Gadling

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