World’s largest airline places deposit on 20 supersonic planes

Flights from New York to London will take about three and a half hours

The world's largest airline has agreed to buy up to 20 supersonic jets which could slash flight times from New York to London in half. American Airlines has put down a non-refundable deposit on the planes that are still on the drawing board and years away from flying. Neither American nor the manufacturer Boom Supersonic would provide financial details on Tuesday, including the size of American’s deposit. American becomes the second US customer for Boom after a similar announcement last year from United Airlines for 15 of the planes, called the Overture. https://twitter.com/boomaero/status/1559517118395301890?s=20&t=XREWJF11bry644MuE1HEUA It has been nearly 20 years since the last supersonic passenger flight by Concorde, the British-French plane that failed to catch on because of the high cost of flights. Boom chief executive Blake Scholl says his company’s plane will be different when it debuts in 2029, with tickets costing about 4,000 US dollars (£3,310) to 5,000 US dollars (£4,140) to fly from New York to London in about three and a half hours. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_wuykzfFzE “There are tens of millions of passengers every year flying in business class on routes where Overture will give a big speed-up,” Mr Scholl said, “and airlines will be able to do it profitably.” Boom says the Overture programme will cost between six billion dollars (£5 billion) and eight billion dollars (£6.6 billion). The plane carries a list price of 200 million dollars (£165 million), although other manufacturers routinely give airlines deep discounts. Related links:

• Keir Starmer explains why he's 'not going to apologise' for going on holiday during crisis
• Footage of Boris Johnson shopping in Greece emerges as PM jets off on second holiday in as many weeks
• Jacob Rees-Mogg says he was 'wrong in the right way' about post-Brexit queues at Dover