A German entrepreneur wants to create a nostalgic smokers' haven above the clouds by starting a nicotine-friendly airline offering Cuban cigars, caviar and flight attendants in designer uniforms -- as well as smoking allowed in every seat.
Alexander Schoppmann, a 55-year-old former stockbroker, has come up with a business plan for Smoker's International Airways, or Smintair, which he says will offer flights between his home town of Duesseldorf and Tokyo.
It's all about service, he says -- and that includes helping people avoid long hours confined without a cigarette break during a long-haul flight.
"I've been an airline passenger for 50 years," said Schoppmann, perhaps not surprisingly a smoker with a 30-cigarette per day habit.
"It made me very angry that the gap between service and price became so big with regular airlines. Especially in the first class and business class, service is at its lowest point ever," he said.
Schoppmann says he has investors willing to provide 65 million euros (US$81 million) to get started -- including the 40 million euros he'll need to get a license from the German government -- and sponsors ready to sell luxury goods on board.
"We are on the same price level with Lufthansa, British Airways and other airlines that operate on similar routes," he said. "Frankfurt-Tokyo and back costs 10,000 euros with Lufthansa for the first class and 6,500 euros for business class both ways. And those are exactly our prices."
Schoppmann said in an interview he plans to start flying in March with three leased Boeing Co 747s, two of them plying the route and one as a backup. The idea is to bring back "the luxury of the old days" by using only 138 business and first-class seats on a plane that has space for more than 400 people.
TVs, DVDs, telephone and Internet access and flight attendants "in uniforms designed by famous couturiers" are just a few of the frills.
The German entrepreneur said he plans to supplement ticket revenue by selling luxury products in an extra lounge on the upper deck and also put to use the cargo hold.
"The cargo rates to Tokyo and back are among the highest in the world," he said.
Schoppmann recalls his flights in the 1950s, 60s and 70s as "a luxurious experience above the clouds," with room to relax and Cuban cigars on offer.
Aviation consultant Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia, expressed skepticism about Schoppmann's chances of getting over regulatory and financial hurdles.
"You can't start flying between two countries just on the basis of a business plan. You have to deal with the regulatory authorities in both countries ... arrange for overflight and whatever else," he said.
Schoppmann said applying for an operating license is not as complicated as one might think.
Asked how certain he is that Smintair will take off as planned in March, Schoppmann said:
"How certain is it that I will be alive by then? That's of course a philosophical question. The way we are positioned right now, it is certain," he said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the