The Virgin Group has been in discussions with Bombardier Aerospace about buying up to six Global Express ultra-long-range business jets for the launch of a new all business-class airline.
Virgin's chairman and founder Richard Branson was in Canada last week to celebrate the inaugural flight of his Virgin Atlantic airline from London to Toronto. He took time out of his schedule to visit Bombardier¹s plant and to hear a presentation about the economics of the Global Express.
Since the crash and subsequent grounding of Concorde last July, there has been a gap in the market for exclusive premium business travellers.
Global Express has a 14.72m (48ft) passenger cabin. It as a maximum range of 6,500 miles (10,600km) and has a high speed cruise of Mach 0.88 (935kmh).
It is understood that Virgin would run the business airline separately from the Virgin Atlantic brand and it has already been dubbed Virgin Jetset.
Configured
The Global Express could be configured for 19 first-class sleeper beds and would be able to use airports such as the UK's Farnborough and New York's Teterborough.
The aircraft flies at 51,000ft (15,500m), well above the commercial airline routes and at Mach .85 is significantly faster than scheduled airlines.
With fewer problems with take-off and landing slots, business analysts believe that a commercial business airline could make a significant challenge on the busy transatlantic routes.
Branson¹s team will also look at the Boeing 737-700 business aircraft the BBJ, and at the Airbus ACJ which is based on the 319, but the Global is favourite.
Virgin already has links with Bombardier through its rail division and Branson says "it would be nice to buy Canadian".
Bombarder confirms that the meeting took place but declines comment.
Source: Flight Daily News
