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Virgin Charter kicks off domestic private service

by Grant Martin (RSS feed) on Mar 5th 2008 at 11:40AM

Subsidiaries of Virgin keep manifesting like mold on bread, largely, I believe, because Richard Branson is not stupid-rich enough. Did you know that he bought his own island when he was like 30?

Branson's new airline project, Virgin ~~Atlantic~~ ~~America~~ ~~Blue~~ ~~Express~~ ~~Nigeria~~ Charter is actually more of a network of private domestic airline companies. Each of the charter services are run and owned separately -- Virgin just supplies the logistics to mange and load all of the planes so that they can fit the maximum number of passengers into the open charter seats. Nearly half of charters, you see, run empty because people only charter a plane one way (it wont wait while they're there -- another one will come back for the return flight).

With Virgin's technology, those loads will be managed so that most legs should be occupied. It's a pretty good idea and I'm surprised nobody thought of it before, I suppose Branson just had the know-how and capital to get the idea off the ground.

As far as price, don't plan on taking a Virgin Charter any time soon. Chartered flights can run up into the thousands of dollars per leg, so they're only really good for niche or wealthy travelers. I'm still waiting on the enquiry I posted for prices between Detroit and New York. I think they're on to me.

[Via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Airlines, Transportation, Airports

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Julia Rosien Mar 5th 2008 2:20PM

Well, if you don't have the money to spend on a private charter, you can console yourself with the fact that flying that way isn't exactly ecologically responsible.

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