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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘We will block the canals': Venice divided as young protesters target Bezos wedding
Editor's note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, and where to stay. On a sweltering Friday afternoon in June, a group of angry and self-described 'precarious' or underemployed Venetian young people gathered in a square near the foot of Venice's Rialto bridge. It was a call to action against the impending nuptials of billionaire Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez, who will be tying the knot — and tying up the city — later in the month. After struggling at first to hang a massive 'No Space for Bezos' banner, complete with a drawing of his inarguably phallic Blue Origin rocket in the center, a handful of speakers roused the crowd of around 300 Venetians, many of whom were sipping spritzes in takeaway tumblers and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. Though the details of the Bezos wedding are highly guarded beyond the rumored $10-million budget, several venues, including the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, where the same group managed to hang a No Bezos sign on the bell tower on Thursday, seem to be a given. Also said to be a dead-cert location in central Venice is the 14th century Misericordia, a former school armory that is now an exclusive events venue. It's widely rumored that the main ceremony will take place here on June 28. But not if the protesters get their way. 'Bezos will never get to the Misericordia,' organizer Federica Toninello told the crowd to raucous applause. 'We will block the canals, line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats.' Another speaker, Na Haby Stella Faye, urged those gathered to make sure the wedding would be remembered for their opposition, not Sanchez's reported 27 outfit changes. 'Let's make sure that Venice is not remembered as a postcard venue where Bezos had his wedding but as the city that did not bend to oligarchs,' she said. 'We can't miss a chance to disrupt a $10-million wedding.' Others lamented the arrival of Bezos' $500 million superyacht Koru, and the other luxury leisure boats expected to be docked in the city's ports. There were also complaints about the temporary work big events like this provide, rather than full-time jobs. Bezos' wedding is clearly symbolic of Venice's current problems. Efforts to combat overtourism have resulted in a 10-euro daytripper entrance fee on weekends and peak periods while more residents are pushed out every year due to a dwindling lack of services like schools, hospitals and affordable housing. 'You're telling me none of these people shop on Amazon?' said New Orleans native Jake Springer, who, along with his wife, was spending a weekend in Venice on a wine tour through Italy. 'At least they are protesting peacefully. Americans could learn a thing or two from this.' Protests in Venice may seem like a national pastime, but it's worth noting that they have been incredibly successful in the past. The years-long 'No Grandi Navi' or 'no big ships' campaign of the pre-Covid era was successful in banning giant cruise ships from anywhere near the city center. The restrictions led to widespread changes in cruise itineraries, with many of the major lines switching from Venice as a port of call or embarking point to nearby Ravenna and Trieste. Some, including Norwegian Cruise Line, removed Venice entirely from their itineraries. Protests against Airbnb-style short-term rentals also led to changes in the number of properties an individual can own to rent out. But protesting a millionaire's wedding in a city synonymous with love? To some, 'no grandi matrimoni' or no big weddings, seems cold. Bezos' is hardly the only high-dollar wedding to be held in the city — not least George and Amal Clooney's nuptials in 2014, which were cheered on by locals. So far this year, city officials say three multi-million-dollar weddings have been held without any opposition. Luca Zaia, the head of the surrounding Veneto region, calls the protests a disgrace. 'I want Jeff Bezos to be welcomed with open arms in Venice. Protesting against those who bring visibility and wealth to our territory is, in my opinion, a disgrace,' he said Friday. Venice's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said he hoped the protest won't dissuade Bezos and Sanchez from keeping their plans. 'We will have to apologize to Bezos,' Brugnaro told reporters in Venice on Friday. 'I am ashamed of those who behave like this. I hope that Bezos comes anyway. Not all Venetians think like these protesters.' Across town at the Biennale of Architecture, a regular event on the Venice calendar, the sentiment was much more in line with city officials than the protesters. 'It seems ridiculous that a city that lives off tourism like Venice wouldn't want an event like this, which will employ hundreds of people from waiters to water taxi drivers,' Görge Meyer, who was visiting from Berlin, said. 'All the guests and journalists will be staying at hotels, eating at restaurants and spending money. And they want to stop the cash influx?' Gillian Longworth McGuire, an American travel writer and tour planner who moved from Rome to Venice 10 years ago, points out that famous people have been coming to Venice to get married for centuries and wealthy people have been parking their yachts in Venice for decades. 'Venice just doesn't have a clear idea of what it is supposed to be sometimes,' she said. 'Is it a magical place carved out of a lagoon, built by merchants and fishermen, or a bachelorette party and mega wedding venue? 'The ethos of this city was always that it was the crossroads of culture and the world. Venice doesn't need an event like this to prove itself. People will always come no matter who gets married here and who is against it.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘We will block the canals': Venice divided as young protesters target Bezos wedding
