French regional carrier Chalair has won Andorra’s tender to run year-round scheduled flights from Andorra–La Seu d’Urgell Airport (LEU) from 1 January 2027, according to Air Journal on 4 October 2026 and confirming coverage from Europa Press, Diari Andorra and La Veu Lliure. The Catalan mountain airport sits just across the Spanish border from the principality and will become a permanent Chalair base with a 48-seat ATR 42-500 stationed on site with crews and maintenance.
Year-round destinations include Paris-Orly, Madrid and Palma de Mallorca. Orly is pitched as the preferred Paris gateway because of Métro Line 14 access to central Paris; France’s ambassador to Andorra called an Andorra–Paris link “necessary.” Madrid, already served by Air Nostrum with average load factors around 56 percent in recent figures cited by Air Journal, will start at two weekly Chalair flights and is filed to rise to three weekly from summer 2027. Palma remains on the annual program after strong winter peaks that reached 78 percent load factor in February on the prior operator’s service.
Three French seasonal markets complete a six-city map: Nantes twice weekly in winter, Nice twice weekly in summer, and Lyon once weekly in summer. Exact weekdays were still to be published when the award was announced, and Andorran officials said frequencies can be adjusted with demand. The contract requires at least 1,400 block hours a year; Chalair is targeting up to about 1,670 hours from the second year. Public support from Andorra is capped at €5 million annually through the multi-year concession running toward 2030.
Reliability is the operational story as much as the route map. Mountain weather and limited ground equipment have historically constrained LEU. Andorra and Catalonia are upgrading fuel supply, de-icing and air-traffic services, with fuel and de-icing due this winter. Chalair will keep a substitute ATR 72-500 of up to 72 seats ready to arrive from Montferrer within two hours if the based ATR 42 is unavailable. Passenger traffic at LEU is already rising: 11,107 travelers year-to-date 2026 versus 9,752 a year earlier (+14 percent), and 52,278 since commercial flying began five years ago.
Andorran energy and transport secretary David Forné called the award “a great day for Andorra and for the Pyrenees,” framing it as a qualitative jump in air links. Chalair’s bid displaces the prior seasonal and thinner pattern with a based turboprop, local crews and a Paris trunk that European leisure and visiting-friends traffic can build around. This desk is not inventing ticket prices or claiming every seasonal day is locked; winter 2027 schedules should be rechecked as Chalair publishes them.
For travelers, the practical change from January 2027 is a French ATR operator promising year-round Orly, Madrid and Palma plus seasonal Nantes, Nice and Lyon from the Pyrenean gateway that serves Andorra without a long mountain road transfer to Barcelona or Toulouse. That combination of a based aircraft and a capped public contribution is the heart of the concession Andorra awarded in early October 2026.
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