From June 4, the French airline will be ditching its premium class offering, switching all passenger seating on its aircraft to standard economy class, reported TourMag this week.
XL Airways has announced plans to focus entirely on leisure travel, carrying tourists jetting off to vacation destinations in economy class seating. Indeed, removing its "Premium Galaxie" option could no doubt be a turnoff for business travelers. According to TourMag, demand for the carrier's premium class was only really significant for a handful of destinations, including Reunion Island (a French island in the Indian Ocean) and Los Angeles.
As a result, the airline is rethinking its offer with plans to focus on long-haul destinations. The airline, based at Paris's Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, currently flies several routes to the USA, such as New York, Miami and San Francisco, as well as to France's Reunion and Mayotte islands, and Cancún in Mexico. XL also flies to several destinations in the Caribbean. It plans to operate routes from Paris to Martinique and Guadeloupe all year round, starting in October, and to start direct seasonal flights to the Caribbean from French regional airports in Bordeaux, Brest, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes and Toulouse.
Finally, the airline hopes to stand out from competitors and from the evolving low-cost long-haul market by branching out into Asia. The airline reportedly plans to offer competitively priced flights to countries popular with tourists, such as Thailand, in turn competing with Middle Eastern airlines.
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