PrivatAir and KLM renew agreement

PrivatAir has announced that it has renewed its multi-year contract with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Under the agreement, PrivatAir will continue to operate business class only flights between Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport six times weekly.

The route is served under a wet-lease agreement covering aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. KLM provides marketing, catering and in-flight entertainment for the service.

Since 2002, PrivatAir has operated all business class transatlantic services of behalf of Lufthansa. This has been expanded to include routes for Swiss Intercontinental Air Lines.

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British Airways details plans for flights from London City airport to the Big Apple

When British Airways' planned flights to New York from London City airport stop in Ireland to refuel, passengers will be allowed to go through US immigration checks in advance, the company said yesterday.

The carrier first mooted the scheme for a business class-only service from central London to the Big Apple earlier this year. But it is impossible to fly the route non-stop from City airport because the runways are not long enough for take-off with enough fuel to complete the transatlantic journey. Following an agreement with the US immigration authorities, the 40-minute stop in Shannon will be used not only to refuel, but also to put passengers through immigration and customs checks.

The immigration scheme is central to BA's plans to cut travelling time, alongside allowing fliers to arrive at the airport just 15 minutes before departure.

Robert Boyle, the commercial director at British Airways, said: "Our planned business-class only service will be the most convenient way to travel between London and New York for those people based in or travelling to the heart of London. Many city workers will be able to get from desk to aircraft in as little as 30 minutes. This, combined with Shannon airport's ability to complete USA arrival checks during the planned refuelling stop, will ensure customers can make the most of their time and travel desk to desk in the quickest time possible."

If all goes according to plan, the new service will be up and running next autumn, with a twice-daily service using Airbus 318 aircraft with 32 seats, which are the largest planes that can take off and land at London City airport. BA will make no statement as to fares for the flights.

Only the westbound flights will need the Shannon stop. Eastbound services will be non-stop because they will not have the same runway constraints on the way back into Britain.

When BA's plan was first publicised it met with some scepticism, not least because the service would be competing with similar business-only offerings from Silverjet and Eos Airlines. Both carriers have since gone bankrupt.

Source: independent.co.uk

BA subsidiary OpenSkies to go all-business

British Airways' subsidiary OpenSkies has announced the removal of all economy seats on its aircraft.

The changes will come into effect on October 1 on the airline’s Paris to New York (JFK) route.

OpenSkies currently features 28 seats in premium economy, 24 in business class and five rows of seats in economy class. The economy class section will now make way for 12 additional seats in premium economy (PREM+).

"Since our launch, we have had a tremendously positive reception to our PREM+ service," said Dale Moss, Managing Director of OpenSkies.

This seating configuration will also be used on the carrier's second service, between Amsterdam and New York, which launches on October 15.

The decision follows BA's announcement earlier this year that it plans to launch a business class-only service between London City Airport and New York.

The service will offer 32 fully-reclining seats, although a re-fuelling stop will be necessary in Shannon, due to restrictions on the size of the planes able to use the runway at London City.

BA is confident of the viability of its business-class only service, despite the failure of previous premium carriers such as Silverjet, Maxjet and Eos.

"Previous business-class airlines were stand-alone companies. BA has an existing infrastructure that offers solidity," said Michael Johnson, a spokesman for the carrier.

BA is expected to announce the full details of its London City - New York service in the next week.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

British Airways buying French airline L'Avion

British Airways said Wednesday it will purchase French airline L'Avion, which flies between Paris and New York City's Newark airport, in a 54 million pound (US$108 million) deal.

L'Avion, which is privately owned, operates two Boeing 757 aircraft.

British Airways said L'Avion would become part of its OpenSkies subsidiary, which began flying from the European continent to the U.S. in June.

"L'Avion is a successful airline that has built up a premium business between Orly and New York in a relatively short period of time," said Willie Walsh, British Airways' chief executive.

"It has many synergies with OpenSkies and buying it provides OpenSkies with a larger schedule and an established customer base in the Paris-New York market."

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Silverjet will not fly again, says chief executive

Failed all-business carrier Silverjet will not fly again, its chief executive Lawrence Hunt has told The Daily Telegraph.

Hopes were revived that the airline would take to the skies again after rumours surfaced that Middle East proposed carrier Arabjet had made a bid for the beleagured business-class carrier.

But Hunt has rubbished plans publicised by Arabjet to revive the London-Luton based airline.

"They are just a bunch of timewasters," he alleges. "We’ve been talking to them since February, providing business plans, but it never moved forward. They can't even raise the £125,000 needed to secure negotiations with the administrators. They just do not have the funding."

Arabjet's website says it plans to launch its own services next year to high-end passengers looking for premium travel within the Middle East.

Mr Hunt added: "There is nothing to buy any more because the CAA has now revoked all the licences."

Hopes that Silverjet, which operated to Newark airport and to Dubai until it was grounded on May 30, will fly again have been reignited a few times as various undisclosed bids have been put forward. Irish registered company Kingplace, which is managed by a Swiss trust, made a significant play for the carrier last week but failed when it failed to guarantee future aviation licences and the planes' leases.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

ArabJet may buy troubled airline Silverjet: source

LONDON (Reuters) - ArabJet, a planned premium class airline based in Dubai, is talking to the administrators of SilverJet, the failed British business class carrier, about a possible sale, a source familiar with the talks said on Monday.

Luton-based SilverJet, which operated three planes between London, Dubai and New York, collapsed into administration last month due to weak demand and record fuel prices.

ArabJet officials in Dubai were not immediately available for comment.

The company aims to have a market base of about 500,000 customers, mostly in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, according to its Web site. ArabJet Holidays and ArabJet Limousine services will be added afterwards, the Web site says.

Talks to buy SilverJet by Kingplace, an Irish-registered company managed by Swiss trust and management company Heritage, collapsed on Friday, when the company made its 420 employees redundant.

Silverjet buyout collapses, workers laid off

LONDON, England (AP) - The proposed buyout of collapsed business-class airline Silverjet fell apart on Friday and its 420 employees were formally fired, the administrator said.

Irish based Kingplace Ltd. announced earlier this week that it had provisionally agreed to take over Silverjet, which suspended operations two weeks ago after running out of money.

But Nigel Atkinson and Mark Fry of Begbies Traynor, joint administrators for Silverjet, said Friday that Kingplace was no longer in a position to proceed with a deal.

"We now understand that, as a result of the unusually complex negotiations with third parties, Kingplace is no longer in a position to acquire Silverjet as a going concern," the administrators said. Kingplace is managed by Geneva-based management company Heritage Cie SA.

"As a consequence, we have today had to make the entire work force formally redundant, in line with our legal obligations as administrator."

Silverjet employed 370 pilots and cabin crew and 50 administrative staff.

"We are extremely disappointed to have had to make these redundancies, which we had been working hard to prevent," the administrators said.

"We continue to negotiate the sale of Silverjet's assets for the benefit of the company's creditors and will provide an update as soon as we are able."

Silverjet suspended its service from its base at Luton Airport north of London to Newark airport in New Jersey in the United States and to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on May 30.

The company reached a crisis when it failed to receive funding agreed under a deal with Viceroy Holdings LLC, an international luxury development fund based in the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Silverjet, which had never turned a profit since it began operating in 2006, was the last business-class only airline flying between London and New York after the collapse of U.S. peers MAXjet Airways Inc. and EOS.

Source: edition.cnn.com