United Airlines has hinted at a multibillion-dollar bet! The airline has announced the purchase of 15 Boom Supersonics from a Denver-based company after the Concorde airliner was discontinued 18 years ago. The US-based airliner has hinted that the ultra-fast aircraft will be officially added to the fleet by 2029.
If the airline continues on its devised plan, by 2029 the flying time between New York to London will be cut down to a mere 3.5 hours.
The Boom Supersonic is a supersonic jet company that has named its plane “Overture”. It is expected that the aircraft will be set to fly by 2025 and the testing flights will be held in 2026. United Airlines has bought 15 jets while agreeing to buy 35 more jet aircraft according to its requirements.
The plane is supposed to be flown at Mach 1.7, which is twice as fast as the commercial airplanes today. If the Mach 1.7 route is followed, then United will be able to carry passengers from New York and land them in London in only 3.5 hours. The company plans to extend the routes to Frankfurt which will be only four hours and to Tokyo; which will be reached in 6 hours only.
United does not want to repeat the mistake of concords as they were taken off the air because of the unsustainability of the fuel as well as extreme expenditure on maintenance while the number of customers declined over time.
United Airlines plans to fly the boom supersonics with 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that will allow them to be the first-ever aircraft to be flown on net-zero carbon flights.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby announced that the innovation of sustainable fuel and other advancements in technology is vital for supersonic to be encrypted into the aircraft industry for a sustainable longer period.
Kirby stated that “the air carrier continues on its trajectory to build a more innovative, sustainable airline and today’s advancements in technology are making it more viable for that to include supersonic planes”
The decision and billion-dollar deal between United Airlines and Denver-based company came as a surprise as the airline industry has been facing severe loss due to the covid-19 pandemic. Only after the vaccination process, the industry has started to regain its momentum in terms of passengers and monetary business.
But some business analysts suggest that a deal like this means the air travel industry is on its recovery and the financial risk is limited, therefore United signed the contract.
The financial transactions of the deals were not disclosed to the media but the aircraft officials stated that the Overture airplane is priced at $200 million making the deal of 15 jets a whopping $3 billion.
