Starting June 17 travel between New York and Dusseldorf, Germany, will be a notably more pleasant experience for passengers booked on Lufthansa's new BBJ shuttle. Scheduled to operate six times weekly between Newark International and Dusseldorf Airports, the BBJ is being provided through a wetlease arrangement with Swiss charter firm PrivatAir. The airplane has been fitted with 48 business-class seats and is painted in Lufthansa livery. Thierry Antinori, Lufthansa executive vice president of sales, said the non-stop flights between Dusseldorf and New York offer passengers for the first time an intercontinental route as a purely business-class service. >From its base in Geneva, PrivatAir operates 21 aircraft for charter, from King Airs to Hawkers to BBJs, as well as an executive-configured Boeing 757-300. The company recently opened a new executive terminal and headquarters at Geneva Airport. >From AIN