British Airways to acquire French Airline L'Avion
Published: 03 Jul 2008
British Airways has announced an agreement to acquire French airline L'Avion. It will integrate the company with its new transatlantic subsidiary OpenSkies.
The value of the acquisition is Euro 68 million, which covers the purchase of the airline and Euro 33 million of cash in its business.
Completion of the deal is conditional on clearance from the relevant regulatory authorities.
The combined airline will operate up to three daily flights between Paris Orly and the New York area using Boeing 757 aircraft.
L'Avion is the trading name for Elysair, which is privately owned by Société de Participation Aérienne. The airline was launched in January 2007; L'Avion operates two aircraft with a single 90-seat business class cabin. It is based in Paris and employs 77 staff.
"L'Avion has built a fantastic business offering high-value premium service that has inspired tremendous customer loyalty on both sides of the Atlantic," said Dale Moss, Managing Director of OpenSkies.
"L'Avion will provide OpenSkies with immediate scale, increased access to Paris Orly and an experienced, talented employee base. This is a combination of two companies that are focused on bringing comfort and personalisation to transatlantic travel," said Moss.
OpenSkies and L'Avion currently operate a codeshare with L'Avion selling seats on OpenSkies flights.
Douglas McNeill, analyst at Blue Oar Securities, reportedly said: "We would expect consolidation to be advanced more through insolvencies than acquisitions, but there may be some of the latter. And this deal is one of the first signs of that."
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