News: New UK business airline to battle US rivals on New York flights
Flights > News > # 1018 (23/10/2006)
Britain’s first all-business class transatlantic airline is set to take off early next year. Silverjet will be taking on American business specialists EOS and Maxjet on the lucrative London to New York route from January 25.
Silverjet will offer daily flights from a private terminal at Luton airport to New York Newark for an average of £999 return. The new airline will use two specially adapted Boeing 767-200 aircraft with 100 flat-bed units instead of the usual 300 seats.
Chief executive, Lawrence Hunt, is confident Silverjet will revolutionise the long-haul business travel market.
“Flying out of Luton, London’s least congested airport, our customers will be able to fly through check in an industry beating 30 minutes, sleep in an award winning luxury flat bed and enjoy pre-ordered food as well as benefiting from a premium in flight service,” Mr Hunt said.
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Comment:
If the old adage that two is company, but three makes a crowd rings true, then who are the winners and losers going to be in the battle for premium service long-haul flights?
With Maxjet and Eos having established their exclusive services last year, offering business class only and first-class (flat-bed) only flights respectively, what will Silverjet be bringing to the table, apart from a different choice of airports at each end - Luton rather than Stansted, and New York Newark instead of JFK?
One thing about the London to New York flights market is that it is certainly large enough to handle competition, and to have more airlines wanting their slice of the pie. Despite there already being six airlines competing against each other to offer Heathrow to JFK flights, BMI still want to be the lucky number seven on this route, whereas Delta will shortly be starting London Gatwick to JFK flights, whilst they are awaiting approval to take over United's rights on the Heathrow to JFK route.
It may seem counterintuitive, but joining a crowded market seems to be the easiest way for new airlines to get started - Oasis Hong Kong airlines are joining the busy route to London in the face of four other airlines who already offer flights from Heathrow to Hong Kong, whereas Easyjet's humble origins can be traced back to the London to Glasgow route, one of the few European domestic city pairs to have real competition back in 1995.
It remains to be seen whether Silverjet's service offering will be sufficiently distinctive to enable them to compete against both the newly emerging premium class only competitors, and against the traditional scheduled airlines, whose Heathrow patch is much closer to Luton than it is to Stansted. The airline doesn't seem short of start-up capital, but history has shown how much people love to invest in airlines, and how much of this money airlines love to lose. We hope they are a roaring success – it is always great to see healthy Anglo-American rivalry in any sphere, and we are optimistic that Silverjet are more Lennox Lewis than Audley Harrison.
