Virgin plans business-only flights

[Ari707]

LONDON (Reuters) -- Virgin Group founder Richard Branson plans business class-only flights with a fleet of up to 15 new planes, in a move which could spell trouble for upstart rivals in the competitive transatlantic market.

"In the next 12 to 18 months we will start a business-only airline," a Virgin spokesman said Monday. "We'll serve New York initially and then other U.S. cities."

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Newly created EOS, MAXjet and Silverjet all use business-class-only aircraft and offer competitive fares in the lucrative business-class market linking London to the United States.

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But heavyweights Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are looking to fight back, spurred by an Open Skies pact between Europe and the United States which is to come into effect on March 30, 2008, and threatens to bring more competition to their London home market.

Virgin plans flights to New York from Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich, as well as from London, though Virgin is staying mum about which London airport it will use.

Frequent flyer programs and the ability to tap into U.S. domestic flights operated by Virgin America due to begin next month would be advantages over small, upstart carriers, the Virgin spokesman said, adding the new Virgin airline would aim to meet or beat rival fares.

British Airways, which makes the bulk of its profits on business flights across the Atlantic, is also studying the idea of business-only services.

Virgin will look at acquiring up to 15 planes worth $700 million at list prices, the spokesman said.

"We may use some of the [Boeing] 787s we ordered recently," he said, but added the airline was speaking to all four airliner makers - Boeing Co. (Charts, Fortune 500) , Airbus, Embraer and Bombardier


The last line is the best

but added the airline was speaking to all four airliner makers - Boeing Co. (Charts, Fortune 500) , Airbus, Embraer and Bombardier

which Embraer or Bombardier can do Trans - Atlantic....

[Matt Molnar]

An E170 could probably make it, so long as there were no more than 2 passengers on board. :D

This is extremely bad news for MaxJet, SilverJet and Eos, which are struggling to build their brands from scratch, while Virgin is one of the strongest brands in the world...not to mention Virgin will be able to fly into Heathrow, whereas the others cannot.

[PhilDernerJr]

This is proof positive that the all-biz flights do in fact work, regardless of the small problems that Eos and Maxjet might be having.

I will be very eager to see how this plays out.

[RDU-JFK]

I'm curious if by New York he means Kennedy or Newark. With EOS and Maxjet at JFK, do you see Branson starting it from EWR, or would a JFK-LHR all-biz flight work?

[hiss srq]

Richard has always been fond of EWR. It would not suprise me if he tried to steak some of CO's business class momba juice and snare them.

[cancidas]

i think that JFK-LHR flights would definately work, though i doubt we'd see anything smaller than a 737 flying it in virgin paint. i'd love to see virgin pick up a few 787s for these routes!

[T-Bird76]

Smart move by Virgin, with a link to other U.S domestic cities they'll have a winning combo Maxjet and EOS don't have.

[USAF Pilot 07]

I can see Branson taking on the smaller carriers head on and offering service from LHR-JFK. I think he'll be successful at it too. VS offers so much more than those smaller airlines can, and I can see many customers switching from them to VS once this service comes online, for reasons such as FF miles, codeshares, easier connections etc... etc....

[Iberia A340-600]

Hm, I was under the impression that Virgin planned to start an all business class airline which operated in and around Europe which would explain the talks with Bombadier and Embraer.

[Matt Molnar]

Yep, the article mentions London as a hub for Europe biz flights, which certainly explains the talk about E-jets and RJs.

Virgin plans flights to New York from Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich, as well as from London, though Virgin is staying mum about which London airport it will use.

[tsnamm]

Virgin would be certain to use JFK...they have 3 flights to JFK vs 2 at EWR...I doubt they would use EWR...

[stuart schechter]

But could this be another Virgin start-up? I originally thought that Virgin America was going to be biz but I am taking guesses that it will be called Virign International! Now all I have to do is become a businessman and fly it!

[Iberia A340-600]

Virgin would be certain to use JFK...they have 3 flights to JFK vs 2 at EWR...I doubt they would use EWR...

They actually have 4xdaily JFK flights. ;)

[Winglets747]

This is proof positive that the all-biz flights do in fact work, regardless of the small problems that Eos and Maxjet might be having.

I will be very eager to see how this plays out.

Phil, I'm glad to see there's another optimist on these boards about the new biz airlines.

This is extremely bad news for MaxJet, SilverJet and Eos, which are struggling to build their brands from scratch, while Virgin is one of the strongest brands in the world...not to mention Virgin will be able to fly into Heathrow, whereas the others cannot.

Not at all bad news. They still have at least a full year to enhance their brand, plus I think the smaller London airports are more appealing to the biz pax as most are not getting on connecting flights.

Whatever Virgin and BA's fares are, the others will undoubtedly be cheaper, which will always attract a certain number of pax.