French Bee SAS, styled French bee, and formerly named French Blue, is a French low-cost, long-haul airline based at Paris Orly Airport. It operates a scheduled network between France and worldwide leisure destinations with a fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft. Its headquarters are inside the parent company Groupe Dubreuil's offices in the Belleville-sur-Vie area of Bellevigny, Vendée, France.
History
Formation and startup (2014–2017)
In 2014, Marc Rochet (an airline executive of the French Caribbean airline Air Caraïbes, with prior executive experience at airlines including AOM and L'Avion) and Jean-Paul Dubreuil (chairman of Groupe Dubreuil, the holding and parent company of Air Caraïbes) discussed ways to expand Groupe Dubreuil's aviation businesses. A possibility included the buyout of Corsair International from TUI Group; however when the buyout fell through in March 2015, a decision was made to instead form an entirely new airline. In June 2015, Groupe Dubreuil announced the launch of a project under the provisional name "Sunline", the creation of a new low-cost, long-haul airline to be based in France. The airline was publicly unveiled in March 2016, under the name French Blue. Plans for the airline's first two years were to launch flights from Paris to Punta Cana in September 2016, flights to the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in summer 2017, and to operate a fleet of two Airbus A330-300 and two Airbus A350-900 aircraft by March 2018. The airline also planned to hire 400 employees within two years.
After receiving its first Airbus A330-300, the airline operated some long-haul flights on behalf of Air Caraïbes from 1 July 2016, before the airline's first flight from Paris Orly to Punta Cana International Airport on 10 September 2016. In October 2016, the airline announced its next destination from Paris Orly with flights to Roland Garros Airport on Réunion island, beginning on 16 June 2017. In August 2017, the airline received its first Airbus A350-900, and was also considering Mauritius and Seychelles as new destinations for 2018. By November 2017, however, the airline ultimately chose Papeete and San Francisco as its next destinations, with plans to begin serving them on 11 May 2018.
Rebranding and expansion (2017–2020)
In November 2017, while the airline was applying with the United States Department of Transportation for a foreign air carrier permit to begin service to the country, U.S.-based JetBlue raised objections to another airline serving the country bearing the word "blue" in its name. In response, the airline was temporarily renamed simply "French", before they announced on 30 January 2018 that it was renaming as French Bee. In February 2018, after receiving regulatory approval to begin operations to the U.S., the airline formally announced the opening of reservations for flights between Paris Orly and Faa'a International Airport (Papeete) in French Polynesia, with flights stopping at San Francisco International Airport each way, and launching on 11 May 2018 as previously planned. The services included international traffic rights for passengers to travel solely to or from San Francisco in addition to transiting between Paris and Papeete.
In June 2018, parent company Groupe Dubreuil announced the addition of a third Airbus A350-900 to French Bee's fleet, to be delivered in June 2019, and that the airline's Airbus A330-300 would be reconfigured and transferred to Air Caraïbes upon the A350's delivery. Following this, the airline's fleet consisted entirely of Airbus A350 aircraft. Also during June 2019, Groupe Dubreuil allocated a fourth A350-900 to the airline for delivery during 2020, and with this expansion to its fleet, the airline in September 2019 announced its second destination in the U.S. with flights to Newark Liberty International Airport, to begin on 10 June 2020. Groupe Dubreuil also announced that it had allocated deliveries for the larger A350-1000 variant to the airline, initially with one each in 2021 and 2022, but was later reported to have been adjusted for both A350-1000s to be delivered during 2021.
In January 2020, French Bee was granted traffic rights to operate services between Paris Orly and São Paulo, Brazil, following the redistribution of traffic rights previously held by Aigle Azur and XL Airways France, which had both gone defunct during September 2019. The airline had not decided which São Paulo airport it would serve between either Guarulhos or Viracopos International Airport, though the airline proposed a June 2021 start date in its application for the traffic rights, with the possibility of an expedited start date during December 2020 by chartering an aircraft from Air Caraïbes. In February 2020, the airline announced an interlining agreement with Alaska Airlines through Alaska's hub in San Francisco, and in anticipation of French Bee's planned services to Newark, a destination also served by Alaska.
COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023)
During the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on aviation, which included the United States travel ban beginning in March 2020, French Bee temporarily suspended its operations to the U.S., intending to operate its flights to Faa'a International Airport by rerouting its intermediate stop from San Francisco International Airport to Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport, allowing for the route's stops between France and French Polynesia to occur within French domestic territories. Shortly after, the airline instead suspended its commercial flights to French Polynesia after 15 March 2020, with the initial intention of resuming them on 10 April 2020. As overseas borders between the airline's Paris Orly base and its destinations began to close, the remainder of the airline's commercial operations (which included its flights to Réunion) were suspended starting from 28 March 2020, with the suspensions expected to last for at least two months. Four days later on 1 April 2020, Orly Airport closed to commercial passenger traffic.
