Global Airlines, the start-up carrier pledging to “revolutionise” transatlantic flying, has announced the date of its first passenger flight.
An Airbus A380 is scheduled to depart from Glasgow at 11am on 15 May, arriving at New York JFK seven hours later.
The first take-off will be a one-off charter rather than a regular scheduled flight. On arrival at the US airport, the plane will remain on the ground for four days, returning to Scotland on 19 May. The next venture leaves Manchester two days later for another four-day trip to New York.
No plans have been revealed for the originally envisaged scheduled link between London Gatwick and JFK.
Tickets for the maiden flight are not yet on sale, but prospective passengers can pre-register. Fares have not yet been revealed. The airline is telling travellers: “Onboard the cabins have all been overhauled to give a brand-new look and feel. The catering team has been busy preparing a new menu and there will be special ‘limited edition’ amenity kits in all cabins, for all passengers.”
Ahead of the launch, founder and chief executive James Asquith told The Independent: “I’m feeling good. It’s been a long road to get here. It’s those crazy kind of last couple of days and weeks looking to enter into service and it has certainly not been easy.
“We knew it would be massively challenging. But we persevered and here we are.”
The 36-year-old airline founder added: “I’ve sold and risked everything to be in the position I’m at. I’m putting everything on the line.”
In May 2024, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated Mr Asquith’s wealth at £182m.
Many aviation industry insiders have questioned the prospects of a start-up airline profitably filling seats on the world’s biggest passenger plane across the Atlantic.
Competition is intense. Existing carriers have strong loyalty programmes and networks offering connections. There are signs of a downturn in bookings to the US in response to the actions of the Trump administration, with travellers fearful of border officials or appalled by events in America.
But Mr Asquith believes the A380 is a passenger favourite that will prove appealing.
“No one’s done this before,” he said. “When’s the last time a new airline’s come to the market that said. ‘We’re leading with a product’?
“No one’s started an airline by owning their aircraft and having the largest aircraft in the world.
“Everyone said it was impossible. We’ve done every milestone that people said was impossible.”
Global Airlines bought its first Airbus A380 aircraft in May 2023, predicting the “first transatlantic flights” by spring 2024. That aircraft is still on the ground at Lourdes airport in southwest France.
The start-up carrier bought a second A380 that was previously flown by China Southern and which was stored at Mojave Air and Space Port, a desert airfield in southern California. The jet was flown from there to Prestwick in Scotland in May 2024, with its undercarriage down for safety reasons: the landing gear could not be tested at the airfield where it was stored,
The A380 remained at the Scottish airport for five months before flying to Dresden for further maintenance.
The “SuperJumbo” was then flown to Beja in Portugal, where it has been since 17 January 2025.
Now the airline is inviting travellers “to reserve your seats on our UK inaugural flights, taking off in May 2025”.
Members of the travelling public who enrol will be “invited to a private pre-sale—24 hours before they are released to the public”.
The initial commercial flights will use a Global Airlines A380 but will be operated by a Portuguese firm, Hi Fly. The operator specialises in providing short-term aircraft and crew to help airlines fill gaps in their schedules, and has some experience of the A380.
Tickets will not be sold direct by Global Airlines but by a Slough-based company, TravelOpedia Ltd. Bookings will be Atol-protected.
Before Global Airlines can fly on its own account, it must obtain an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), signifying that it meets safety requirements.
The start-up will also need an Operating Licence (OL). The CAA says applicants must “demonstrate that they have sufficient funding to support the business”.
An aviation insider questioned Global Airlines’ longer-term plans, saying: “What progress has been made on the AOC and OL? Without these, they will never be operating out of Gatwick on anything more than ad-hoc charters operated by Hi Fly.”
They also pointed out that British Airways, with a fleet of 12 Airbus A380s, has repeatedly experienced reliability problems leading to large-scale cancellations. A three-hour-plus delay on a flight due to technical reasons could trigger compensation claims totalling £140,000 or more.
Mr Asquith said: “We’ve got a lot of people that want to fly on what we’re doing at Global.
“People can be critical, but you’ve got a good bunch of people trying to do something for good reasons here, and we’re almost there.”
