With British Airways (BA) seriously considering a business class product on certain routes, possibly a dual premium economy/Club World operation, Stansted resident Eos Airlines, has now added a fourth Boeing 757 to its fleet.
Eos was the first airline out of the UK with a dedicated executive class only product and in November 2005, it launched a Stansted-New York JFK service, closely followed by Maxjet, also an American-registered airline, with a similar daily operation.
Eos features the 757, single aisle, whilst Maxjet uses wide-bodied twin aisle Boeing 767 equipment. Eos is the more expensive of the two, but offers a true flat bed and a superior service.
On peak days Eos now has three flights in each direction to JFK, while Maxjet has added Las Vegas and Washington to its destinations, both four times per week and all year around, with Los Angeles now confirmed for August.
”We”ve gained a loyal following with discerning travellers who love Eos Class service and just want to see more frequency and destinations, so we”re excited to say we now have additional aircraft and are acquiring others to meet this demand,” said recently appointed Eos CEO, Jack Williams.
Williams was with American Airlines for 23 years and is equally well known in the cruise industry, where he served as president and chief operating officer at Royal Caribbean/Celebrity Cruises from 1997 to 2005.
Late last year Silverjet, a listed British carrier introduced flights to Newark, New York”s alternative international airport, from Luton. Silverjet will go twice-daily from 2 July and is rumoured to be introducing non-stop flights to South Africa in the autumny.
Its choice of equipment is the Boeing 767, with proper flat bed seats as against the Maxjet 170” product. Silverjet prices are normally between those of Eos and Maxjet and the airline does have its own dedicated landside lounges at both Luton and Newark, a real plus for the carrier.
If BA does come onto the business class only market, it will be following the lead of Lufthansa, which introduced business class only services to the US from both D”sseldorf and Munich in summer 2003.
From Paris, Elysair, flying as L”Avion, operates a 90-seat 2+2 Boeing 757 similar service and uses the south Paris airport of Orly, with Newark as its New York destination. Eurofly, a Milan-based airline that was once part of Alitalia, discontinued its Milan-New York JFK flights from 8 February. The airline operated a 48-seat all business class Airbus A319 on a daily service.