The lofty route from Paris to London.
Posted on Vendredi 1 janvier 2010 at 16 h 42 min and filed under Magazine.Ninety years ago, the first commercial flight to London ended the UK’s isolation. By Marc Branchu
Paris/London is not the most widely traveled route—that distinction goes to Pusan/Seoul, with more than 6 million passengers per year. But historically, it has always been one of the most important. It was the first air link between two countries.
A post-war link.
February 8, 1919. Bundled up in a leather jacket against the cold that was blanketing the Paris Region, Lucien Bossoutrot took off from Toussus-le-Noble airfield, south of Paris. Aboard his Farman Goliath: 12 passengers, all soldiers, heading for Kenley Field near London, barely 330 kilometers away. This was the first passenger flight over the Channel, carrying 12 people. After a 2-hour, 30-minute flight, his Goliath touched down on British soil, and the Paris/London route was inaugurated.
It was not possible to set up a regular service until the summer. Great Britain was prohibiting all civil flights over its territory in accordance with a ban decreed in 1914, which would not be lifted until May 1, 1919. On August 25, the British airline Aircraft Transport and Travel started the first regular airline service between Hounslow (soon to be replaced by Croydon) and Le Bourget airfields.
The place to be…
The skies of Europe then became the center of a commercial battle among many airlines. The network extended toward Central Europe, the Mediterranean and Scandinavia, although Paris/ London remained the most prestigious route.
Inflight comfort began to improve, and Daimler Airways hired stewards. The Goliaths operated by Messageries Aériennes were fitted with wicker chairs, and passengers were protected from the cold by a sleeve and a special suit. They could also follow the landscape below with the first airline guides, and even make calls or send telegrams via Morse code.
Yet some passengers still hesitated. In late 1919, designer Paul Poiret had to deliver costumes to the London Opera, and was photographed at Le Bourget—although this was for publicity purposes only, as the costumes were loaded on board the aircraft, while he made his way to London by train and boat.
The first flying restaurant
To withstand competition, a number of airlines merged, creating Imperial Airways in Great Britain and Air Union in France. In the late 1920s, the two airlines launched additional services: “Silver Wings” for the former and “Golden Ray/ Rayon d’Or” for the latter. This was a restaurant-airplane, which could seat 12 people for an inflight feast.
When Air France was created in 1933, it serviced the Paris/London route with its top-performing aircraft. By 1938, it used Bloch 220s, which had a cruising speed of up to 300 kph. The two cities were only 75 minutes apart.
The airline transported 39 percent of its passengers on the Paris/London route, aboard five daily round-trip flights.
A new flagship
After World War II, technical progress dramatically altered the airline industry, with the development of aircraft capable of long-range flights, like the Douglas DC-4 and the Lockheed Constellation. Although the New York flights had become
Air France’s new flagship flight, Paris/London remained the busiest route. Air France introduced a new luxury service for both these routes: the “Parisien Spécial” over the Atlantic, and the “Epicurien” above the English Channel.
Airports evolved: Orly replaced Le Bourget; Heathrow and Gatwick replaced Croydon. With the development of jet aircraft, the cross-Channel flight became one of Europe’s most highly traveled routes: up to 4 million passengers in the early 1990s, the peak of this route’s travel.
Long-standing asset
Today, Air France and its subsidiary Cityjet offer 11 daily flights in both directions, between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and London-Heathrow, and between Orly and City Airport. Paris-London remains one of the key routes in the Air France network, organized around the European hubs of Paris-CDG and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
