Silverjet Dubai to London

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Silverjet is a new flight option between Dubai and London, with business class only and daily flights. See also flights to Dubai.

Silverjet flight schedule (all times are local), daily flights:

DEP Dubai at 10.30
ARR London Luton Airport at 14.45
A connecting flight to New York Newark departs London Luton at 16.45 and arrives at 19.45 in New York
DEP London Luton at 21.00
ARR Dubai at 0830 (following morning)

A summary of the press release from Silverjet 17 September 2007:

Silverjet Dubai-London flights will start 19 November 2007, with bookings starting from 17 September 2007
Private terminals available at both airports
Silverjet are the first business only flight from the UAE, and the first non-transatlantic business only route
Silverjet's already fly between London and New York (launched in January 2007), Dubai was chosen as its second destination because of the fast paced economic growth, and 20% annual growth in premium air traffic between London and Dubai.
Silverjet will be the only scheduled airline to use the private Executive Terminal at Dubai International Airport. Facilities include a luxury lounge, chair-side check-in and immigration, WiFi, dedicated security and a 30 minute check-in.
Silverjet plans to be at the Dubai Airshow 11-15 November 2008 to give visitors the opportunity to see the aircraft and meet members of the airline's senior management team.

Silverjet also offers:
- internet check-in and seat choice
- pre-ordering of meals
- private chauffeur service in Dubai and into central London or surrounding areas
- valet parking at both Luton and Dubai airports
- free transport to the London Luton train terminal (by train to central London takes about 30 minutes)

Aircraft used is a Boeing 767 with:
- 100 premium 6'3' flat beds
- 'sleeper service'* for overnight flights
- advanced digital in-flight entertainment system
- specially designed menus
- ladies-only toilet
- 10 cabin crew per flight

Dubai - London flights will offer:
- Halal meals
- Arabic menus
- Qibla service
- cabin crew trained to be culturally aware

Silverjet awards received include:
- the first Condé Nast Traveller Design and Innovation Award for Aviation 2007
- Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Award for Best Business Class Only Airline 2007
- Environmentally Aware Airline 2007 award from the Institute of Transport Management (ITM)
- Best Airline Website 2007 award from Travolution

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There was a lengthy article about SilverJet in Emirates Today (a UAE newspaper) 25 September 2007. Airfares from 7,499 dhs return, half the price of business class on British Airways (BA). Prices found by Emirates Today for return business class Dubai to London:

Silverjet 7,499 dhs
Virgin 8,760 dhs (if booked 21 days in advance)
Etihad 11,480 dhs (Abu Dhabi to London)
Emirates 13,080 dhs
British Airways 14,780 dhs (BA say they have Club World fares starting from Dh6,990)

Emirates Today also note that:

Silverjet funded a study that found travelling through Heathrow was very stressful, therefore the Luton experience should be very relaxing
Silverjet chauffer service is only available on the more expensive tickets
There are 4 dedicated business class airlines flying from Europe to the USA - Silverjet, MaxJet and Eos in the UK, and L’Avion in France. Silverjet is the only one also flying to Dubai.
The Silverjet CEO, Lawrence Hunt, says they expect to announce a third destination in Spring (is that the second quarter of 2008?)
Virgin Atlantic plan to launch their own all-business class airline within the next 12 to 18 months, with first flights from Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich, non-stop to New York and elsewhere.

Enjoy royal treatment with ‘budget’ airline

Last month it emerged that travelling through London’s Heathrow airport has become as stressful as being mugged at knifepoint, something that – just in case we hadn’t already noticed – proves the “golden age” of air travel is well and truly dead.

Passengers were found to have such dangerously high blood pressure that their experience was akin to having a heart attack, or like working in the riot police, according to research.

But this terminal tension – heightened by airport overcrowding and increased security after 9/11 – has prompted airlines to reconsider their premium-class products.

So now – while it might be hellish on the ground – it’s getting more and more comfortable in the air.

And Dubai’s business travellers have never had it so good. Aside from improved premium-cabin offerings from Emirates and Etihad, it emerged earlier this week that one of the new breed of niche business-class airlines will begin services to the emirate.

Silverjet, a small British based business airline, will begin a daily service between Dubai and London in November. You could call it a ‘budget’ airline – but, unlike carriers such as Air Arabia and Europe’s Easyjet and Ryanair – it is a dedicated business-class operation.

