Background on All Business Class Airline Silverjet
Silverjet was an all business class airline which ran services from London Luton to New York Newark and Dubai . The first London - New York flight took off in January 2007. Silverjet announced its liquidation on May 30th 2008 joining the likes of EOS Airlines and Maxjet as bankrupt all business airlines. Let's take a look at its background... |
SilverJet (SIL.L) was a British registered airline listed on the UK's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Over its lifetime it had raised approximately £70m in cash - from the market and via convertible loans. It still needed to raise further finance but was not able to secure it - hence the ending of operations. Shares were suspended a few days before the liquidation was announced - shareholders lost their investment.
Silverjet were leasing 3 Boeing 767-200 aircraft (ex-Thomsonfly) which were configured to 100 seats in a 2-2-2 formation. The planes were around 25 years old and were not particularly fuel efficient.
Silverjet ran a twice daily service from London Luton (LTN) to New York Newark (EWR) and a daily Silverjet service from Luton to Dubai (DXB) charging around £1,000 for a return ticket.
Silverjet managed to achieve load factors (percentage of filled seats) on the London - New York route of 58% in the first 12 months of service. In April 2008 (1 month before closing) the load factor was 67%. It is thought breakeven was around the 65% mark.
Silverjet's demise leaves no more all business class airlines running on the London - New York route. Only L'Avion serving Paris to New York remains and that is being integrated into British Airways' OpenSkies Euro subsidiary.
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