The long-haul air travel experience would be a lot more enjoyable if you could if you could go to sleep in a queen-size bed, then have a shower before you landed, refreshed and ready to go.

That may seem like the stuff of fantasy, but now it’s an experience that Bermuda-based private jet operator Longtail Aviation is able to offer its well-heeled clients. Yesterday the company revealed that it has become the first and only Bermuda carrier to operate a jet airliner, the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ), a variant of the widely used Boeing 737.

While the 737 is accustomed to carrying up to 215 passengers on commercial flights around the world, the BBJ operated by Longtail, specially outfitted for VIP transport, seats 27 in rather more comfortable surroundings. It also has a bedroom suite with a queen-sized bed and a shower. The plane has a range of 5,400 miles and can fly as high as 41,000 feet.

The company will advertise the plane for charter throughout the world, at a price of $14,000 per hour.

The Bermuda Department of Civil Aviation has given Longtail approval to fly the large jet, following completion of route proving flights between Dubai and Muscat, Oman, on Saturday, March 8.

Longtail CEO and head of flight operations, Captain Martin Amick, was on the flight deck along with Captain John Little, a veteran airline pilot who joined Longtail last month to be the lead captain for the BBJ. Bermudian flight attendant Paulina Brooks, who completed training on the aircraft at Pan Am International Flight Academy in Miami, was also on board.

Longtail will operate the jet, which will initially be based in Dubai, on behalf of the aircraft’s owners, Hong Kong Jet, based in Hong Kong.

Whether the BBJ will show up in Bermuda any time will depend entirely on demand, Mr Amick told The Royal Gazette.

“The aircraft is 100 percent dedicated to charter,” Mr Amick said. “We will move it to wherever in the world demand for it is strongest.

“Some of our clients in Bermuda have expressed an interest. One or two have started planning trips for it.”

In its ten-year history, Longtail has also operated light and mid-sized business jets such as the Cessna Citation and the Westwind, and continues to operate a fleet of Dassault Falcon 900 large business jets. The upgrade to the BBJ is a feather in the cap, not only for Longtail, but also for the Department of Civil Aviation, according to Mr Amick.

“We sent a letter of intent to the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to do this in the first week of February — not even two months later we have completed the project,” Mr Amick said. “That’s something you could never do in the US, and that’s not because standards are lower — if anything they’re higher in Bermuda — what’s different is the commitment of the staff of the Department of Civil Aviation to provide regulatory support to operators. That commitment extends around the world.

“One of the reasons people choose Bermuda as a place to register their aircraft is the responsiveness of the regulator.”

Around 500 aircraft are registered in Bermuda, he said, but only Longtail’s private jets were actually based on the Island.

Mr Amick added: “Bermuda is truly one of the best jurisdictions in the world in which to register an aircraft.”

He paid tribute to the leadership of director Thomas Dunstan at the Bermuda DCA, with the support of head of operations Peter Adhemar, head of airworthiness Raine Pennanen, and inspectors Denis Glasford and Chris Pearce, who “made themselves available outside of normal hours at key points to get this project done on time”.

For further information call Longtail Aviation on 293-5971 or visit the website www.longtailaviation.bm.