Editor's note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, and where to stay. On a sweltering Friday afternoon in June, a group of angry and self-described 'precarious' or underemployed Venetian young people gathered in a square near the foot of Venice's Rialto bridge. It was a call to action against the impending nuptials of billionaire Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez, who will be tying the knot — and tying up the city — later in the month. After struggling at first to hang a massive 'No Space for Bezos' banner, complete with a drawing of his inarguably phallic Blue Origin rocket in the center, a handful of speakers roused the crowd of around 300 Venetians, many of whom were sipping spritzes in takeaway tumblers and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. Though the details of the Bezos wedding are highly guarded beyond the rumored $10-million budget, several venues, including the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, where the same group managed to hang a No Bezos sign on the bell tower on Thursday, seem to be a given. Also said to be a dead-cert location in central Venice is the 14th century Misericordia, a former school armory that is now an exclusive events venue. It's widely rumored that the main ceremony will take place here on June 28. But not if the protesters get their way. 'Bezos will never get to the Misericordia,' organizer Federica Toninello told the crowd to raucous applause. 'We will block the canals, line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats.' Another speaker, Na Haby Stella Faye, urged those gathered to make sure the wedding would be remembered for their opposition, not Sanchez's reported 27 outfit changes. 'Let's make sure that Venice is not remembered as a postcard venue where Bezos had his wedding but as the city that did not bend to oligarchs,' she said. 'We can't miss a chance to disrupt a $10-million wedding.' Others lamented the arrival of Bezos' $500 million superyacht Koru, and the other luxury leisure boats expected to be docked in the city's ports. There were also complaints about the temporary work big events like this provide, rather than full-time jobs. Bezos' wedding is clearly symbolic of Venice's current problems. Efforts to combat overtourism have resulted in a 10-euro daytripper entrance fee on weekends and peak periods while more residents are pushed out every year due to a dwindling lack of services like schools, hospitals and affordable housing. 'You're telling me none of these people shop on Amazon?' said New Orleans native Jake Springer, who, along with his wife, was spending a weekend in Venice on a wine tour through Italy. 'At least they are protesting peacefully. Americans could learn a thing or two from this.' Protests in Venice may seem like a national pastime, but it's worth noting that they have been incredibly successful in the past. The years-long 'No Grandi Navi' or 'no big ships' campaign of the pre-Covid era was successful in banning giant cruise ships from anywhere near the city center. The restrictions led to widespread changes in cruise itineraries, with many of the major lines switching from Venice as a port of call or embarking point to nearby Ravenna and Trieste. Some, including Norwegian Cruise Line, removed Venice entirely from their itineraries. Protests against Airbnb-style short-term rentals also led to changes in the number of properties an individual can own to rent out. But protesting a millionaire's wedding in a city synonymous with love? To some, 'no grandi matrimoni' or no big weddings, seems cold. Bezos' is hardly the only high-dollar wedding to be held in the city — not least George and Amal Clooney's nuptials in 2014, which were cheered on by locals. So far this year, city officials say three multi-million-dollar weddings have been held without any opposition. Luca Zaia, the head of the surrounding Veneto region, calls the protests a disgrace. 'I want Jeff Bezos to be welcomed with open arms in Venice. Protesting against those who bring visibility and wealth to our territory is, in my opinion, a disgrace,' he said Friday. Venice's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said he hoped the protest won't dissuade Bezos and Sanchez from keeping their plans. 'We will have to apologize to Bezos,' Brugnaro told reporters in Venice on Friday. 'I am ashamed of those who behave like this. I hope that Bezos comes anyway. Not all Venetians think like these protesters.' Across town at the Biennale of Architecture, a regular event on the Venice calendar, the sentiment was much more in line with city officials than the protesters. 'It seems ridiculous that a city that lives off tourism like Venice wouldn't want an event like this, which will employ hundreds of people from waiters to water taxi drivers,' Görge Meyer, who was visiting from Berlin, said. 'All the guests and journalists will be staying at hotels, eating at restaurants and spending money. And they want to stop the cash influx?' Gillian Longworth McGuire, an American travel writer and tour planner who moved from Rome to Venice 10 years ago, points out that famous people have been coming to Venice to get married for centuries and wealthy people have been parking their yachts in Venice for decades. 'Venice just doesn't have a clear idea of what it is supposed to be sometimes,' she said. 'Is it a magical place carved out of a lagoon, built by merchants and fishermen, or a bachelorette party and mega wedding venue? 'The ethos of this city was always that it was the crossroads of culture and the world. Venice doesn't need an event like this to prove itself. People will always come no matter who gets married here and who is against it.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘We will block the canals': Venice divided as young protesters target Bezos wedding
