French Bee packs more seats into its Airbus 350s than the average airline: 411 across coach and the 35-seat Premium cabin. If that sounds like a lot of seats, that’s because it is.

EasyJet on Tuesday averted a French cabin crew strike over the Christmas holidays after it agreed to raise base pay by 7.5% while paying an additional 3,000 euro ($3,152) bonus to staffers.

French bee CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener says demand is coming from business customers and not just bargain-hunting tourists. Specifically, she says, the airline is proving to be a hit with ...