Posted by Seth on May 30, 2008 under Uncategorized | 
The last operating all-premium carrier on the NYC-London route, SilverJet, has ceased operations as of this morning due to an inability to raise additional financing. They had actually announced that they’d reached terms with a group in UAE to provide them with some cash, but when they went to draw on the loan last week the money didn’t show up.
From the announcement on their web site:
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.
And so now all three premium carriers on the NYC-LON route have shut down. The only carrier still operating as an independent in that market is L’Avion which operates a NYC-Paris flight. And before you write off the concept of an all-premium flight operation, it is worth considering that there are some routes that seem to support it just fine. KLM operates Houston-Amsterdam on a 737 in an all-Biz config (contracted service provided by PrivatAir). Singapore Air has converted their A340-500s to all-Biz seats for the SIN-EWR route. Lufthansa has a
similar arrangement to KLM, with PrivatAir operating some flights for them as well. In the Lufthansa case they have actually used the PrivatAir operation to break in some new routes, upgrading them to full-size planes with normal seating arrangements once they have proven the demand. That makes me think that the demand issue is more one of the carriers and the routes, not the business model.
Considering how saturated the NYC-LON market is in seats – thousands daily, many of which are big and comfy – and that the corporate contracts drive more of the business than individual flying, I’m not all that surprised that these carriers struggled. Ironically, choosing less popular routes might have actually let them be successful, as would operating smaller or more efficient planes (like PrivatAir).
Posted by Seth on May 28, 2008 under Uncategorized |
One of my favorite bits of travel is the different dining habits/customs of our destination. When in Spain, dinner is nice and late, following an early round of tapas. Italy has a similar evening/night split for snacks and dining. In Asia, dining on the roadside was very common, either a grab-and-go snack from a vendor or sitting at tiny plastic tables in tiny plastic chairs on the sidewalk in Saigon, slurping up pho while trying not to break anything. I love these experiences, partly for the food and partly because we get to see the culture of those places not just from the displays in a museum.
So I was particularly saddened yesterday walking to the subway on my way home from work. It was about 7:30pm and I passed a family walking cross-town. They were headed east from the Times Square area, seemingly back towards their hotel. Laden with the requisite shopping bags I noticed one in the mix that was rather disappointing – leftovers from The Olive Garden. So at 7:30 they were done with dinner, and it was an Olive Garden dinner.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t hate the Olive Garden. I like the salad and bread sticks (or I did last time I had them, which was probably 8 years ago), and I’m sure that there are places where it is the best option for “Italian” food that is available. But it pains me to see folks choosing that over one of the dozens of local places that are available in NYC that provide a better meal and a much more realistic view of dining in the city.
While in Paris we had a fabulous dinner at a great little restaurant. My wife claims that it is the best meal she’s ever had, and she’s probably right. But our 8:30pm seating had us in with all the other Americans, though we were at least on the later side of that group. Only as we finished up dining did we see some locals start to trickle in around 10pm. The meal was delicious, but I cannot help but think we got shorted a bit on the experience because of the timing. And I think that this family drew the same short straw with their dinner last night, too.
Maybe it is just because I’m obsessed with food, but I think that making the leap to the local dining culture is as important as anything else you do on a trip. And in New York that means no Olive Garden. Oh, and no licking your fingers in India. That’s a good way to end up on the couch/in the bathroom for two days until the Cipro kicks in, but that’s a whole different story…
Posted by Seth on May 20, 2008 under Uncategorized |
OpenSkies, the British Airways subsidiary focusing on non-UK flights from the USA has received approval from the US Department of Transportation to begin selling tickets on their planned flights between New York’s JFK airport and Paris’s Orly. They also reiterated their plans to add Brussels and Milan, Amsterdam and Frankfurt to their portfolio as they grow out their routes.
