Let's hope Silverjet sticks around.
Photo: Silverjet

by Wendy Perrin

I was bummed to read on Tripso.com that Eos, the plush all-business-class airline that flew between New York (JFK) and London (Stansted) and seemed to offer an all-too-rare stress-free experience at JFK, declared bankruptcy and ceased flying over the weekend. It's the second all-business-class airline flying between New York and London to shut down within the past few months; MaxJet, you may recall, declared bankruptcy and folded last December. Silverjet is now the only all-business-class airline flying between New York (EWR) and London (Luton) and seems to offer an all-too-rare stress-free experience at Newark. It has offered Eos passengers access to a limited number of seats on its New York-London route for the same price as their Eos ticket. British Airways is also helping out Eos passengers with reduced fares.

So how safe a bet is it that Silverjet will still be flying a few months from now? The folks at Silverjet say that, while its competitors had to slash prices dramatically in order to compete with the legacy airlines, Silverjet has been able to raise its fares 20 percent since it launched 15 months ago. It also says that its passenger numbers were 23 percent higher in March than in February and that one in four Silverjet passengers are now repeat customers.

Still, with airlines going bankrupt right and left, if you're planning to take advantage of any fare sales offered on Silverjet, be sure to pay with a credit card . . . so you can get your money back, just in case. Good to know that, should Silverjet go belly up, British Airways would most likely step in and help out passengers (of course, B.A. would be a main reason why Silverjet went belly up in the first place).