Editor's note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, and where to stay. On a sweltering Friday afternoon in June, a group of angry and self-described 'precarious' or underemployed Venetian young people gathered in a square near the foot of Venice's Rialto bridge. It was a call to action against the impending nuptials of billionaire Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez, who will be tying the knot — and tying up the city — later in the month. After struggling at first to hang a massive 'No Space for Bezos' banner, complete with a drawing of his inarguably phallic Blue Origin rocket in the center, a handful of speakers roused the crowd of around 300 Venetians, many of whom were sipping spritzes in takeaway tumblers and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. Though the details of the Bezos wedding are highly guarded beyond the rumored $10-million budget, several venues, including the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, where the same group managed to hang a No Bezos sign on the bell tower on Thursday, seem to be a given. Also said to be a dead-cert location in central Venice is the 14th century Misericordia, a former school armory that is now an exclusive events venue. It's widely rumored that the main ceremony will take place here on June 28. But not if the protesters get their way. 'Bezos will never get to the Misericordia,' organizer Federica Toninello told the crowd to raucous applause. 'We will block the canals, line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats.' Another speaker, Na Haby Stella Faye, urged those gathered to make sure the wedding would be remembered for their opposition, not Sanchez's reported 27 outfit changes. 'Let's make sure that Venice is not remembered as a postcard venue where Bezos had his wedding but as the city that did not bend to oligarchs,' she said. 'We can't miss a chance to disrupt a $10-million wedding.' Others lamented the arrival of Bezos' $500 million superyacht Koru, and the other luxury leisure boats expected to be docked in the city's ports. There were also complaints about the temporary work big events like this provide, rather than full-time jobs. Bezos' wedding is clearly symbolic of Venice's current problems. Efforts to combat overtourism have resulted in a 10-euro daytripper entrance fee on weekends and peak periods while more residents are pushed out every year due to a dwindling lack of services like schools, hospitals and affordable housing. 'You're telling me none of these people shop on Amazon?' said New Orleans native Jake Springer, who, along with his wife, was spending a weekend in Venice on a wine tour through Italy. 'At least they are protesting peacefully. Americans could learn a thing or two from this.' Protests in Venice may seem like a national pastime, but it's worth noting that they have been incredibly successful in the past. The years-long 'No Grandi Navi' or 'no big ships' campaign of the pre-Covid era was successful in banning giant cruise ships from anywhere near the city center. The restrictions led to widespread changes in cruise itineraries, with many of the major lines switching from Venice as a port of call or embarking point to nearby Ravenna and Trieste. Some, including Norwegian Cruise Line, removed Venice entirely from their itineraries. Protests against Airbnb-style short-term rentals also led to changes in the number of properties an individual can own to rent out. But protesting a millionaire's wedding in a city synonymous with love? To some, 'no grandi matrimoni' or no big weddings, seems cold. Bezos' is hardly the only high-dollar wedding to be held in the city — not least George and Amal Clooney's nuptials in 2014, which were cheered on by locals. So far this year, city officials say three multi-million-dollar weddings have been held without any opposition. Luca Zaia, the head of the surrounding Veneto region, calls the protests a disgrace. 'I want Jeff Bezos to be welcomed with open arms in Venice. Protesting against those who bring visibility and wealth to our territory is, in my opinion, a disgrace,' he said Friday. Venice's mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said he hoped the protest won't dissuade Bezos and Sanchez from keeping their plans. 'We will have to apologize to Bezos,' Brugnaro told reporters in Venice on Friday. 'I am ashamed of those who behave like this. I hope that Bezos comes anyway. Not all Venetians think like these protesters.' Across town at the Biennale of Architecture, a regular event on the Venice calendar, the sentiment was much more in line with city officials than the protesters. 'It seems ridiculous that a city that lives off tourism like Venice wouldn't want an event like this, which will employ hundreds of people from waiters to water taxi drivers,' Görge Meyer, who was visiting from Berlin, said. 