I’m often invited in the media as a travel expert, and this week it was to discuss the new European ultra low-cost carrier set to land in Canada in 2025. This interview was in French so I’m sharing the text version, but also some additional information about flight prices, competition, and airlines!
As I said at the start of the interview, I love talking about cheap plane tickets, so I was glad the invitation was for a fun topic — as opposed to a less positive topic like recently when the news was about flight cancellations due to Hurricane Beryl.
Here’s what was mentioned in Flytrippers’ interview with the LCN news channel and even more details for those who want them.
New ULCC flights from Montréal to Paris
French Bee is a small French ultra low-cost carrier (ULCC), one of the few ULCCs specializing in long-distance flights.
We’ve told you many times about our pro tip to take French Bee’s often $800 (US$699) roundtrip flights between San Francisco and Tahiti (French Polynesia), instead of paying $2,000 for Canada-Tahiti flights on 1 ticket, as many people unfortunately do. That’s the self-transfer tip, with Canada-San Francisco flights often costing around $400 roundtrip.
Anyway, everything points to the launch of a new French Bee route between Montréal and Paris in May 2025.
It’s not yet publicly confirmed, so I’ll do a detailed post on the route itself when we have all the official information directly from the airline.
Price of flights to Paris
Here on the Flytrippers website, one of the things we do is spot the cheapest plane ticket deals.
Looking at the statistics from our deals algorithm, I saw that we’ve spotted flights under $700 roundtrip for Montréal-Paris on more than half of the last 365 days, i.e., 237 days out of 365 (65% of days).
More precisely:
- 84 days when the deal was in the $500s roundtrip or less
- 153 days when the deal was in the $600s roundtrip
- 56 days where the deal was in the $700s roundtrip
- 72 days where the cheapest price was over $800 roundtrip
So it can already be very affordable to fly to Europe if you’re able to be a little alert to find those good deals, especially from Eastern Canada. In Western Canada, prices are a bit higher, but there are still frequent deals.
You just have to check our site often or join the 100,000+ savvy Canadian travelers who receive our completely free newsletter.
Seriously, $600 is pretty cheap!
(It’s less than the free $825 you can easily get with the new increased welcome bonus on the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card that you can use for any travel expense booked on any website, like a Paris flight deal!)
But you have to follow the deals to pay less for your flights. Of course, if you wake up a month before you want to leave or buy your ticket without ever having looked at the prices before, it’s going to be more expensive than $600.
Paris is honestly already the cheapest destination in Europe (along with Lisbon and London), and it’s just going to get even better with one more competitor.
In short, having an additional player is always great news! And yes, French Bee is going to bring prices down — or at least make the current low prices available on even more dates!
Plane ticket prices are THE thing that depends most on competition. As soon as there’s a new airline, the impact on prices is undeniable.
We’ll be sharing more content on plane ticket prices soon.
Experience on the new Paris flights
Ultra low-cost carriers have been around for literally decades in Europe. Ryanair, which is the continent’s biggest airline, has been in business for a long time. They often have flights for $10, $15, $20, which I’ve often taken advantage of myself in Europe. Really cheap for 2-3 hour flights.
It took a long time to finally get ULCCs in Canada. It’s indeed the type of airline we need most in Canada. Like everywhere else in the world, they bring prices down.
Especially since we live in a country that, historically, has had the most expensive plane tickets, or at least among the most expensive in the world! So, the arrival of this affordable airline will clearly help!
Flights on ULCCs like French Bee are simply à la carte plane tickets.
You have the choice to travel for the lowest possible price if you want. It’s always better to have a choice than not having a choice.
If you want extras of any kind, you simply pay for them. Each passenger pays for what he wants instead of forcing all the other passengers — including those who may have fewer means than you but still want to travel — to pay for your extras in the price of their ticket.
Even with extras, ULCCs often still have the lowest prices. But always compare, as you always should anyway!
On French Bee, it’s definitely not the same experience as on Air France, of course! There’s nothing free, and there’s less space. But having taken 80+ ULCC flights, it’s really not that bad, honestly.
Myth about ULCCs
One of the most persistent myths is that people often associate ultra low-cost carriers with old airplanes.
It’s completely false! ULCC fleets are made up of very recent airplanes and even almost brand-new ones with French Bee, by the way.
They’re among the newest, with a fleet that has a much lower average age than those of Air Canada, Air Transat, and others who sell their flights more expensively.
However, the real big flaw with ULCCs is that the frequency of their flights is limited — it’s true for others too, like Air Transat even, it’s not just ULCCs.
So, let’s say they have just 5 Montreal-Paris flights a week. Well, if something happens and your flight is canceled, it’s going to take longer to rectify the situation. They don’t have other flights to help people out and won’t be able to put you on another flight. They often don’t have partnerships with other airlines either.
That being said, flight cancellations are still a very minor issue. In the industry overall, the completion rate of flights is well over 95%, meaning flights that are not canceled.
So it’s still very rare, but it’s true that it’s a downside; it’s really the only one, though.
If this happens to you, you’ll get free hotels and meals during the delay if you have simply paid for your flight with a good credit card, but flight delay insurance doesn’t pay to put you on a new flight, unfortunately.
You do have rights, though, and I’ve already given you a teaser during the recent WestJet strike. I’m also preparing a complete, very easy-to-consult guide to all flight disruption situations.
Learning how to travel for less
Join over 100,000 savvy Canadian travelers who already receive Flytrippers’ free newsletter so we can help you travel for less (and keep you updated on all things travel)!
Summary
Flytrippers was interviewed on TV to discuss French Bee, a French ultra low-cost carrier, which is set to launch a new Montreal-Paris route as early as May 2025. This is great news, despite the fact that prices for this route are already relatively affordable when you search a little. However, the arrival of this new player means that we can expect prices to drop or current low fares to be available on even more dates for this route.
What would you like to know about the new ultra low-cost carrier French bee? Tell us in the comments below.
See the flight deals we spot: Cheap flights
Discover free travel with rewards: Travel rewards
Explore awesome destinations: Travel inspiration
Learn pro tricks: Travel tips
Featured image: LCN interview with Andrew from Flytrippers (image credit: LCN)
