One of our departing Editor in Chief’s bucket list wishes to fly from London City Airport to New York, this time non-stop writes Alison Chambers.

(Also see ON TOUR: High FIVE - It's a hotel operator but an airline too! in this week’s BTN.

British Airways has been off the route for a couple of years now (another pandemic victim and also see BTN 10 September 2012 FLYING AT THE FRONT END: London City to New York).  He could be in for a chance in early 2023 when the new Airbus ACJ TwoTwenty debuts for FIVE/Comlux. 

The ACJ TwoTwenty was launched between Airbus and Comlux in the middle of the pandemic.  Different cabin layouts based on customer needs (and Comlux’s experience in the charter market) were planned.  The ACJ TwoTwenty has three moods with a choice of colours and materials.  FIVE selected the Avant-Garde design.  Others are Timeless and Quintessence. With its additional fuel tanks, the ACJ TwoTwenty (with 19 seats) can fly 12 hours plus, non-stop.  That means it can operate from Dubai to London, London to San Francisco, Dubai to Maldives or Mauritius.  FIVE will be able to fly guests from all over the world.

"Airbus was very supportive of us releasing the first TwoTwenty to FIVE and we are looking forward to operating in early 2023," said Richard Gaona, Executive Chairman and CEO of Comlux.   Comlux is carrying out work on the aircraft at its Indianapolis, US facility, which opened in 2008.

The ACJ TwoTwenty (Airbus A220-100) is a very compelling aircraft with excellent short field performance enabling take-off and landings at challenging airports including London City Airport (LCY) where SWISS operates the 100 series. The official runway length is 1200m, but it is believed that a further 150m could be made available. For LCY the aircraft would just need some additional software for steep approaches.  

www.comlux.com