US Airways will restart seasonal nonstop service between Charlotte and Paris on April 21 using a 204-seat Boeing 767-200ER. The airline had last flown the route in 2001.
This is a big deal, giving the city (seasonally at least) daily nonstops to four European destinations: London (Gatwick), Paris (Charles de Gualle), and Frankfurt on US Airways plus Lufthansa’s flight to Munich. It’s also quite possibly the last major Europeans service announcement, except perhaps for a switch of London service to Heathrow, the city will see for a number of years.
You might hear something about US Airways adding Airbus A330-200 jets. This announcement has nothing to do with that. US Airways’ big hub for flights to Europe is Philadelphia. Last year, they flew to 20 European destinations from Philly, with 6 A330-300, 8 767-200ERs and 6 757-200s scheduled to cross the pond each day. The 757 is a big narrow-body jet with enough range for some routes to Europe. This winter, US Airways is refitting several more 176-seat 757s for transatlantic service, allowing for daily flights to two additional destinations (Oslo and Birmingham) and for the existing Stockholm flight to switch from a 767-200 to a 757.
So essential, Charlotte-Paris will use the jet that had in previous summers been used for Philadelphia-Stockholm. And therein lies the problem: US Airways considers Stockholm a better use of its scarce resources than CLT-CDG. The same applies for Philadelphia – Venice, another summer seasonal route that the airline has opted to fly instead of restarting CLT-CDG. Ouch.
To make matters, it’s a pretty big drop off from Paris to any European destinations Charlotte doesn’t already have service to. And while flying 757s over the Atlantic has truly been a game changer, allowing service on thinner routes than was previously the case, 757s don’t have the range to get to much beyond the British Isles from Charlotte.
US Airways is getting a total of 15 A330-200 in 2009 – 2011. These are bigger than the 767s and have more range, allowing US Airways to serve markets that literally were out of reach before like Tel Aviv. Expect Moscow and Istanbul to follow, plus probably Phoenix to London and/or Frankfurt. They’ll also replace some of the 767s. Hard to make the argument that Charlotte gains service from the A332 introduction, given how long it took CLT-CDG to come back.
