This week saw the launch of a company that just might make private jet travel affordable.

The public-relations master himself, Richard Branson, announced his latest venture, Virgin Charter. But unlike Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue, Virgin Nigeria, and the soon-to-launch Virgin America, Virgin Charter isn’t an airline. Rather, it’s an online service that matches private jet operators with passengers, in an auction-format like Priceline: Make an offer for a flight, and the operating company accepts or declines.

The key to the market is empty planes and a fractured company landscape. (Unlike the handful of major airlines, there are 2500 companies operating chartered jets in the United States alone.) Empty planes arise when a flight takes someone from city A to city B, but then has to pick someone else up in city C to take them back to city A (or D…). That flight from city B to city C has no passengers, in what is called an “empty leg” or “repositioning flight.” Filling those flights with people, and thereby increasing marginal revenues, helps the operator and the broker.

Selling those repositioning flights isn’t new, and heck, I’ve even blogged about it before. What’s new is the bidding system, and the greater price transparency. Other companies like ElleJet, OneSky, PrivateJetSpecialist, and CharterX have been brokering empty legs for some time, but the pricing rests with the broker, not the passenger. In fact, PrivateJetSpecialist is one of very few brokers that gives you the fare up front online. But Virgin Charter lets the passenger bid for the trip, and that’s a customer-friendly move.

How good can the deals get? Hard to predict. Here’s a best-case scenario from the company’s recent media blitz, this time in BusinessWeek:

[CEO] Duffy gives an example of a recent trip he made from Las Vegas to his home city, Los Angeles, with six friends. To test his theory he called charter operators and found one plane that was returning empty that usually rented out for $5,000 for the one-hour jaunt. He offered $1,000 and the charter operator accepted.

Seven people for $1000 is certainly cheap for that kind of travel, even if it’s just an hour-long trip. Your mileage may vary.

So how does this fit in with Sir Richard’s eco-friendlier modus operandi? He talks a green talk, with a push toward bio fuels, a commitment to plowing company profits into alternative fuels research, and a lobbying effort to encourage airport operators to demand that planes be towed to the runway rather than powering there on jet power.

But private jets burn quite a bit of carbon per passenger as they zip around the skies. So how does Branson justify it? The argument: The plane is going to fly anyway, and the carbon will be burned anyway, so you might as well actually get someone where they’re going. Okay, but I’m still not sure that warrants the “green jets” label that Virgin Media is using to justify the venture.

Feel free to debate the green credentials. But one thing is for sure: Virgin’s entry into the space gives the repositioning business exposure and credibility, and it has the potential to push down the costs of private jet charters. It’s still not quite living the first class life at coach prices, but maybe at discounted first prices…

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