Silverjet Suspends Services
May 30th, 2008 Posted in AirlinesBusiness class only airline Silverjet today announced it is suspending services due to problems raising vital funding.
This move has affected some 10,000 passengers who were due to travel in the next few days. Silverjet hopes to resume services after talks with investors.
Their website is displaying a letter from it’s chairman which reads:
To our dear customers,
When our inaugural flight took off in January 2007, we pledged to change the face of air travel. Your appreciation of our unique values and your belief in our product has allowed us to achieve this.
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.
We extend our sincerest apologies to those of you who have travel plans with Silverjet in the future and at present. You are advised to seek alternative travel arrangements with other carriers, and contact your credit card company or travel agent directly for information on obtaining refunds.
We are working actively with new investors who are prepared to inject new funds so we can recommence operations. If we are able to achieve this, we will make an announcement as soon as possible and we hope to be able to bring you our very ’sivilised’ flying experience again.
Thank you for your support - it has meant everything.
Yours sincerely,
Lawrence Hunt, CEO
The official press release is available here and some useful information for customers is displayed on their site here and on more information is also available on the CAA site.
The BBC reports:
The cancellations left 7,000 UK and 2,500 non-UK customers needing to make alternative plans at short notice. The firm said other airlines were not obliged to honour unused Silverjet tickets and advised passengers awaiting return flights to make their own plans.
It is the latest carrier to run into trouble amid the soaring cost of fuel. Over the past few months, rival business airlines Maxjet and Eos have both gone out of business while other carriers are struggling.
Silverjet operated two daily services between London Luton and Newark Liberty International Airport, which serves New York City, and one between Luton and Dubai.
Both outgoing and incoming flights between Luton and Newark were cancelled on Friday as was the outgoing flight to Dubai. The last service departed from Dubai at 0730 BST.
At the time, [Silverjet] said it was in discussions with a number of parties looking to invest in the firm and these negotiations continue.
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