So long Concorde, hello corporate jets? LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) =97 Already missing the Concorde? A speedy=20 replacement may soon be coming to an airport near you. Aircraft=20 manufacturers say a number of leading airlines are looking at introducing=20 trans-Atlantic corporate jet services which, though slower than the=20 supersonic Concorde, would still slash waiting times for rushed business=20 travellers. Smaller companies like NetJets, a unit of Warren Buffett's=20 Berkshire Hathaway, are also pursuing passengers who used the sleek jet.=20 They are targeting smaller private airports outside of big cities such as=20 London and New York. "The retiring of the Concorde has opened up a new=20 market," said Noel Forgeard, Chief Executive of Toulouse-based jet maker=20 Airbus in a briefing at the Paris Air Show. French airline Air France=20 retired its fleet of Concordes at the end of last month. British Airways,=20 the only other carrier that flew them, will definitively ground its=20 Concorde fleet at the end of October. NetJets Europe announced at the Paris Air Show this week that it would=20 start a new trans-Atlantic service near the end of this year under the=20 slogan "You flew Concorde =97 Now it's time for an upgrade." The company= runs=20 a fractional ownership business that allows companies or individuals to buy= =20 part of a plane, giving them the right to fly for a set number of hours per= =20 year. It plans to fly 13 to 15-seat jets made by Gulfstream, a unit of=20 General Dynamics, between small private airports such as RAF Northolt=20 outside London and Teterboro in New Jersey. "We think that if our clients=20 can fill half the cabin, the flight will be more cost effective, per=20 passenger, than the Concorde was," said NetJets executive Charles McLean. HIGH COST OF CONCORDE Air France and British Airways announced in April that they would stop=20 their Concorde flights, pointing to the onerous operating costs of the=20 fuel-guzzling jets and the dwindling number of customers willing to pay=20 sky-high prices for tickets. The average ticket price for a London to New= =20 York flight on Concorde is about $6,980. For that money, passengers hurtled= =20 across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound, arriving in just over=20 three hours. Business jets such as Gulfstreams, much larger corporate jets made by=20 Airbus and Boeing or Falcons from France's Dassault Aviation take twice as= =20 long to make the crossing. But companies like NetJets and major airlines=20 believe they can lure former supersonic passengers with the promise of=20 shorter waits at airports. Until now, the main alternative for a Concorde=20 passenger has been a first or business class seat on the plane of a major=20 airline. Premium passengers may be rushed through lines faster than economy= =20 flyers, but they still have to arrive hours before their flights and end up= =20 sitting around in VIP lounges, sipping drinks before boarding. Passengers=20 travelling on a smaller business jet can arrive shortly before departure,=20 board rapidly and worry less about security threats. "A growing number of=20 companies think there are too many delays, that too much time is wasted in= =20 airports," said Forgeard. "There is interest among major airlines in=20 launching a service that is tailored to the business market." NOT UNHEARD OF The use of corporate jets by leading airlines is not unheard of. German=20 flag carrier Lufthansa provides trans-Atlantic business flights between=20 Munich and Duesseldorf in Germany and Newark, New Jersey and Chicago in the= =20 United States, using the aircraft and crew of Geneva-based PrivatAir.=20 Privatair uses much larger planes than NetJets plans to operate =97 mainly= 48=20 seat Boeing Business Jets. British Airways has also studied the possibility= =20 of a business jet service and Virgin Atlantic was close to using=20 Gulfstreams on the London-New York route before British Airways=20 reintroduced Concorde in November 2001. Airbus expects deliveries of Airbus= =20 Corporate Jets, which are converted versions of the single-aisle A319, to=20 more than double over the coming years from the four seen last year. But=20 the plane maker's chief salesman believes the market has its limitations.=20 "Most trans-Atlantic business travel will remain in wide-body planes," John= =20 Leahy told Reuters. "There is a market for single-aisles but I'm not sure=20 it's as big as some people believe." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************