First agent now offering Virgin Galactic’s space flights

MANLY, AUSTRALIA — What do you think the commission is on a $250,000 flight?

A Sydney-based travel agent has become the first agent to offer Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space flights. Gill McLachlan of Lachlan Travel Group will be offering the 90-minute, $250,000 flights from his Sydney agency, even though no lift-off date has been confirmed.

“They advertised people to apply as agents – we were the first people in the world that Branson appointed in 2008,” said McLachlan in a Manly Daily interview.

Credit: Braden Fastier.

With a hefty price tag, the agency owner said he doesn’t push people to the product, but so far it seems that the older generation is keen to try the product.

“Many people, especially older people, have that dream. They saw the moon landings,” he said.

The 67-year-old noted that the flight is safe after visiting Virgin Galactic’s New Mexico base, Spaceport America. There, he experienced the same G-forces that passengers would experience during the flight. He said the feeling wasn’t that “grueling” and passengers won’t need to be “that fit” to take the flights.

Virgin Galactic has been granted a licence to restart testing after a fatal crash in 2014.