BA’s Openskies drops Paris-Washington route

BA's subsidiary Openskies will cease flights between Paris Orly and Washington DC on October 28, just 18 months after the route was launched. The carrier commenced five-times weekly flights to Washington on May 3, 2010 (see online news February 9, 2010), joining its existing service to New York Newark. No official announcement has been made on the flyopenskies.com website about the cutting of the Washington route, but the Washington Business Journal reports that the airline has begun contacting passengers booked on flights after October 28, offering to rebook them onto flights to London Heathrow, with a connecting flight to Paris, or alternatively obtain a refund. A dummy booking on the carrier’s website shows no flight availability after October 28, with the last service departing Paris at 1200, arriving in Washington at 1445. The final return leg will leave the US city at 1930, landing back in Paris at 0930 the next day. The Paris-Washington route is the second service to be dropped by Openskies, with its Amsterdam-New York JFK flights being cancelled in 2009. For more information visit flyopenskies.com. Report by Mark Caswell