Slots Aigle Azur
Bankrupt in September, French airline Aigle Azur owned several slots at Orly Airport, the second largest in Paris. This week, COHOR, the association responsible for coordinating the flight schedule, announced the distribution of the slots that were granted to the company.
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. 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.
Among several proponents, four newcomers were victorious, low-cost Wizz Air and EasyJet, Lufthansa and Air France’s tourist arm, HOP!. Together they had seven daily flights – Munich (Lufthansa), Frankfurt (HOP!), Budapest and Sofia (Wizz Air) and Glasgow (EasyJet).
Another five airlines already operating in Orly were also honored, Air Caraibes (2 daily flights), Corsair (2 flights), Transavia (2), La Compagnie (3 weekly flights) and TAP, with 66 slots in the season only. Summer Holidays in the Northern Hemisphere.
Slot distribution is annual and, in some cases, could be effective as early as 2020. In total, COHOR has received 232,688 slot requests, nearly Orly’s annual capacity.
In addition to small airlines, Vueling, the low-cost arm of the IAG group, and Ryanair also showed interest, but ended up with nothing, as did the Brazilian airline Azul, which intended to fly to its hub in Campinas, a route taken by Aigle Azur until september.
Slots Aigle Azur
The biggest beneficiary of slot redistribution turned out to be the Air France-KLM group, which already owns half of the flights in Orly and was represented not only by HOP! as well as Transavia.
