Air France Ends an ‘Open Skies’ Experiment

Air France is dropping its Los Angeles-London non-stop flight, taking with it some of the cheapest tickets available to London.

It’s rare for airlines to fly internationally without at least beginning or ending the flight at one of their hub airports. You usually need connecting passengers to fill big jets. But Los Angeles-London was an experiment for Air France, a trip the airline inaugurated with the passage of the Open Skies treaty between the U.S. and the European Union. Air France flies from Los Angeles to Paris, and decided to see if Los Angeles and London were big enough markets to support a once-a-day trip.

It’s still an experiment for Air France to see whether a French airline can build enough traffic in the U.S. and U.K. without a hub.

With the move, pricing will become rational again. Los Angeles-London tickets will actually be more expensive than New York-London. At least until another airline starts experimenting.