Quadruple Competition from New York to Amsterdam

Once upon a time New York was called New Amsterdam. Now, there are four carriers competing for your business between New York and old Amsterdam.

OpenSkies (Web site: www.flyopenskies.com) was set to launch nonstop service from New York Kennedy (JFK) to Amsterdam Schiphol today (Wednesday, October 15). According to Official Airline Guide (OAG), that makes for a quartet of carriers between New York and Amsterdam: OpenSkies, Delta Air Lines, and Northwest/KLM out of Kennedy, and Continental Airlines and Northwest/KLM from Newark Liberty International (EWR).

OpenSkies’ narrowbody 757s offer two classes of service on the run: BIZ and PREM+. The former offers lie-flat seat; the latter what the carrier calls “business class comfort,” and seats that recline 140 degrees.

OpenSkies is not a stand-alone airline. It’s a subsidiary of British Airways. That fact differentiates it from the slew of recent independent Business Class-style airlines that have failed to make a go of it across the Atlantic.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler