Since its grand opening in 1992 Disneyland Paris has been closely associated with Air France which acted as the resort’s official airline. Last year Air France was even recruited by the resort in its effort to bolster the attendance numbers by handing out free one day passports to its passengers flying into Paris (as we reported over on the Mousekingdom Blog). However, unnoticed by many flybe, a low cost carrier flying from various UK airports into Paris (using Charles de Gaule airport there) and thus a competitor of Air France on some routes, run a similar promotion for a free one day passport as well plus a 15% discount on all additional passports (even so the promotion ended prior to the Air France promotion already at the end of June instead the end of September).

The promotion must have been a success as the resort teamed up one more time with flybe later in the year, offering up to 50% discounts on 2 night packages in the Disney Hotels leading up to the christmas days (and yes, this promotion has ended as well). Looking back these two promotions seem to have been tests by the resort’s management and the UK airline whether a partnership made sense. The results of the tests? (more…)