OpenSkies

There were years when, at Paris Orly among all the Airbus jets on short and medium-haul routes, you would suddenly spot a slim Boeing 757 with “OPENSKIES” titles – on its way to New York, with barely more than a hundred seats on board. OpenSkies was one of Europe’s most unusual airlines: a French company owned by British Airways, carrying almost only business travelers and never having more than a handful of aircraft. Here you learn how it came about, which aircraft the airline flew and how to recognize it in old photos.

OpenSkies at a glance

OpenSkies was a French premium airline based at Paris Orly Airport and headquartered in Rungis, south of Paris. The owner was British Airways, later embedded in the International Airlines Group, which also includes Iberia and Vueling.

The concept was narrow from the start: long-haul across the North Atlantic, few aircraft, a strong focus on business travelers. Instead of building entire networks with large widebody jets, OpenSkies relied on the Boeing 757 – a narrowbody aircraft with enough range for Paris–New York but a manageable seat count. That way, a route could be operated with a comparatively small number of high-paying passengers per flight.

How OpenSkies came about

The key was a treaty: in March 2008, the Open Skies agreement between the European Union and the US came into force. Until then, European airlines could essentially fly to the US only from their own country. Now any EU airline could fly to US destinations from any EU airport. British Airways quickly used the new freedom – internally the project first ran under the name “Project Lauren,” as a company then under BA European Limited, and externally under the name that directly alludes to the agreement: OpenSkies.

The first flight went on June 19, 2008 with a Boeing 757-200 that BA had transferred from its own fleet – between Paris Orly and New York JFK. BA originally thought even bigger: further connections to New York from other European cities such as Milan, Frankfurt, Brussels, Madrid or Rome and a fleet of six 757s were under discussion. Only a small part of that was implemented.

The takeover of L’Avion

Almost simultaneously, in summer 2008, British Airways bought the French business airline L’Avion for 54 million pounds. L’Avion – officially Elysair – had been founded in 2006 and had flown since January 3, 2007 with two Boeing 757-200s exclusively in business class between Orly and Newark Airport. This gave OpenSkies a second New York destination, established procedures in Orly and additional aircraft in one stroke. In April 2009, L’Avion was fully merged into OpenSkies.

The British project thus gradually became a French airline: instead of a British operating certificate, OpenSkies later flew with a French license, and its administration was based in the Paris area.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code EC: appeared in the flight number, on tickets and on departure boards. In May 2018, the company switched to LV – the code that fit the new Level brand.
• ICAO code BOS: appeared in the flight plan filed with air traffic control and on flight trackers.
• Callsign MISTRAL: this is how the crew identified itself on the radio – a name that recalls the strong north wind in the Rhône valley.

The ICAO code BOS likes to mislead newcomers because it resembles the IATA code of Boston’s airport. But OpenSkies had nothing to do with Boston. Why airline and airport codes are so easy to mix up is explained in the guide to IATA and ICAO codes.

Routes: Paris–New York and a few experiments

OpenSkies’ network was tiny but changeable. At its core, it was always about one connection: Paris Orly–New York.

Route	Period	Note
Paris Orly – New York JFK	June 2008 to January 2010, again from March 2013	First route; in between all New York flights via Newark
Paris Orly – Newark	from 2009 (via L’Avion since 2007)	Until the last flight under its own brand in September 2018
Amsterdam – New York JFK	October 2008 to August 2009	Discontinued for economic reasons
Paris Orly – Washington Dulles	May 2010 to October 2011	Dropped again

New York JFK Airport was the first destination. After the takeover of L’Avion, OpenSkies initially consolidated New York flights at Newark from January 2010, and in 2013 JFK returned as an additional destination. The detour to Amsterdam remained a short chapter, as did the connection to Washington Dulles Airport.

At Orly, OpenSkies moved from the South Terminal to the West Terminal in July 2012, where British Airways and Iberia were also handled.

The fleet: Boeing 757 and a 767

The fleet is the reason OpenSkies was so appealing to spotters. There were never many aircraft, and every single one stood out.

Type	Period	Origin	Spotter note
Boeing 757-200	2008–2018	British Airways and L’Avion	The airline’s backbone; narrow, long fuselage
Boeing 767-300ER	2016–2018	British Airways	Three classes, on Newark–Orly from August 2016, also a spare
Airbus A330-200	from 2018	for the Level brand	In Level colors, not flying as OpenSkies

The Boeing 757-200 was made for the concept: enough range for the North Atlantic but far fewer seats than a widebody aircraft. At OpenSkies it had only around a hundred seats – at British Airways, a 757 on short-haul routes carried far more passengers. The manufacturer of both Boeing types is Boeing.

