Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
A new concept in business aviation is getting off the ground in the USA and is to arrive in Europe by the end of next year.
Beginning later this month, new company Indigo plans to sell individual seats on business jet flights between Chicago and New York, as a prelude to providing "regular and frequent" public charter service as an alternative to the airlines.
Indigo has begun operating on-demand corporate charters with a nine-passenger Dassault Falcon 20. Public charter service will begin later this month, when a second aircraft arrives. The company plans to have six aircraft by year-end and 21 by the end of next year, says Matt Andersson, chief executive of parent company NewWorldAir.
Individual seats on the business jets will be available at prices competitive with airline full-fare economy tickets, Indigo says. Schedules and frequencies will be determined by demand, says Andersson, but the business plan calls for one aircraft to be dedicated to each city-pair, operating five to seven return flights each weekday.
Passengers will be able to buy seats on-line through Indigo's website, via a toll-free number operated by transportation specialist BostonCoach, or by using a special interface developed for wireless devices such as the Palm Pilot. Passengers will embark and disembark at executive terminals owned by fixed-based operators at the airports served. Andersson expects the service to save 2-4h "door-to-door" each way over the comparable airline flight.
Initial services will link Chicago Midway and New York's Teterboro general aviation airport. Later in the first phase, services will be added to Atlanta, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Washington DC. The business plan calls for Indigo to serve 30 US cities with 50 aircraft by the end of 2005.
Andersson says that Indigo will issue a request for proposals in the next three months for 50 new-generation business jets to be delivered from the end of next year. The company is looking for aircraft capable of carrying 12-17 passengers in forward-facing seats, but with corporate levels of comfort. Financing arrangements are being worked out, he says.
Indigo is to expand into Europe late next year, Andersson says, within an area bounded by London, Warsaw, Rome and Madrid.
Source: Flight International
