American Airlines has placed a large deposit for 20 supersonic jets, known as Overture, from Colorado-based manufacturer Boom. The new planes are still in development and are expected to take off in the near future, though the exact timeline is still uncertain.
The investment was made according to the company’s plans to compete with other airlines, including Southwestern and United Airlines.
The last supersonic jet to fly the air was the Concorde, an Anglo-French hybrid plane that failed due to high costs and a crash that left the entire crew and passengers dead.
The CEO of Boom, Blake Scholl, said that the tickets will cost between $2,000 and $3,000 for each flight and will require airlines significantly less to maintain.
The original flight costs for the Concorde were around $12,000 for a round trip. For one-way passengers, $6,000 would get a quick trip from New York City to London. While the price floated downwards in the ’90s and early aughts, it remained exclusively for the wealthy.
Scholl has assured the airlines that the new jet would be much less costly to maintain.
“There are tens of millions of passengers every year flying in business class on routes where Overture will give a big speed-up and airlines will be able to do it profitably,” he said.
