New carrier Odyssey to challenge British Air’s London City service with CSeries

Update, Dec. 21: Flightblogger published this report that shows a PIANO analysis of the CS100 vs A318 on the London City to New York route. Among other things, it shows a fuel burn reduction of 22.5%.

Original Post:

Reuters just reported that a new airline, Odyssey of Europe, is an undisclosed customer for Bombardier’s CSeries and that the carrier plans to operate from London City Airport in competition with British Airways on some routes.

The CS100, in a reduced business class configuration, can fly from London City to New York non-stop while BA’s A318 in business class has to make a refueling stop.

BBD did not confirm the Reuters report’s customer identification, but we have been hearing this name since BBD announced an unidentified customer at the Paris Air Show.

Of course, a start-up airline competing again the power, deep pocked and frequent flier program of BA will be challenging, at least. But this does demonstrate the capabilities of the CS100 out of the highly restricted London City Airport.

12 Comments on “New carrier Odyssey to challenge British Air’s London City service with CSeries

  1. While maybe Odyssey will be able to compete in a few routes out LCY, I don’t see how they will be able to compete against BA to JFK.

    We’ve already seen it with both EOS and MaxJet..

  2. Hold on, stopping at Shannon is actually a unique selling point, not just a hindrance. All pax get pre-cleared to enter the USA, avoiding the lengthy queues at JFK. I have spoken with a few people who have been in this flight, and this seemed to be the biggest selling point; a hassle-free experience. Aside from that, the sort of people you will see in that flight are heavy FF with BA (Emer/Saph), and will try to hoard as many tier points and miles as they can get; in the hunt for their yearly combo free upgrade for 2 (amex expending + redemption in BA miles) in any flight.

    Odyssey as put itself into a tough fight in that route, and they will need more that fuel burn advantage to make it. They will either have to undercut BA in price or overdo them in services; both difficult goals no matter what, as the cabin is frequently half full in BA001’s (btw: this was concorde’s flight number!) .

    • That’s exaactly the point many people don’t get. Given the choice, I’d always be on the BA flight. US immigration in the continental US is best avoided. I can’t wait/hope enough for BA to open LCY/IAD.

  3. I believe Gulf Air also wants to operate the CSeries out of LCY. In this case it would just be one more of those “unidentified customer” already committed to purchase the aircraft.

  4. I should add, EOS and MaxJet flew to STN not LCY. Regardless, its tough for these startups to fly profitably TPAC flights against an incumbent, especially given the global economic uncertainties and the price price of Jet-A.

  5. I wonder if there is a future market for an all premium economy carrier using the CSeries in 2-2 seating. Midwest tried it out of Milwaukee with the 717, but maybe using major city pairs or some Hawaii runs, would give the numbers to support it.

  6. Well, not having ETOPS certification on EIS will present a bit of a problem to this concept. I think this is just another dumb guy with multi millions wanting to have the high life.

    What’s the best way to make a million dollars? Start with a Billion then open an airline.

    • Howard :
      Well, not having ETOPS certification on EIS will present a bit of a problem to this concept.

      Given that the CSeries hasn’t even made its maiden flight yet, let me ask a dumb question: what would prevent them from getting an early ETOPS certification. The 787 and A350 would have the same requirement, would they not?

      • Well, since BBD has yet to even talk about it, and has no experience with commercial airplane ETOPS certification one can only assume that it’s not in the flight test program. So, technically speaking there is nothing stopping them from doing it, but it would add several months to the flight test program, and additional complexity. The only BBD jets with ETOPS certification are the Global series business jets, and their FAR part is quite a bit different than commercial airplanes. Could they do it? Sure, anything is possible with added time and money. Will they? Well, they haven’t said so yet, and the program is already late. So why would they for some hare brained business idea that already has a considerable number of corpses of business plans to its credit?

  7. CS100 with 80 inch flat beds 4 abreast. Wonder how much fit in.. Maybe a CS300LR is better.

    Technically for the CS100 a lot of wing & engine are availabe opening up opportunities.

    Maybe Dubai, Boston, Dulles, Moscow and Chicago next?

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