New all-business-class airline targets transcon, transpacific markets

A four-year-old charter carrier called Primaris Airlines said it has secured initial funding to launch all-business-class scheduled operations in the transcontinental and transpacific markets. Until now, the company said it has been running charters for various tour operators, overseas customers and even the White House press corps with a fleet of 757s. But now Primaris said it has signed a deal with Americasia Holdings Ltd. for initial funding of almost $100 million to create “a new higher-service, lower-cost scheduled airline between the East and West Coasts of the United States and, ultimately, across the Pacific.” The company said its new scheduled product will be a “one-class/business class airline with extra room, on-board communications technology and personal service.” Primaris CEO Mark Morris, who previously served as CEO of DHL Air Group, said that in addition to its initial funding agreement with Primaris, Americasia Holdings has agreed “to serve as lead investor in a much larger funding program.” The board chairman of Primaris is former U.S. senator and astronaut Jake Garn; chief marketing officer Joe O’Donnell is the former chairman and CEO of J. Walter Thompson Worldwide. Primaris did not estimate when it might begin scheduled service, or which markets it would initially serve. Its website describes its “Professional Class” service as offering “two-by-two seating front to back with power at every seat, and before long, broadband Internet access throughout,” along with meals on demand and enough overhead space “to make checking baggage almost obsolete.” Management at the airline will increase to include a new scheduled airline division