Transavia to replace Air France for Nice-Orly flights

Regular flights between Nice and Paris-Orly airport are set to remain in place despite Air France axing the route, with low-cost affiliate Transavia taking over the popular service.

French flag carrier Air France will continue to offer flights between the airports until March 29, at which point Transavia will step in, with tickets starting from €38 one-way.

The budget airline, a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group, will offer up to eight daily return services between the two cities, competing with an already-existing route between the airports from low-cost rival easyJet.

Transavia has been established at Nice airport since 2020, with more than 160,000 passengers flying with the airline to or from Nice to several destinations including Amsterdam and Tunis.

For its part, the French flag carrier will still offer several flights out of Nice to other destinations, including Paris Charles-de-Gaulle. 

Flights aimed at tourists and business travellers

The changes are planned to “meet the needs of both leisure and business travellers,” said Julien Mallard, Deputy Managing Director of Sales, quoted in Le Figaro.

Flights will depart "at convenient times, including two arriving before 09:00 and two after 18:00, allowing travellers to optimise their day and spend nearly 12 hours in Paris or Nice,” he added.

“We will adapt based on our initial results on the ground… for now, until March 2027, the idea is to offer a service to customers in Nice and Paris who travel back and forth between the two cities.” 

A rebrand of the low-cost carrier will eventually see a new fleet of aircraft purchased, as well as additional options in part of a ‘Max’ package, with several perks including the ability to change your flight for free up to one hour before your original travel time.

One-way tickets between Nice and Paris using the ‘Max’ service are expected to cost €134.

The choice to switch from the flag carrier to the low-cost airline was likely due to several factors, including the frequency of travellers between the two cities, as well as the existing low-cost route from easyJet being an attractive option for frequent travellers. 

Plans in France to curtail short domestic flights are unlikely to impact Nice, which is several hours away from other major cities on the country’s high-speed rail network including Paris, due to the lack of dedicated high-speed tracks between Marseille and Nice. 

A flight between the cities takes around 90 minutes from boarding to landing, whereas a TGV takes upwards of six hours.

Orly is a particularly attractive destination for frequent flyers between the cities due to its new public transport links to Paris via Metro Line 14, connecting the airport to the city centre in around 30 minutes. 

Similarly, Nice airport is connected to the city centre via a frequent tram service.