Silverjet says it will introduce a second return flight to Newark New York airport from Sunday 23 September, for the winter period.
With 200 seats per day, the airline is now one of the largest providers of business class seats on the fiercely competitive London ” New York route. For a seat booked outbound on Monday (17 September) and returning the same day, the price is ”,1299 ($2,638) including all taxes. A more expensive ticket including a chauffeur-driven car at each end is available.
The British Airways fare is ”3,982 and Virgin Atlantic ”4,000, including a chauffer driven car at both ends or a hire car in New York.
Midweek fares for November and purchased well in advance, currently start at slightly more than ”2,000 with the two Heathrow carriers and about half the price for Silverjet. All fares are as of 08:00, Monday 10 September.
Silverjet will now operate daily flights from Luton at 10:00 (arriving 13:00) and at 16:45 (arriving 19:45). Departures from New York are 19:30 (arriving 07:20) and 21:45 (arriving Luton 09:45). All times are local.
With the new timetable, passengers from both London and New York can spend time at their destination and return using up only a 24h window, ideal for those who only need a short time at either end of the route
Silverjet chief executive, Lawrence Hunt, said the airline enjoyed a record August load factor. ”We had an 80% load factor for August, which reflects another strong month for Silverjet, our seventh consecutive one of growth,” he said. We continue to see strong forward bookings at increasing yield.”
”Yields are strong, which together with robust traffic, is an impressive achievement in August - traditionally the quietest month for transatlantic business travel. We are also seeing a good mix of business and leisure customers, which allows us to spread our risk”.
Silverjet is one of three airlines operating business class only services from north London airports.
Maxjet which calls itself a budget-focused business class carrier, has a single service to JFK from Stansted, while from October, EOS will offer up to four daily flights with its near first class product, also to JFK.
Silverjet”s cabin service sits in between those two, offering a 6”3” (195cm) inclined flat bed, high quality catering and personalised entertainment.
The Luton-based airline also won the new category of ”Business Class Only Airline” at the prestigious Cond” Nast Traveller Readers” Travel Awards 2007, with its maiden flight only taking place on 26 January this year.