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The mysterious to-be-launched Odyssey Airlines is all set to challenge British Airways. Odyssey Airlines is expected to offer all-business flights to New York and other westbound destinations from London city.
Odyssey Airlines, a new British venture, is anticipated to woo business class flyers with its non-stop all-business class services from London City to New York’s JFK airport and several other undisclosed locations. The newest to-be-launched airline would use 10 newly-ordered Bombardier CSeries passenger jets to break into a market long dominated by Airbus and Boeing, revealed the online sources.
This possible start-up is expected to challenge the long dominance of British Airways which uses Airbus A318 aircraft to offer twice-daily all-business flights to New York and several other destinations from London City airport.
BA operates these flights with a stop in Ireland for refuelling the planes before further travelling westbound. A318s, the smallest planes in the Airbus fleet, do not have enough range to complete the whole trip due to prevailing headwinds. Reports indicate that the Odyssey Airlines plans to use the future CSeries jet to eradicate the need for a fuel stop in Ireland for travellers taking flights to New York.
The newbie airline primarily aims at enticing executives and business class travellers away from BA and other business travel options such as Netjets. It remains to be seen if the airline will only rely on its no-stop flight to New York or would also plan to roll out cheap flights tickets to acquire the market.
There is a little doubt that even the business class holiday makers would not mind paying a little premium on their cheap flight tickets for a shorter transatlantic travel.
However, the factors that led to past failures of several airlines which followed a similar model, may pose potential hazards for Odyssey too.
Several all-business airlines got rooted out because of the high costs and the difficulty in matching benefits offered by big players in the past; the U.S.-based Maxjets, filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and UK-based Silverjet, which foundered in 2008.
Mystery over Odyssey Airlines
While the launch of Odyssey Airlines is shrouded in mystery, this latest entrant in the cut-throat travel industry is known to have been incorporated in the UK in September 2010; no other major information has come up about the organisation so far. However, the public UK records reveal the name of its main director to be Adam Scott.
Adding to the mystery of the newest to-be-launched airline, few people identified to be related to the project have denied their involvement. However, news reports state that at least two web addresses – www.odysseyairlines.com and www.odyair.com – have been reserved for “Future Odyssey Airlines International”.
Bombardier’s Advantage
Bombardier, the popular train and plane maker organisation, already reported sale of two sets of 10 passenger jets to unspecified clients sometimes back in June. However, the mystery over possible clients prevails as Bombardier has informed the client being an “unidentified European buyer”.
The CSeries passenger jets are a major bet for their manufacturers. The signs of company’s entrance to penetrate the $100 billion (annual) jet market have been a reason for Airbus and Boeing to revamp their popular narrow-body jets.
The advance light-weight material used to build the CSeries jets is likely to make them more attractive and provide its manufacturers as well as the users an edge over the competition; especially with the jet’s ability to travel to transatlantic destinations in one hop.
The CSeries jets are due to be commissioned in late 2013 with Odyssey not likely to start operations before 2014 or 2015.