Sponsorship Link
(Reuters) - Bankers may be languishing in popularity polls but a new airline wants their business and is prepared to challenge British Airways for it once the financial crisis is over.
A British venture called Odyssey Airlines hopes to start nonstop all-business class flights from London City to New York and other locations using 10 newly-ordered Bombardier CSeries passenger jets, aviation industry sources told Reuters.
/
The disclosure lifts a mystery surrounding the identity of one of the buyers for a Canadian jet which aims to break into a market long dominated by Airbus and Boeing.
Train and plane maker Bombardier said in June it had sold two sets of 10 aircraft to customers that preferred to stay anonymous, one of which was an "unidentified European buyer" and the other was an already established airline.
Bombardier declined any further comment.
Follow us
Must Read
The start-up directly targets BA which offers twice-daily all-business flights using Airbus A318 aircraft from London City, a small business airport near the capital's financial district which can handle only moderately-sized jetliners.
The idea is to capture demand for bankers and other professionals for transatlantic travel without a time-consuming journey across the capital to London's congested Heathrow. Using the future CSeries jet would also eliminate the need for a fuel stop in Ireland when travelling westbound to New York.
The new airline may hope to entice executive travellers away from other business jet schemes such as NetJets.
But its path is strewn with potential hazards and previous failures.
Several all-business airlines have been killed off by high costs and the difficulty niche airlines face in matching benefits offered by big players. U.S.-based Maxjets filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and UK-based Silverjet collapsed in 2008.
"It is difficult for small companies to make money in this type of market. Business travellers usually belong to frequent flyer schemes and loyalty programmes are difficult to crack," said John Feren, executive vice president of U.S. lessor Aviation Capital Group, owned by insurer Pacific Life.
Analysts say that to succeed, new entrants into business travel must have an alliance with a major airline.
Even then, the number of previous casualties suggests the margin for error is small.
"If you find a niche that looks attractive, it just takes two seconds for somebody to come in like a freight train and usurp the market," said Ray Neidl, Senior Aerospace and Airlines Analyst, Maxim Group investment bank in New York.
