Stuart Pinfold

Death of the business-class-online airline: Silverjet suspends operations

Luton-based business-class airline Silverjet has suspended flight operations this morning after failing to raise expected Middle-East capital following higher fuel charges.

The airline, which has been flying to New York and Dubai since January 2007 with prices starting from £999, announced on its website this morning that its last flight left for Dubai at 0730, and that no more reservations will be honoured:

To our dear customers,

When our inaugural flight took off in January 2007, we pledged to change the face of air travel. Your appreciation of our unique values and your belief in our product has allowed us to achieve this.

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.

We extend our sincerest apologies to those of you who have travel plans with Silverjet in the future and at present. You are advised to seek alternative travel arrangements with other carriers, and contact your credit card company or travel agent directly for information on obtaining refunds.

We are working actively with new investors who are prepared to inject new funds so we can recommence operations. If we are able to achieve this, we will make an announcement as soon as possible and we hope to be able to bring you our very 'sivilised' flying experience again.

Thank you for your support - it has meant everything.

The collapse of Silverjet has been preceded by the other two UK business-only airlines, Eos and Maxjet, this year - both blaming rising fuel costs.

Now, there's no way I'd pay £999 for a ticket to New York, despite the perks - flat-beds, first-class service, private check-in and security terminal at Luton Airport, and the fact that I don't have to travel to London to get the flight (admittedly, that's personal as I live near there) - but media workers with outstanding student loans aren't exactly target audience. But maybe that's the problem - the type of people that Silverjet were trying to attract - busy, cash-loaded city workers, weren't attracted to the journey to Luton to catch their flight.

Maybe if Silverjet were based at London City or London Heathrow airports - with direct DLR and tube connections to the city - they may have succeeded. This seems to collate with Eos' failure, who were based at London Stansted airport - arguably even harder to get to from central London than Luton.

But either way, and despite hating the "us and them" attitude with 'classes' on planes and trains, I can't help feeling that the collapse of the last-remaining business-class airline is a loss to the UK rather than a gain to environmentalists. Where does this leave other smaller airlines: the likes of Wizz, Jet2 and SkyEurope? Will we slowly return to a monopoly or duopoly of UK-based airlines: British Airways and a low-cost giant such as easyJet and/or Ryanair? What, then, will happen to air fares?

Most importantly, will I ever be able to afford to fly to Sydney - whether or not fuel keeps rising?

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