OpenSkies/BA is the first carrier to go after the recent Open Skies treaty negotiated between the US and EU. All the other new traffic has been destined to London’s Heathrow from US-based carriers. And while I get that some people see Heathrow as a “premier” airport for connections and/or travel to London, I don’t see the value in adding another 2000 daily seats there, which is basically what has happened. There are a ton of other cities that can benefit from service and connections, and OpenSkies seems to be the only carrier making a go of it. They’ve also established a code-share agreement with L’Avion, a French all-business class carrier in order to obtain the slots at Paris’s Orly airport. So it looks like they really are moving forward, despite the threat of strikes from BA’s pilot’s union over the new group operating on a different contract and pay scale.
Time will tell, but things are continuing to move forward, despite the threat of strikes and record fuel prices. The folks at BA must really think they’ve got it figured out with this plan.
Posted by Seth on April 26, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Eos, the all premium carrier that many expected to actually survive, has declared bankruptcy and halted all service effective immediately. Their last flights will operate today, April 27, and even then only a limited service. The post on their website includes most of the details:
Our unique relationship makes it all the more difficult to share with you the news that Eos has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. On April 26, 2008, we plan to operate Flight 6 (8:30pm) from JFK to STN. On April 27, 2008, we plan to operate Flights 3 (1:00pm) and 7 (6:30pm) from STN to JFK. Flight 5 from STN to JFK and all flights from JFK to STN on April 27, 2008 are canceled. We will cease operations entirely after April 27, 2008.
This announcement is particularly regrettable since we have achieved so much, including having a term sheet in hand for additional financing. Clearly, even in today’s challenging economic and credit environment, investors believe in Eos. Unfortunately, some issues arose that prevented the parties from moving forward
It seems that the money that they were expecting didn’t come through for some reason, and that the carrier cannot continue operations at this point. This leaves SilverJet and L’Avion as the last two players in the all premium TATL market. SilverJet also has their London – Dubai route, and L’Avion flies from Paris instead of London, but that doesn’t guarantee too much these days.
Oh, and if you are a member of their frequent flier program or an AmEx Platinum or Centurion cardholder looking to redeem a reward ticket on Eos, that ain’t happening either. Bummer.
Posted by Seth on March 30, 2008 under News |
The first flights operating under the recently negotiated Open Skies treaty between the EEC and the United States landed in England this morning, including a Continental 777-200 from Newark, the first flight to land under the agreement.
Many observers are predicting that the agreement will result in a ton of new flights being offered by a lot of different carriers. But since the treaty was signed only one route has been announced, other than flights to London’s Heathrow. American carriers – including US Air, Continental and Northwest – along with British Airways and Air France have all announced additional service for Heathrow to the USA. In addition, BA has announced the launch of their new subsidiary, OpenSkies, to fly from Paris to New York. So this revolutionary new treaty has resulted in basically a flooding of one airport with new service. Yeah, Heathrow is the center of the travel universe, even more so than New York’s JFK or Tokyo’s Narita, but I still am waiting to see more benefits from this treaty other than more flights to London. And considering how much the US-based airlines are paying for the slots at Heathrow (CO reportedly paid $209MM for their 4 pairs), it is hard to believe that they can really drive profit from the slots; it’ll take a LOT of paid traffic in the pointy end of the plane to make up that much of an investment.
On the plus side, this should make things super-cheap for folks in London to fly over to the USA and take advantage of the incredibly weak dollar, though they still have to pay GBP40-80 in departure taxes (~$80-160) at a minimum, the flights are just not cheap no matter what.
Tags: Air France, American Airlines, Boeing, British Airways, Continental, London, New York, NorthWest, OpenSkies, Paris, US Air
Posted by Seth on February 21, 2008 under News |
OpenSkies, the British Airways subsidiary focused on connecting mostly premium passengers between non-London markets and the USA has announced that their first market will be Paris – New York. They’ve applied for the appropriate route authorities, which should pretty much be a rubber stamp at this point, hasn’t decided which Paris airport to use and will use JFK in New York.
Like many things in life, however, this is subject to change, particularly since the BA pilots are threatening to strike over the plans to staff the subsidiary with lower paid crews than regular BA flights. While they may just be idle threats for now, the union has voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing the strike, though no date has been set. BA challenges the union’s stance, suggesting that a few hundred new pilot positions will be opening up in the London bases of the carrier, though that seems to be insufficient to assuage the pilots anger at this point. Good times.
