May 30, 2008

Business-class only airline SilverJet ceases all flights

Finanically troubled SilverJet, which has been flying business-class only flights between Newark Liberty and London's Luton Airport for 17 months, today called it quits.

"Your belief in us was shared by our investors - but regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstances, they were unable to unlock the finance that we needed. As a result, we are very sad to announce that from 30 May 2008, we will cease operations and we are no longer able to honour flight reservations," SilverJet writes in a letter to its customers posted on the company website.

SilverJet also flew from London to Dubai.

It's the latest of the new premium-class airlines to fold: Eos quit in April and MaxJet folded on Christmas Eve. Both were flying JFK to London's Stansted.

But L'Avion continues to offer low-fare business-class service between Newark and Paris' Orly Airport. British Airways business-class spinoff OpenSkies is on track to start flights between JFK and Orly on June 19.

Earlier this week, USA Today reported that the now-charter company Primaris Airlines next year plans to start commerical all-business-class flights from New York to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Lima, Peru. The route map on the company's website also indicates planned service to Atlanta and Chicago in 2010, Beijing and Shanghai in 2011, and London, Paris and Frankfort in 2013.

USA Today also mentioned that Geneva-based PrivatAir is also offering business-class flights to the USA for Lufthansa, Swiss Air, KLM and Air France.

May 30, 2008 7:21 AM in Arrivology

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