La Compagnie

La Compagnie is a French boutique airline that flies one thing and flies it well: an all-business-class transatlantic service between Paris and Nice and New York, on a single-aisle Airbus A321neo. There is no economy to trade up from and no first to hold out for. Every passenger gets a lie-flat seat, which makes the choice on this aircraft less about which cabin and more about which row suits your trip. The pitch is priced well below legacy-carrier business, which is the whole point of the airline.

The fleet is the long-range A321neo, a narrowbody built for thin transatlantic routes that would not fill a widebody. Because it is a single-aisle aircraft, the whole cabin is laid out two-by-two, so there are no middle seats and no three-across rows anywhere on board. That single-aisle format is unusual for a full lie-flat product and is part of what keeps the operation small and the fares lower than the big carriers charge for the same crossing.

The cabin is one continuous lie-flat business class in a two-by-two arrangement, with every seat converting to a fully flat bed for the overnight legs. Because it is a boutique operation, the feel is closer to a private-club crossing than a big-airline cabin: fewer seats, attentive service and a full meal and amenity offering included in the fare. The trade-off for the lower price is a single-aisle aircraft rather than the wider twin-aisle you would get in legacy business.

With a lie-flat two-by-two cabin, the real choice is aisle versus window and how close you want to be to the galley and lavatories at the ends of the cabin. Solo travellers who want to avoid climbing over a seatmate should look at the seats with direct aisle access; couples travelling together are well served by the paired window seats. If you are a light sleeper on the overnight eastbound leg, sit away from the galley and the lavatory zones, where service traffic and door noise concentrate.