Business class to New York at economical prices - but will it fly?

A French 'boutique airline,' La Compagnie, is making the latest bid to offer business class comfort across the Atlantic at economical prices

Fares from Luton to New York’s Newark airport for the months ahead are typically £1,170 return (Getty Images)

Bedfordshire has become reconnected with the Big Apple. Flight B06 took off from Luton airport just before 6pm, destination New York.

A French “boutique airline,” La Compagnie, is making the latest bid to offer business class comfort across the Atlantic at economical prices. The carrier already connects Paris with New York.

The aircraft for the flight is a Boeing 757 that formerly belonged to Thomson Airways. It has been fitted with 74 “lie-flat” seats.

Fares from Luton to New York’s Newark airport for the months ahead are typically £1,170 return - about one-third of the fare on British Airways’ business-only flight from London City to New York JFK.

Passengers check in alongside travellers flying on easyJet and Ryanair.

A decade ago three now-defunct airlines - Eos, MAXjet and Silverjet - launched their own variations on the concept. Like La Compagnie, they deployed safe but elderly Boeing jets to fly the Atlantic. Eos and MAXjet chose Stansted, while Silverjet was based in Luton.

All three carriers failed in quick succession in 2008. At the time, Frantz Yvelin was running a similar operation in Paris, called L’Avion. He sold it to British Airways for over £50m. M Yvelin then founded La Compagnie with the aim of “providing the cheapest business-class service in the world”. He has described the controversial Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, as “A wonderful source of inspiration.”

Fewer than half the seats were filled on the maiden flight from Luton, giving the 36 passengers extra space and attention on the seven-hour flight to New York.

Among the pioneering travellers was the chief executive of Luton airport, Nick Barton. Before he stepped aboard, he told The Independent: “We think it will be a very strong operation here because of the nature of the traffic it’s aiming at: entrepreneurs, owners/managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises and, crucially, the leisure market as well.”

Polis Polycarpou, head of airline market research at DVB Bank SE, said: “These business models tend to fail where they cannot offer the perks their full-service counterparts can – namely an ongoing or feeder network and the ability for their customers to earn loyalty rewards.

“Working for 15 years in aviation, I have learned to never say never; however, the odds are certainly not in favour of La Compagnie.”

But Nick Barton of Luton airport promised: “We will deliver reliability, convenience, and speed, and friendly engagement with our passengers. Then you get into La Compagnie’s product - your own private jet - and that’s where the fun starts.”