So instead of sitting in cramped cabins and paying over the odds for soggy sandwiches, passengers will benefit from flat-bed seats, madeto-order food, and an advanced entertainment system. And with return fares as low as Dh7,499, it costs a little more than half the price of many of the other airlines’ business-class offerings.

Silverjet is definitely not a ‘no-frills’ operation, but it is ‘budget’ by comparison.

Perhaps more importantly, the airline offers 30-minute check-ins, private terminals with dedicated security, and flies to the smaller London Luton airport rather than the congested Heathrow.

It also provides a chauffeur service, but only on the more expensive tickets.

IT FIGURES
Admittedly, Silverjet funded the research that linked the passenger experience at Heathrow to high levels of stress. However, questions of scientific independence aside, no one can argue that Luton is more relaxing than Heathrow: the latter is used by 68 million passengers a year but was originally designed for 45 million.

Lawrence Hunt, Silverjet’s founder and CEO, told Emirates Today the airline is competing on more than just price and the in-flight experience: it is about the experience on the ground too.

“Travelling between Dubai International and Heathrow is going to be more and more stressful. We offer the private jet terminal experience – you literally pull up outside the front door,” he said.

“The Dubai terminal [used by Silverjet] is used principally for private jets, for royals and for dignitaries.

“And you are only travelling with 70 or 80 other customers, which makes the whole experience more relaxing. We have about 30 dishes to choose from [for dinner]: it is a much more personalised service.” However, one major problem with the Silverjet model is that there is a higher danger of passengers getting delayed.

Like the other business class only airlines, Silverjet operates a very small number of aircraft, running only a handful of routes, and so there is little or no backup in the event of a technical fault.

And while Silverjet says that it will book passengers on other operators’ flights in the event of a cancellation, this would be inconvenient at Luton because no other carriers fly to Dubai from that airport.

There are also questions over price.

Virgin Atlantic offers return business-class fares between Dubai and London for Dh8,760 when booked 21 days in advance.

That’s just Dh1,261 more expensive than Silverjet’s cheapest introductory fare – and the newcomer airline’s regular fares start at Dh8,299.

Hunt says that “this isn’t just about price” – but adds that “as you get closer to departure, Virgin Atlantic’s fares start to rack up”.

But airlines such as British Airways have even cheaper fares, depending on when you book. “We have introduced lots of competitive fares which reward passengers for booking and paying early – our new Club World fares on the Dubai-London Heathrow route start from Dh6,990,” says Claire Guppy, BA’s corporate sales manager in the Middle East.

However, when Emirates Today tried to book a return business class flight to London in November, the British Airways fare was Dh14,780 – almost double Silverjet’s price.

Still, the possibility for growth in all-business class airline sector is impressive. Between Dubai and London, premium air traffic is growing at 20 per cent year on year, a trend that is reflected worldwide.

Hence the launch of four dedicated business-class operators in Europe: Silverjet, MaxJet and Eos in the UK, and L’Avion in France – all of which fly to the US. And the fact that Silverjet airline is to be the first airline to launch a non-transatlantic route suggests further growth in this potentially lucrative sector; the operator even considers Dubai as a potential second hub. Hunt said Silverjet will announce another destination in spring.

“We’re looking at India, China, South Africa and nine other US destinations. There are plenty of growth opportunities for us,” he said.

“There are about 30 routes from London where the economics of our routes work. We’re targeting both business and leisure passengers.”

NICHE MARKET
While airlines are capitalising on the boom in business class travel – British Airways, for example, has invested $200m (Dh734m) in an overhaul of its Club World service – they downplay the threat posed by newcomers such as Silverjet, MaxJet and Eos.

A spokesperson for Emirates said: “We do not see them as direct competition as these carriers cater to a niche market segment,” adding that the all-business class air serv ices “have mostly operated on very specific routes for instance between New York and London”.

Iain Burns, vice-president corporate communications at Etihad, agrees.

“Premium cabin-only air lines however do not offer the frequency that Etihad does, which is crucial to business travellers,” he told Emirates Today.

“Plus niche carriers do not have comprehensive networks whereas we can offer nonstop flights to the world’s leading commercial destinations,” he said.

