What About Silverjet?
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008It’s less than a week since Eos went out of business. Why? (Other than the price of oil, and the fact that passenger price resistance and competition keep the airlines from being able to pass the cost on, of course)
Eos went after a premium market that wanted exclusivity; its aircraft only had 48 seats and it was more like all-first than all-business. Still, it competed with the premium products of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, among others, with price points that weren’t substantially lower, and fewer flights. It had the advantage of flying to Stansted (STN) rather than Heathrow (LHR) or Gatwick (LGW), but in the face of rising costs, was not well enough established, with high enough passenger load factors, to overcome.
MaxJet, which did fly a business-class product with more than 100 seats, may have sealed its fate when it signed a lot of long-term cut-rate deals with large companies early on, without any way to adapt when costs went through the roof.
–Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer
