Bob Geldof to sell plane tickets online

UK pop star Bob Geldof is setting up an online flight booking service that he claims will offer more flights from the UK than any other Web site.

Deckchair.com, which launches at the end of November, will distribute information on flight availability from Fairbase - a flight consolidator. Consumers will be able to search for flights, book and pay online.

James Page - Geldof's business partner - told Silicon.com: "Our deal with Fairbase will give us access to 97 per cent of all flights available from the UK, via an electronic feed every ten minutes." Deckchair.com is currently negotiating a leased line with BT. It hopes to expand the service to include the whole of Europe by the end of next year.

Page said that Deckchair.com will pay Fairbase a fixed commission on each transaction, but that there are no up-front payments involved.

Geldof - better known as the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats and organiser of Live Aid - told potential investors at an electronic commerce seminar on Friday that he had only dreamed up Deckchair.com two weeks earlier, and that it will be simpler than anything else on the Internet.

The service is due to go live on 28 November, after World Travel Market. It will rival Microsoft Expedia - a US service which will also debut in November.