However, Virgin Atlantic takes the threat more seriously. The airline intends to launch its own all-business class airline within the next 12 to 18 months, initially flying from cities (including Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Zurich) non-stop to New York and elsewhere.

“The airline will also fly from London to the US, competing against other all-business class carriers,” says Andrew Fyfe, Virgin Atlantic’s regional manager for the Middle East and Indian Ocean region.

“The new airline, which may also use the Virgin Atlantic name, will offer better quality than existing all business carriers at the same or lower prices.” At the same time as the announcement of its Dubai route, Silverjet said that it had incurred a pre-tax loss of £18.2m (Dh66.7m) in its first financial year, and had raised its forecast loss for the year to March 2008 to £16m (Dh58.7m). However, with Hunt predicting that the group will achieve its first month of profit before the end of the financial year, Silverjet – along with the rest of the all-budget airlines – could pose a threat to larger airlines, whose upper-class passengers generally subsidise those in economy.

And such competition means passengers could get more luxurious travel, for less: there may just be another “golden age” of air travel yet.

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And another article also from Emirates Today 25 Sep 2007...

FLYING HIGH, AIMING HIGHER

SHWETA JAIN BUSINESS REPORTER

The first exclusively business-class airline to fly to Dubai in November, Silverjet, expects to reap revenues worth £25 million (Dh185m) per aircraft per annum on the route, according to its chief executive.

“With this, we would also be able to achieve a good 80 per cent load factor in the first few months of operations. We have been achieving 80 per cent on our New York route after seven months of start. We are looking at a similar load factor on our Dubai route. However, we would start with 30-35 per cent,” Lawrence Hunt, founder and CEO of Silverjet, told Emirates Today.

At an average airfare of Dh8,500 (London-Dubai return flight), Silverjet would be operating seven flights a week on this route with Boeing 767 aircraft.

“We would be competing with almost all airlines flying into Dubai. And we could be priced about 50 per cent cheaper than other airlines, depending on when the booking is done,” said Hunt, adding that the Silverjet aircraft would be equipped with 100 flat beds in an otherwise configuration of 200-300 seats on a Boeing 767 aircraft.

Trying to secure a niche in Dubai, Silverjet will be the only scheduled airline to use the 5,000 square foot private executive terminal at Dubai International Airport for arrivals and departures, said Hunt.

As with the airline’s private terminal at London Luton Airport, passengers will be able to enjoy a luxury lounge environment, chair-side check-in and immigration, WiFi facilities, dedicated security and a 30-minute check-in.

Having launched operations in January this year, Silverjet is currently operating two flights a day on its New York route. “The plan is to double our flights to Dubai in a year’s time,” said Hunt.

When asked about expanding network further into the Middle East, Hunt said: “There is not enough traffic in the other Middle East markets. They are not big enough and we need to go where the business is.

“Besides, we would first look to increase our flights to Dubai itself over the next two to three years,” he added.

On the global map, however, the next few routes for Silverjet include Delhi and Mumbai in India; Los Angeles and Chicago in the US; Shanghai and Beijing in China; and South Africa.

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Silverjet has suspended operations from Friday 30 May 2008 due to not receiving finance from Viceroy Holdings LLC, with whom Silverjet had a week or so ago apparently arranged a supply of cash to keep operating.

Final flight was Dubai (depart 07:30 GMT) to London (arrive 15:00 GMT) according to the Silverjet website (flysilverjet.com), although there were reports that the last flight departed from London for Dubai, instead of the other way around.

Stranded passengers won't get anything from Silverjet as their assets are frozen - website says contact credit card company or travel agent to try and get a refund. And they'll have to make other arrangements for any continuation of their journey, or return flight.

Latest news is that Silverjet have appointed administrators to assess their assets. Silverjet shareholders are unlikely to get anything (shares were suspended from trading several days ago). This sounds a bit more ominous than earlier statements that Silverjet was still in negotiations with possible investors.

Is this the end of Silverjet?

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An update on the Silverjet story. There was promising news that a Swiss (I think) company was going to buy Silverjet and get it up and running again, but latest news last night is that the deal fell through (possibly some regulatory problem), so that looks like the end of the road for Silverjet. Unless another buyer fronts up? Reports are that Silverjet is laying off staff so that doesn't sound hopeful.

Sad news for what sounded like a popular choice for business class travellers.