It’s taken several years, but Global Airlines finally took to the skies on Thursday for its official launch flight.
The Airbus A380 departed Glasgow at 11:34 a.m. local time and is scheduled to land at New York’s JFK Airport around 1 p.m. ET.
Travel journalists, influencers, and aviation enthusiasts descended on the Scottish city for the long-awaited event.
Economy tickets were initially selling for as much as £780 (about $1,000), but it looks like slow sales prompted discounting. With the promotion, return fares were listed at £380.
A business-class return ticket was on sale at £1,999 ($2,660), and for first class was £2,999 ($3,990).
The Independent’s Simon Calder reported that 170 passengers were believed to be on the flight — just a third of the plane’s capacity.
Thursday’s flight is a huge step for Global, but it still has plenty of work ahead to convince its critics. A drama-free maiden flight will be one achievement.
The flight is operated by 9H-GLOBL, a 12-year-old A380 previously owned by China Southern Airlines before being mothballed in California’s Mojave boneyard.
Global spent millions getting the plane ready for service before it made its first transatlantic flight last May, being ferried to Glasgow. It was the most-tracked flight on Flightradar24, with more than 40,000 people following its journey at its peak.
The airline was founded by James Asquith, a 36-year-old who gained fame in 2013 when he became the youngest person to visit every country in the world. He then founded Holiday Swap, a platform for travelers to book accommodation.
Critics have questioned Global’s business plan, which wants a slice of the highly competitive transatlantic travel.
The A380 is a particularly expensive plane to operate because its four engines use a lot of fuel, and there are hundreds of seats to fill.
Global is paying Hi Fly Malta, a charter airline, to operate the first flights, with tickets sold through the travel agent Travelopedia.
Asquith is hoping that his grand ambitions will help the airline break through. He wants to offer an “elevated service” that will take passengers “back to the golden age of travel.”
Business-class passengers can be transferred by a Blacklane chauffeur and dine on caviar in the air. However, Global cut more ambitious ideas like a “gamer class” with PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
Its “sky pub,” a social space aiming to take advantage of the A380’s size, is little more than a few bottles on a shelf.
“You’re looking at many years to certify bigger social spaces and bars, so we will develop our social spaces even more when we have more aircraft in the sky,” Asquith said in an Instagram post last month.
Global Airlines may not yet be as refined as it would like, but it has already proved many doubters wrong by making its first flight.
9H-GLOBL is scheduled to return from New York on Monday. It’s due to fly from Manchester, England to JFK on May 21 and return on May 25.
