Global Premier A319 | 1999

Airline - Global Airlines dba Global Premier
Aircraft - Airbus A319-100 | N403GA
Delivered to Global Airlines, 1999
Stored at Boca Raton International Airport, 2016
Sold to Global Air Finance Co, 2016
Leased to Salz Flug, 2016
Livery - Premier 1999
Country - United States of America

In 1999, Global Airlines created Global Premier, a smaller carrier operating exclusively premium-configured A319s - 22 of them, all delivered between 1999 and 2001. Global Premier operated both short northeastern 'shuttle' flights and longer transcontinental routes. They were configured with 66 'Premium' seats - basically Economy/Coach in a 3-3 setup with extra legroom - and 28 Executive First seats, which were a slightly more compact version of Global Airlines' widebody Business seats, with different color upholstery. Initially, the Premier route network included:

New York JFK to Washington National, Boston, Charlotte, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles
Boston to Washington National, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles
Washington National to Miami and Chicago

Between December 1999 and May 2001 a once-daily rotation to London Heathrow was also flown by Premier's A319s, increased to twice-daily in May 2019 due to the route's popularity. Global Airlines was therefore the first airline to obtain ETOPS certification for any A319 aircraft, for use on these routes. On flights to London, the class referred to as Executive First on domestic flights (because of its superiority over the normal Domestic First found on Global Airlines' DC-9s, 727s, 737s, 757s, and A320s) was instead sold as Global Business. However, when air travel demand decreased drastically after 9/11, flying sparsely-configured A319s over the Atlantic was no longer profitable, and the route to London was dropped in November 2001. Global Premier was still considered a viable concept for some time, however unprofitable routes had to be shed all the time, and by the end of 2003 fifteen A319s had been reconfigured into a standard Global Airlines configuration, with only seven remaining in the Premier fleet, and operating only flights from JFK to Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

In early 2004 one more aircraft was reconfigured to a standard configuration, leaving six Premier planes, and the Boston to Los Angeles route was re-added, while cutting all short-range northeastern 'shuttle' flights. This left Global Premier flying only New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, plus Boston to Los Angeles, with two daily rotations on each route. By mid-2004, however, the decision was made to reconfigure the six remaining aircraft and shut down the Premier brand. While it had looked good on paper, the concept of a sub-brand flying premium routes with small, premium-heavy aircraft had failed in reality, lasting only five years. It was found that the convenience and increased service attentiveness offered by smaller planes such as the A319s used by Global Premier did not outweigh the benefits of more frequencies and (even more importantly) better hard product offered by Global Airlines mainline widebodies, and customers would more often choose Business Class on a 767, 777, 747, or MD-11, all of which Global Airlines operated on transcontinental and London flights during this time. However, one silver lining of Global Premier's failure was that some lessons on catering and service learned during the Premier exercise were then implemented fleet-wide, improving service on normal Global Airlines flights.

The A319 shown here, N403GA, was the third A319 to join the fleet. It was also the last aircraft to be reconfigured out of the Premier cabin setup. In 2016, at an age of 17, N403GA was stored briefly in Florida, before finding a new home at Salz Flug.

Note: Image has been updated with lighter shade of gray due to popular demand.