UK-Based Aviation Startup Global Airlines Just Operated Their First Flight From Glasgow to JFK

For the past few years, the illustrious UK-based aviation startup Global Airlines has made headlines with lofty plans for a new luxury airline serving exclusive champagne and providing a premium inflight experience and the first flight from Glasgow to JFK was just completed successfully.

Global Airlines has partnered up with HiFly to operate these first few flights as the carrier still doesn’t seem to have an operator license yet and HiFly is an established carrier that has experience in operating these A380s.

The company has been in the news mostly for signing agreements with champagne houses, procuring an Airbus A380 from China Southern, and hiring executives other than the airline’s founder, James Asquith, and his financial backers.

It’s always great to see new airlines take flight and provide a new, different product to travelers

Here is one review that was posted on The Independent via YouTube:

Now, this seems a very positive, if not euphemistic, review, but it’s not sensational, so I like it. Also keep in mind that this is still an old China Southern aircraft that has been touched up for Global. Plus their very own service concept and premium F&B.

The usual suspects of flight reviewers were also onboard (after bashing the project for years) and they didn’t have many positive things to say about this inaugural. I’d reserve judgment about these reviews because a lot of them seriously look for things that go wrong. I can’t say who is right and who is wrong as I wasn’t onboard, and I’m not someone who is in any way interested in reviewing flights or airlines.

I’m not saying that this Global Airlines ops is perfect, especially on their first flight, but I find it remarkable that your reviews range from the experience being rather good to certain reviewers who claim it was “very bad.” That’s pretty wide spread for it to be accurate and objective.

Global’s Instagram account posted this First Class picture:

And the Departure Screen

I find the flight number HFM380 interesting and fitting for the occasion. Anyway, this Glasgow-JFK-Glasgow round trip was the first flight Global somewhat ran (operated by HiFly). Some passengers liked it, while others thought it wasn’t as good as they expected, given the adoring advertisement.

Next week it’ll be Manchester to JFK, and it seems that sales are already down. There have been offers for this ride on social media, selling it today for GBP 1,999 round trip in Business Class with a promo code.

Conclusion

The often-talked-about aviation startup Global Airlines has just completed the inaugural flight from Glasgow to New York JFK and return. I’m curious how many tickets they are going to sell from now on, especially leaving from these secondary-tier airports on a huge plane.

This pricing for all the other flights, aside from this inaugural, is also very optimistic, at least for what is essentially a fun ride. These rates are premium fares in flexible booking classes used by corporate travelers on established full-service carriers. I don’t want to knock them, but here, you’re essentially buying a cat in a bag.

I still think that for reliable operations, you need several planes in the air. Keeping this afloat will cost a fortune, and I’m sure several million have been spent so far to make HMF380 happen.

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