alt Hacker NewsAnd even then, it is only so premium. As you could have a speedy economy seat on the Concorde or a lie flat bed on a widebody by the time Concorde left service. The speed benefit largely goes away if I can travel while sleeping.
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Cutting 22 hours Sydney to London to 12 would make a big difference though.
There's no real way to make that much time on a plane bearable even if you had a lie flat bed: that's just a ton of time in the air.
Australian international travel would be the premier market if you wanted to travel supersonic (also our coastal cities mean most departures could accelerate immediately).
Highly depends on the person. Over 6 feet tall with screws and rods holding my spine together, even a lie flat is not very comfortable, and not having to spend my first day or two at my destination decompressing before I actually enjoy the trip would be pretty valuable to me. The only way to achieve that is less travel time, but even so I'm not sure reducing the time in air would be enough when you add in travel to and from the airport, plus taxi time on the runway. It wouldn't be nothing, though, and I'd definitely pay for it if it made a difference.
Problem is broad market trends don't care about me personally. There have to be a lot of people like me with both sufficient injuries and sufficient money and there probably are not.
Halving travel times would be really good, the problem is that supersonic never had the range to make the difference meaningful.
JFK-London in 3 hours vs 6 is pretty tolerable if you’re more comfortable for the 6 hours. SFO to Shanghai in 7 hours vs 14 would be a lot more compelling but Concorde could not do transpacific range.