British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic look likely to go head to head to establish a dedicated premium class operation across the Atlantic.
According to BA CEO, Willie Walsh, the airline will be offering services ”by next summer”. Some of the airline”s 13 Boeing 757s or 21 Boeing 767s could be used in either a two-class or business class only layout. And following the success of Eos and Maxjet out of Stansted, and also Silverjet based at Luton, Heathrow might not be the London hub.
Mr Walsh hinted at a strong possibility that at least initially, a US mounted operation could serve European hubs. Research is ongoing although BA had no insight into the performance of Lufthansa that has operated 50-seat Boeing and Airbus narrow bodied aircraft from both Dusseldorf and Munich to New York and Chicago since 2003.
From Paris Orly, L”Avion offers a daily business class only service using a Boeing 757, while KLM has a daily Amsterdam ” Houston rotation using a Boeing 737-700 and featuring its World Business Class service.
In the meantime, as reported by ABTN, Virgin Atlantic is quickly moving forward with plans to introduce a similar operation also from the major continental centres to New York. However, Virgin does not have any suitable aircraft in its fleet and will either have to purchase or lease equipment, or turn to a specialist company such as PrivatAir.
The Geneva based operator could supply either Airbus or Boeing equipment. Both BA”s Club World and Virgin”s Upper Class seats could be fairly easily adapted to a single aisle layout.