'All the guests and journalists will be staying at hotels, eating at restaurants and spending money. And they want to stop the cash influx?' Gillian Longworth McGuire, an American travel writer and tour planner who moved from Rome to Venice 10 years ago, points out that famous people have been coming to Venice to get married for centuries and wealthy people have been parking their yachts in Venice for decades. 'Venice just doesn't have a clear idea of what it is supposed to be sometimes,' she said. 'Is it a magical place carved out of a lagoon, built by merchants and fishermen, or a bachelorette party and mega wedding venue? 'The ethos of this city was always that it was the crossroads of culture and the world. Venice doesn't need an event like this to prove itself. People will always come no matter who gets married here and who is against it.'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
America's skies may soon open up to supersonic travel. But there's still a big problem
Editor's note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, and where to stay. The skies over the United States could be wide open for much faster air travel in the near future. Not just because passenger planes capable of breaking the sound barrier are in development — for the first time ever, they could be allowed to do it over American soil. Even during the days of Concorde, the supersonic plane that retired in 2003, commercial flying at speeds above Mach 1 over mainland US was strictly forbidden, largely due to concerns over noise pollution from sonic booms. Now moves are afoot to lift that restriction with a bill recently introduced in the Senate, and a similar measure in the House of Representatives. That means if the long-awaited 'Son of Concorde' ever gets here, it will have more potential supersonic routes than its predecessor. Currently, there are several supersonic passenger jets in development that aim to reach speeds beyond Mach 1 without crashing loudly through the sound barrier. NASA's experimental X-59, expected to begin flight testing in 2025, aims to reduce noise to a 'sonic thump.' And then there's Colorado-based Boom Supersonic, which is developing the Overture, the first actual supersonic passenger plane since Concorde flew into the sunset. Opening up US skies could be a step toward removing some of the hurdles it faces in becoming a reality. 'It's a super exciting year for us,' Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom told CNN. Much of that excitement comes from the company's XB-1 demonstrator aircraft breaking the sound barrier in January and again in February. It did so without creating a detectable sonic boom by flying at what it calls 'boomless cruise' — also known as 'Mach cutoff' — where sound refracts away from the ground at speeds close to the sound barrier in certain atmospheric conditions. Boom aims to build the first prototype Overture engine by the end of the year and, if all goes according to the company's very ambitious timeline, American Airlines, Japan Airlines (JAL) and United Airlines could all take delivery of their very first Overtures by the end of the decade. Scholl's sales pitch is very appealing. Who doesn't want to be able to work a full day on the West Coast, jump on a supersonic flight east that evening, and either be home or in a hotel in New York or D.C. before midnight? The Overture would make those trips possible with a cruise speed of Mach 1.7 that could slash the duration of a transcontinental flight by up to half. Overture's 80 passengers could make those speedy flights in relative comfort. Renderings show luxurious seats comparable to the contemporary business class offering on any subsonic plane. Whether airlines are keen is another matter. The range of the Overture is one challenge. At about 4,888 miles, it's enough for a transcontinental flight over the US or a transatlantic hop to Europe but not enough to traverse the Pacific without a stop. And the much-touted commitments from American, JAL and United are all non-binding and, at least in the eyes of the industry, viewed as more fluff than substance. Critically, none of the airlines list the deals among their firm capital commitments in stock exchange filings. 'Boom is working in opposition to the most durable single trend in all of flying since the jet age began,' Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of trade publication The Air Current, said on The Air Show podcast in February. 'Airlines, fundamentally, since (the dawn of the jet age) have wanted more efficient aircraft.' By Boom's own estimates, the Overture would burn two to three times more fuel per premium seat — first or business class — than a subsonic plane, such as the Airbus A350 or Boeing 787, on an intercontinental flight. Another estimate from the nonprofit International Council on Clean Transportation puts the Overture's fuel burn at five- to- seven-times that of a subsonic long-haul jet. Airlines would recoup those added fuel costs through higher airfares. Researchers at Worms University of Applied Sciences in Germany described those fares as a 'supersonic premium' in a paper published in the Journal of Air Transport Management last year. They estimated that airfares on the Overture would need to be roughly 38% higher than the current business class fares on a New York-London flight to turn a profit. Put another way, supersonic flyers would pay roughly $4,830 one-way from New York to London in June based on current average one-way airfares of around $3,500 on Google Flights. The researchers at Worms were confident that when flying westward travelers would pay a premium for supersonic flights because they 'fly back in time,' as one of the report's authors Jan Belke told CNN. That time gain could translate into real monetary benefits. Eastbound, however, the financial case was weaker due to hours lost across time zones. While Boom's Scholl acknowledged that Overture seats will likely be priced out of budget for most passengers, he said there's still a solid business case. 