While French Bee's commercial passenger operations were suspended, the airline still operated some charter and cargo-only flights, and while doing so claimed the record for the world's longest domestic flight, though the flight did not carry any passengers as Paris Orly remained closed to passenger traffic. After making a stopover in Pointe-à-Pitre on a flight from Paris Orly to Papeete carrying medical supplies to French Polynesia, the Airbus A350-900 operating the flight returned from Papeete to Paris Orly as a nonstop flight on 15 May 2020, traveling a great-circle distance of , with the airline claiming it traveled a ground distance of . The distance of the flight surpassed the record of Air Tahiti Nui, which initially took the record for its flight from Papeete to Paris Charles de Gaulle earlier that March, with Air Tahiti Nui's Boeing 787-9 traveling a great-circle distance of .
As Orly Airport was still closed to commercial passenger traffic since 1 April 2020, French Bee's Paris-based operations were temporarily relocated to Charles de Gaulle Airport when the airline's passenger flights to Réunion resumed on 12 June 2020. Following Paris Orly's reopening to commercial passenger traffic on 26 June 2020, the airline's operations returned to Paris Orly on 13 July 2020, with the resumption of its commercial flights to French Polynesia following on 15 July 2020. As international borders between Europe and the United States remained closed, the airline's planned flights to Newark Liberty International Airport that were to begin in June 2020 were repeatedly postponed. Additionally, French Bee continued operating its flights to French Polynesia with the intermediate stop occurring in Pointe-à-Pitre or a Canadian airport instead of in San Francisco, though the airline did not pursue international traffic rights to allow passengers to travel solely to or from Canada.
After over a year of suspensions, the airline's flights between Paris Orly and Newark launched on 14 July 2021, as restrictions on travel between France and the United States were gradually lifted, with the resumption of the airline's services to San Francisco between Paris and Papeete following on 10 November 2021. Soon after resuming both of its routes to the United States, the airline on 16 November 2021 announced a new service between Paris Orly and Los Angeles International Airport to begin on 9 April 2022 (later postponed to 30 April 2022), and during the following month, the airline received its first Airbus A350-1000 on 17 December 2021. Following the launch of its Los Angeles service, the airline on 3 May 2022 announced a new service between Paris Orly and Miami International Airport to begin on 15 December 2022, in anticipation of the delivery of its second Airbus A350-1000.
Post-pandemic (2023–present) French Bee joined the Dohop platform for virtual interlining in 2023, before launching its own integrated platform on 19 June 2024, which added Avianca, Pegasus Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Volotea as virtual interlining partners. In July 2024, the airline announced plans to begin its first scheduled services to Canada, with flights between Paris Orly and Montreal initially announced to launch in May 2025, before later announcing 30 April 2025 as the date of inauguration.
Corporate affairs French Bee is a subsidiary of Groupe Dubreuil, which is also the parent company of Air Caraïbes, and is headquartered in Bellevigny, France. French Bee's first President and CEO was Marc Rochet. In August 2023, he was succeeded by Christine Ourmières-Widener, previously the CEO of TAP Air Portugal, who was appointed to the position. From 21 January 2025, Paul-Henri Dubreuil, already serving as Groupe Dubreuil's CEO and chairman, took over as the airline's interim President, and Marc-Antoine Blondeau was appointed as the airline's chairman following Ourmières-Widener's departure from the company.
Destinations French Bee operates, or has previously operated scheduled flights to the following destinations :
Country or TerritoryCityAirportStart dateEnd dateNotesCanadaMontrealMontréal–Trudeau International Airport30 April 2025Present Dominican RepublicPunta CanaPunta Cana International Airport10 September 2016UnknownFranceParisOrly Airport10 September 2016PresentFrench PolynesiaPapeeteFaa'a International Airport11 May 2018PresentMaldives Malé Velana International Airport 19 December 2026 RéunionSaint-DenisRoland Garros Airport16 June 2017Present Sri Lanka Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport 19 December 2026 United StatesLos AngelesLos Angeles International Airport30 April 2022PresentMiamiMiami International Airport15 December 2022PresentNewarkNewark Liberty International Airport14 July 2021PresentSan FranciscoSan Francisco International Airport11 May 2018Present
Interline agreements French Bee has interline agreements with the following airlines:
Air Austral Air Tahiti Alaska Airlines Avianca Pegasus Airlines Volotea
Codeshare agreements French Bee has codeshare agreements with sister airline Air Caraïbes as well as the SNCF, the French national railway operator.
Cabins and services
Service