London falling

By Barney Gimbel, Fortune writer

(FORTUNE Magazine) -- With all the major carriers flying from New York to London (not to mention newish entrants MAXjet and Eos), you might think the route across the pond is getting mighty crowded. Well, get ready for one more competitor: Silverjet, a new all-business-class airline that launches Jan. 25. The airline, which is based and publicly held in London, will fly Boeing 767s with 102 seats between Newark and a private terminal at London's small Luton Airport.

So what's Silverjet's big idea? "I'd say we're giving Eos service at MAXjet prices," says Lawrence Hunt, a serial entrepreneur and the company's CEO. Translation: lie-flat beds, excellent food, and a ten-to-one passenger-crew ratio. At a recent preview, Hunt also touted 27 other gimmicks, like women-only bathrooms and special cabin lighting.

The jetliner's biggest selling point, however, is price: At $1,798, the fare is thousands less than what the majors charge.  Top of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.