PrivatAir Blurs the Line as All-Business Outfit ...Talks
with More Airlines About New Services
Two more major European carriers are discussing
all-business-class transatlantic service with PrivatAir, which launched its
third such operation just 12 days ago with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
That would bring to five the number of airlines contracting
with PrivatAir to provide one class, nonstop service on a turnkey basis in
Boeing BBJ or Airbus ACJ-size aircraft, says PrivatAir CEO Greg Thomas.
Lufthansa was the first to develop the service in 2002.
PrivatAir now flies A319LRs for Lufthansa between DYsseldorf and Newark, N.J.;
a 48-passenger BBJ between Munich and Newark; and in January it introduced
service for Swiss from Zurich to Newark, N.J., with a 56-seat Boeing 737-800
that it equipped with extra tanks to create a quasi-BBJ2.
It began operating a brand-new 44-seat BBJ (737-700 IGW)
aircraft on behalf of KLM between Amsterdam Schiphol and Houston. George Bush
Intercontinental airports on October 30. PrivatAir provides the aircraft, crew,
maintenance and insurance, while the airlines are in charge of marketing as
well as the content of the business-class product (including catering and
inflight entertainment).
Thomas says the quasi-BBJ2 for Swiss was a departure for
both Boeing and PrivatAir. "Normally you would buy it from Boeing [equipped
with the extra tanks] and they would take the technical risks of installation,"
he explains. "But this was a first for us. We bought the aircraft from Boeing
and had the tanks installed ourselves by PATS, which does the BBJ2 work." The
result: a long-range 737-800 without the HUD, airstairs and other VIP bells and
whistles of a BBJ2 that scheduled services don't require. "For what we do
across the Atlantic, it's great," says Thomas. Load factors have been running
at 80%, he notes.
