Table 1: Seating Configuration of Virgin Atlantic Airways Aircraftīased on the seat pitch and width for each seating class and the number of flights flown with each aircraft model, an Upper Class seat occupied 3.2 times the floor area of an Economy seat on an average Virgin Atlantic transatlantic flight last year. The number of seats offered in each seating class depends on the aircraft model (Table 1). Three seating classes are offered on each aircraft: (1) Upper Class (2) Premium Economy and (3) Economy. The carrier used four different aircraft on the route: (1) Airbus A330-300 (2) Airbus A340-600 (3) Boeing 747-400 and (4) Boeing 787-9. So about 136 kg of fuel per passenger, or about one-quarter of the 600 kg we modelled for our SST reference aircraft estimated from Boom’s design. In our most recent transatlantic airline fuel efficiency ranking, Virgin Atlantic had better than average fuel efficiency in 2017, with an average of 36 passenger-kilometers per liter of fuel (pax-km/L) on the New York-London Route. So let’s dig in further using the fuel burn of current business-class travel on Virgin Atlantic’s flights between New York-JFK and London-Heathrow as the baseline. But in this case, Boom’s design is still pretty far from finalization – crucially, it has yet to identify an engine partner for its design – so even our educated guess adds value to this conversation. Ordinarily we’d defer to manufacturers on performance claims for their aircraft. Scholl declined to provide further information about this calculation, which, as we pointed out, is influenced by factors such as 1) the subsonic aircraft type used 2) stage length 3) payload assumptions (passenger and belly freight) and 4) the business-to-economy multiplier.īoom knows its aircraft best. In response, Boom Supersonic founder and chief executive Blake Scholl stated that the group’s planes “will see overall fuel burn at parity” with current business-class travel. When broken down by seating class, the SST burned about 3 times as much fuel per passenger compared to new subsonic business class. The analysis suggests that a representative commercial SST could burn 5 to 7 times as much fuel per passenger as comparable subsonic aircraft on common routes. The Virgin Group holds options for the first ten aircraft.Įarlier this year, we released a preliminary assessment of the environmental performance of new commercial SSTs using Boom’s design as a reference point. Boom aims to develop a 55-seat commercial jet capable of operating at Mach 2.2 with a design range of 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km). In 2016, Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic Airways, announced that the Virgin Group would assist aviation start-up Boom in developing a new supersonic transport (SST) aircraft.
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