'If you hit a mainstream price point — and business class is a mainstream price point — I think of it as the [Tesla] Model S of supersonic flight, it's not yet for everybody but it is a pretty big market segment,' he said. The question is how many will pay that supersonic premium? Digital communications have vastly improved from the days of the Concorde. Video calls have reduced the need for in-person meetings, and with flyers now able to answer emails or even join a virtual meeting in mid-air, in-air downtime is rapidly shrinking on subsonic flight. Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory and a long-time skeptic of Boom's business case for the Overture, estimated that Boom needs $12-15 billion to bring the Overture to market, but has only raised around $800 million to date. Boom had about $700 million, according to its last public funding disclosure in 2023. Asked how much Boom needs to develop Overture, Scholl put the number at 'under $2 billion.' He cited numerous cost savings the company has found eliminating 'inefficiencies' in the existing aerospace supply chain by, for the most part, integrating production under its own roof. This integration, Scholl added, also speeds up the development and production process. That gives him confidence in achieving its aggressive timeline of flying the Overture by 2028 and handing the first planes over to airlines a year later. Ostrower called the timeline unrealistic. Of the many challenges ahead of Boom, one is regulatory approval. The Federal Aviation Administration's certification process has slowed dramatically since the Boeing 737 MAX grounding in 2019 and 2020. Boom's timeline allows for just a year of flight tests; Airbus took about 18 months to certify the A350 from first flight in June 2013 to the first delivery in December 2014. Scholl seems unfazed by this, expressing confidence in Boom's ability to meet its targets and produce planes that, in his words, 'delete the friction of travel' by going a whole lot faster than today's jets. 'There's no guarantee of success here — statistically failure is the most likely outcome — but it's definitely possible,' Scholl said. 'The technology is there, the market is there, the passengers and airlines are there, the regulations for overland, I believe, will be there in relative short order. We just have to execute.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Global Airlines promised luxurious flights on a fleet of A380 superjumbos. The launch is somewhat different
Editor's note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, and where to stay. When it was first announced four years ago, it sounded like an aviation geek's dream — an airline with a fleet consisting only of Airbus A380 superjumbos, the huge and majestic double-decker airplanes that offer unrivaled comfort in the sky. Promotional images released by Global Airlines, a startup carrier founded by former investment banker and Guinness World Record holder James Asquith, added to the excitement, with images of smart cabins and even an onboard 'pub.' Now that the airline is counting down the days to its first flight, some of that gloss and excitement has begun to wear off and that flashy dream of an all-A380 fleet has still yet to fully materialize. That's not to say Global Airlines isn't trying. Tickets have been on sale for the carrier's debut: an 'A380 experience,' as the carrier's global chief commercial officer, Richard Stephenson, put it via email. That involves a flight from Glasgow, Scotland, to New York on May 15 with a return flight scheduled for four days later on May 19. A second flight is then scheduled from Manchester, England, to New York on May 21, returning May 25. The good news is, both services are due to be on an A380. And, according to Asquith — who told CNN in 2023, 'I want a better product across the Atlantic and that's why we're doing what we're doing' — the airline will serve Laurent-Perrier champagne in first class and Rova Caviar Madagascar in both first and business. A splashy aviation launch is nothing new. Virgin Atlantic is known for its legendary premium booze-soaked kickoffs. Even United Airlines' recent launch of a service from Tokyo to Mongolia capital Ulaanbaatar involved cupcakes and the ceremonial breaking of a barrel of sake. Still, Global Airlines' debut isn't as big a reason for celebration as Asquith might have hoped. Asquith founded Global in 2021 with a desire to return to a 'golden age of air travel.' That meant, he said, offering travelers something of a step up for their buck on transatlantic flights, with a vision of superjumbo luxury that includes champagne and caviar. 