4 ms·

Same here, I'd rather upgrade to a comfy class for 12 hours than spend multiples of the cost to shave off a few. If it's flying on a schedule the only real poin

Same here, I'd rather upgrade to a comfy class for 12 hours than spend multiples of the cost to shave off a few. If it's flying on a schedule the only real point is less seat time (okay, also whee fast airplane), much of the time slow airplanes will have left and landed before the fast airplane's next scheduled departure and landing. These will make for one hell of a business owned or leased aircraft, although that doesn't change my preference. If there's one nice thing about air time on a business trip, it's the chance of taking a break from coworkers, like them or not.

bobthepanda 6y ago
To address the "empty Concorde" problem, Boom is explicitly targeting a 50-seat business class layout with similar seat cost per mile. Filling 50 comfortable seats is an order of magnitude easier than filling 100 uncomfortable ones.
- smachiz 6y ago
  Umm... ask every 'business class only' airline that has come (and gone...) about that.
  - jimbob21 6y ago
    As they say, the best way to make a million dollars is have a billion and start an airline.
    - wahern 6y ago
      David Neeleman might disagree. But then again, his M.O. isn't chasing business customers.
  - bobthepanda 6y ago
    Building an entire airline around it is stupid. Building certain premium flights around it, not necessarily; Singapore Airlines operates a 67-seat business class on a plane from Newark to Singapore that only has business and premium economy. BA operates a 32-seat business-only flight from London City to New York via Shannon. And these are just the subsonic flights. JAL is one of the bigger investors in this project, so it's not as if there's no interest at all.
    - notahacker 6y ago
      You don't need 'certain' premium flights to make an airframe programme commercially viable though, you need 100+ which airlines are sufficiently confident of to make downpayments on aircraft, and it's not like such routes haven't been unsuccessfully experimented with before.
    - smachiz 6y ago
      They’re almost always money-losing ego flights. BA1 rarely flies full. The ego is right there in the number. It’s a novelty. SQ hasn’t operated business class only since like 2011. It has 67 business seats and 94 premium economy seats. And still probably loses money. The one you didn’t mention was Stavenger to Houston which... only flies when oil is flying high. Because it’s not profitable otherwise.
      - bobthepanda 6y ago
        Even so, the main point of my comment was that the maximum capacity of a Boom supersonic plane is a lot smaller than that of the Concorde (and presumably a more comfortable layout rather than the Concorde's narrow cabin.) So at least the battle it's fighting is a lot less severe. Theoretically speaking, if the seat cost per mile is as low as advertised some airline might want to take some business class seats out and put some premium economy in. What a plane does with seating layouts is its own concern.

bobthepanda 6y ago

To address the "empty Concorde" problem, Boom is explicitly targeting a 50-seat business class layout with similar seat cost per mile. Filling 50 comfortable seats is an order of magnitude easier than filling 100 uncomfortable ones.

smachiz 6y ago
Umm... ask every 'business class only' airline that has come (and gone...) about that.
- jimbob21 6y ago
  As they say, the best way to make a million dollars is have a billion and start an airline.
  - wahern 6y ago
    David Neeleman might disagree. But then again, his M.O. isn't chasing business customers.
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  Building an entire airline around it is stupid. Building certain premium flights around it, not necessarily; Singapore Airlines operates a 67-seat business class on a plane from Newark to Singapore that only has business and premium economy. BA operates a 32-seat business-only flight from London City to New York via Shannon. And these are just the subsonic flights. JAL is one of the bigger investors in this project, so it's not as if there's no interest at all.
  - notahacker 6y ago
    You don't need 'certain' premium flights to make an airframe programme commercially viable though, you need 100+ which airlines are sufficiently confident of to make downpayments on aircraft, and it's not like such routes haven't been unsuccessfully experimented with before.
  - smachiz 6y ago
    They’re almost always money-losing ego flights. BA1 rarely flies full. The ego is right there in the number. It’s a novelty. SQ hasn’t operated business class only since like 2011. It has 67 business seats and 94 premium economy seats. And still probably loses money. The one you didn’t mention was Stavenger to Houston which... only flies when oil is flying high. Because it’s not profitable otherwise.
    - bobthepanda 6y ago
      Even so, the main point of my comment was that the maximum capacity of a Boom supersonic plane is a lot smaller than that of the Concorde (and presumably a more comfortable layout rather than the Concorde's narrow cabin.) So at least the battle it's fighting is a lot less severe. Theoretically speaking, if the seat cost per mile is as low as advertised some airline might want to take some business class seats out and put some premium economy in. What a plane does with seating layouts is its own concern.