First we had eos and MAXjet, then Silverjet was announced, and now we have the oh so simply named:

L’Avion (which means “The Airplane” in French), is going to begin daily all business-class flights between Paris/Orly and Newark with 100 seat 757s (that’s about half the normal capacity). I’d love to tell you more about it, but, well, there isn’t anything else to tell right now.

The amazing thing about these guys is that according to the press release, they plan on starting flights on December 27. That’s a mere 16 days away, so you’d think that you could buy your ticket right now, right? Wrong again. It seems that they’ll begin business on December 27, but thanks to what probably was not the best translation around, that probably means they’ll begin selling tickets, not actually begin flying. Go to the website and you’ll see a pretty picture and absolutely nothing else.

In fact, they can’t even update the website entirely with the current name. (Look at the page title in your browser.) The airline used to be called Elysair, but after a very scientific process, they’ve discovered that people related better to “L’Avion” so they changed it. Okeydokey.

Somehow, my hopes are not that high that we’ll see these guys flying in the near future.

I’ve let up on posting so often about new route announcements, because usually they just aren’t that interesting. But every so often an airline announces a new city and it seems to be worth mentioning.

• Remember AirTran’s promotion to let customers vote on their next city? Well, the results are in, and it looks like Phoenix is the big winner. AirTran says that service from Atlanta starts on Feb 15 with one daily flight. A second flight will begin on Feb 22 and a third flight on Mar 6. As the Arizona Republic notes, both US Airways and Delta fly the route five times a day currently.
• Frontier is also adding a new city to its route map with daily service from Denver to Hartford starting Mar 2. It’s an eastbound redeye with an early morning westbound return, so this appears to be utilization flying for the airline.
• Technically this is a new route, but in reality it’s an entirely new airline. As if MAXjet and Eos don’t provide enough premium-only service between New York and London, now Silverjet is going to join the mix on Jan 25. While MAXjet and Eos fly from New York/JFK to London/Stansted, this UK-based operation will go between Newark and London/Luton. They say they’ll have 100 flat beds on a 767-200, but considering MAXjet has 102 seats that don’t go flat on the same aircraft, I’m not sure how they’re going to pull it off. No pictures are available. You can see their website here.