'I've flown on about 280 different airlines and sat there seeing what's good, what doesn't work and what can be improved,' Asquith said in the 2023 CNN interview. He was applying those lessons to Global, he added. The A380 was key to Global's pitch. Following the pandemic, many superjumbos were parked with airlines believing air travel would not come back quickly enough to warrant their size. That made the planes attractive to a startup airline willing to take a bet on their 500-plus seats, as well as a savvy marketing ploy: come fly on the largest passenger plane in the skies! The downside of an all-A380 fleet is that superjumbos are expensive to operate, from needing lots of fuel to higher airport landing and parking fees. An airline needs to fill most of the seats on the plane, and at a decent price, to make the economics work. Things didn't go as planned for Global. After announcing a deal for its first A380 in 2023, the airline did not actually get a plane — a different ex-China Southern Airlines model — until February 2024. That A380 then had to undergo maintenance and other modifications to meet Global's specifications that were not complete until earlier this year. 'It was and has been gruesomely challenging,' Asquith wrote on LinkedIn in April. 'There's always something else in aviation, and I myself am guilty of harsh criticism. We have got things wrong, and will continue to do so, but we have the best intentions of making a better product as we go, and one that holds the highest safety standards as well.' Global's inaugural flights will not be a typical affair. Airlines usually wait to have all their i's dotted and t's crossed with regulators and be ready to fly a regular service travelers can rely on before they begin flying. Global is taking a different route. It only plans the four one-time flights in May from Glasgow to New York and back, and then the same from Manchester. Portuguese charter carrier Hi Fly will operate the first flights as Global does not anticipate securing its own operating certificate from UK authorities until 2026 at the earliest. And tickets can only be found on the website of travel consolidator — not on Expedia or via your local travel agent. In other words, would-be travelers need to know Global exists and actively want to fly with it, otherwise they're unlikely to stumble across the tickets. So, why operate novelty debut flights when the airline doesn't appear to be ready to throw its hat in the ring to fully compete with other transatlantic players? 'These two flights are charter flights and designed to give people the chance to fly on an A380 and test out the product we are offering,' Stephenson said. That may be part of the reason but aviation experts believe it's also an attempt to secure much-needed cash. 'Candidly, I think this is kind of an opportunity to try to raise some money, which they undoubtedly have to do in order to operate,' said Robert Mann, an airline industry analyst and consultant based in New York. A roundtrip economy class ticket for the inaugural Glasgow-New York flight and back was available for $1,034 (£778.62) on May 1. Not exactly cheap for a new airline trying to make a name for itself in the market. Travelers could book a connecting flight from Glasgow to New York via Amsterdam on KLM for the same dates for as little as $525 round trip, according to Google Flights. 'There are many reasons for these flights and we are delighted that we have reached the point where our first aircraft is ready to carry passengers — a point that many experts said would never happen,' Stephenson said, responding to the fundraising speculation. If fundraising is Global's plan with its pair of inaugurals, leaving its A380 parked at JFK for four days between flights is an odd choice. Airlines must pay parking fees when they store a plane, especially at busy airports like New York. 'It's probably close to 50 grand — I hope they raise that much,' said Mann of the parking fees. Booking one of Global's first flights comes with all of the risks of flying on a startup airline. They typically have minimal ability to accommodate travelers in the event of a flight delay and refunds are unlikely if there is a cancellation or other snafu. 'Travelers should stay informed, as with any startup, but it's an interesting story to watch unfold,' said Ahmed Abdelghany, an associate dean in the business school at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. Ticketholders on Global's first flights are protected under the UK's Air Travel Organisers' Licensing, or ATOL, scheme that guarantees travelers refunds and, in the event they are stranded abroad, a repatriation flight back to the UK. Global's success 'will likely depend on whether they can carve out a niche market that values comfort over cost and whether they can maintain operational reliability and regulatory compliance as a new entrant,' added Abdelghany. Those caveats extend even to the first flights. Given the expense of operating even a limited number of flights, the relatively premium prices being charged, the large number of seats to fill and the obscurity of the sales platforms, Global is already fending off doubts over its viability. 'There is no reason for anyone to be concerned,' said Stephenson. 'We have just flown our first passengers (twice) and everything ran very smoothly and with no issues at all, so our proof of concept program is going very well!' The flights he referred to were two services from Barcelona to Berlin on May 2, and Berlin to London's Gatwick airport on May 3. The flights carried a limited number of passengers who enjoyed some of Global's onboard offerings, leading many experts to believe they were familiarization flights for crew ahead of Global's transatlantic debut. Stephenson says things are going 'very well,' but at this nascent stage, the stakes are high for the fledgling airline. But the cult appeal of the A380 and the prospect of riding on an airline's first-ever service — plus the marketing buzz amplified by Asquith's 1.1 million Instagram followers — could be more than enough to ensure it makes it down the runway.
