Gulfstream Aerospace announced a new large-cabin business jet, the G650, that will have a maximum speed of Mach 0.925, nearly the speed of sound.
These jets, which carry four to five passengers, cost about $2 million, about half the price of the least expensive existing light-cabin business jet.
No sooner had the captain turned off the "fasten seat belt" sign than the flight attendant on Air Pacific flight 411, headed from Fiji to New Zealand, performed the same dispiriting act I've seen dozens of times around the world: He drew together and Velcroed the flimsy gray curtains, separating the coach cabin from business class.
Mercedes-Benz once offered both long- and longer-wheelbase versions of its biggest sedan, but Americans showed a strong preference for the first-class cabin, rendering business-class accommodations unnecessary.
American has also kept three separate cabins — coach, business and first — while others have gone strictly bicameral (coach and first), and says it's intensifying its efforts to get Wi-Fi on more planes, said Alice Liu, managing director of onboard products.
I rode the A380 from Airbus Toulousee factory to London Heathrow, and although it was a short flight I was able to sample, Goldilocks-like, sitting (or lying down) in all four cabins (first, business, premium economy and economy).
Note that there is no business cabin.
AirTran, for instance, offers a separate business cabin (for a $35 supplement).
The remaining jumbos in the fleet will also have space taken out of economy to let the business cabin expand.
But BA will be fighting back with its own £100m investment in a new business cabin, which is being phased in from January.