In April 2016, OpenSkies announced a three-class Boeing 767-300ER from British Airways. It flew between Newark and Orly from August 2016 and also served as a spare when a 757 was out of service. When the brand ended in September 2018, one 757-200 and the 767-300ER were still in the fleet. Both were retired; the 757 later found a new home at Cabo Verde Airlines.

Cabin and product

Over the years, OpenSkies tried a number of things – which makes the airline interesting for cabin nerds, too. At launch there were three classes, which OpenSkies gave its own names: Biz for business class, Prem+ for premium economy and Eco for economy. Economy was dropped again as early as fall 2008, and later OpenSkies distinguished two variants of business class with lie-flat seats (“BizBed”) and classic seats (“BizSeat”).

In 2012, the airline returned to three classes: lie-flat seats in business class, Prem Plus and an economy class again. For business guests on the overnight flights, there was at times a “Sleeper Service” meant to allow as much sleep as possible over the Atlantic. Entertainment came via a handed-out tablet rather than a screen in the seatback.

Partners: oneworld and joint venture

Although OpenSkies was small, it was closely tied to its parent’s large network. From December 1, 2012, the airline was an affiliate of the oneworld alliance. British Airways frequent flyers could earn points on OpenSkies flights, and the flights additionally carried codes of British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia.

Its integration into the transatlantic joint venture of American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia was also important. In such a joint venture, the partners share revenue on the North Atlantic and coordinate schedules – how that works is explained in the article on transatlantic joint ventures. For OpenSkies, that meant guests could conveniently connect to American’s network in New York.

The end: from OpenSkies to Level

In November 2017, IAG announced it would also base its low-cost long-haul brand Level at Paris Orly from July 2018 – operated by former OpenSkies employees. That sealed the brand’s fate. The last OpenSkies flight went on September 2, 2018 with the 767-300ER from Newark to Orly.

The company itself lived on: under its operating certificate, it flew Airbus A330-200s in Level colors from Orly, including to Newark, Montréal and the French Caribbean. In July 2020, IAG announced the final shutdown because of the COVID crisis; planned resumptions of flights no longer materialized. OpenSkies thus joins the list of vanished airlines you will find in the overview Big airline collapses in Europe – even if this was more a group decision than a classic bankruptcy.

How to recognize OpenSkies in photos

Because the airline has not flown under its own brand since 2018, you encounter OpenSkies today mainly in photo archives, spotter databases and old travel reports. Three features help you classify it:

For many spotters, an OpenSkies 757 in the archive is a small treasure: there were only a few examples, and the airline flew only a few routes. How to judge how special a sighting is, you can read in the guide How rare is my sighting?. And if you want to know what becomes of an aircraft after an airline ends, the guide to tracking an aircraft by registration helps.

Related airlines and successors

OpenSkies did not stand alone. Several companies had the idea of a small premium airline across the Atlantic in those years, and almost all have disappeared again. The Swiss PrivatAir flew business jets and narrowbody aircraft on behalf of large airlines. With La Compagnie, there is still a French business airline today that – like OpenSkies – connects Paris with New York.

Within IAG, the line leads to Level and the Austrian sister Level Europe, which also did not survive long. And on the Paris–New York route, Air France was always the big competitor – though from Charles de Gaulle rather than Orly.

Common mix-ups

• Thinking OpenSkies was a British airline – it belonged to British Airways but was a French company based in Orly.
• Mistaking BOS for Boston – BOS was the airline’s ICAO code, not Boston’s airport.
• Confusing the name with the agreement – “Open Skies” is both the name of the 2008 EU-US air transport agreement and the airline that arose from it.
• Thinking every 757 in Orly was OpenSkies – until 2009, L’Avion also flew the same type there.
• Logging a Level A330 as OpenSkies – from September 2018 the company kept flying, but under the Level brand.

Conclusion

OpenSkies was a child of the Open Skies agreement: in 2008, British Airways used the new freedom to fly directly from Paris to New York – with a Boeing 757, few seats and plenty of business class. For ten years, the small airline held its own in a fiercely contested niche before IAG gave it up in favor of Level. For spotters, what remains is a rare airline with a small fleet that now lives on only in photos.