilverJet failing to make the grade.

L’Avion launched operations on January 3, 2007 between Paris Orly and Newark using two 757-200s. But just 18 months later on July 2, 2008 a £54 million deal was agreed for the carrier to be sold to British Airways (BA) and its full integration into the UK carrier’s OpenSkies business, which had launched operations just one month earlier. The two carriers were officially merged on April 4, 2009 and now operate under the OpenSkies brand, a wholly-owned BA operation flown under L’Avion’s original Elysair French operating certificate.

OpenSkies has attempted to expand its offering to other markets with flights from Amsterdam and Frankfurt and services to Washington, but currently simply serves the Paris – New York route with flights to both JFK International and Newark. Dreamjet now plans to replicate the L'Avion business model, although it has not yet confirmed its proposed Paris base. OpenSkies utilises Orly Airport to the south of the French capital but all we know of Dreamjet is that it is based at the popular business airport of Le Bourget, home to the biennial Paris Air Salon.

Although L’Avion had offered an all-Business Class offering seating 90 passengers, OpenSkies has actually offered a mixed arrangement and now configures its three aircraft with 20 First Class, 28 Business Class and 66 Economy seats, providing seating for 114 passengers. In the past two years around 75,000 bi-directional O&D passengers have flown between Paris Orly and Newark with OpenSkies accounting for 83.2 per cent of this traffic in 2013, up from 73.6 per cent in 2012. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines offer flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Newark, a market of around 192,000 bi-directional O&D passengers in 2013.

In our analysis below we highlight the estimated fares being charged by the three airlines on the transatlantic route between Paris and Newark. The data clearly highlights the 'premium' service being offered by OpenSkies which peaked in 2011, but has subsequently seen average fares slip by a half to levels below those being offered by US rivals from Paris Charles de Gaulle.