Sometimes you just can’t keep an airline down, even when it’s declared bankruptcy and stopped flying. All-business Silverjet, which shut down on May 30, 2008, may be coming back to life. Like a zombie, it just can’t be killed… because it’s already dead.

The airline, which flew Newark to London (Luton) to Dubai in Boeing 767s, has received an offer in bankruptcy by a Swiss investment firm, representing private clients, possibly the Reuben brothers, themselves already big Silverjet creditors who seem intent on throwing more good money after bad.

Other recently-bankrupted airlines haven’t been quite so lucky — if a zombie’s life can be considered “lucky.” Eos Airlines is liquidating and auctioning off assets. Maxjet is being turned into a charter airline via the courts. At least L’Avion is still kickin’! (Update: L’Avion is now rebranded OpenSkies.)

But even if it does reopen for business, would you want to buy a Silverjet ticket and risk being stranded (again)? Other airlines on the New York to London route offer more frequencies — and a more established frequent flyer programs, for that matter. (Except to Stansted. Perhaps unsurprisingly, American Airlines just recently canceled its New York to London-Stansted route, which it launched purely out of spite for Maxjet and Eos.) Virgin Atlantic has actively been trying to recruit Silverjet customers. Would those travelers really defect again? I sure wouldn’t.

Eos and Maxjet have kicked the proverbial bucket, but the all-business carrier concept isn’t quite dead yet. Silverjet found new life by getting a cash infusion, a promise of more cash, and possibly even a bidding war/buyout offer. Huzzah for them!

But the other remaining trans-Atlantic airline, L’Avion, has figured that it can survive by partnering with others. And it’s linking up with another new airline — the British Airlines subsidiary OpenSkies, which launches flights from Paris (Orly) to New York (JFK) on June 19.

L’Avion will codeshare the OpenSkies flight, but not the other way around, at least for now. L’Avion flies all-business class from Newark to Paris, while OpenSkies flies a plane with business, premium economy, and economy from JFK to Paris. L’Avion’s seats are all forward-facing cradle seats (not lie-flat) while OpenSkies has alternating front-and-rear facing 180-degree lie flat business seats.

For L’Avion’s survival, getting a codeshare with a British Airways subsidiary seems like a smart move. I’m still not sure how they can afford to sell tickets for under $1500 round trip in business class and survive long-term, but the new codeshare may have thrown them a lifeline for the short term.

Eos Airlines, the all-business class class airline that actually approached all-first class service on the New York-London route, shut down abruptly today. Their homepage contains the now all-too-familiar declaration, as seen in the Maxjet and Skybus shutdowns, that future flights are canceled.

The business class wars, so heated just a year ago, are nearing an end. Who knows how long the remaining all-business class carriers — Silverjet and L’Avion — can hold on. The standalone niche all-business class airline just isn’t viable in a recessionary world of $120 oil.

Eos didn’t actually blame oil prices in their last-minute notice that they were shutting down. Instead, they blamed the credit markets.

This announcement is particularly regrettable since we have achieved so much, including having a term sheet in hand for additional financing. Clearly, even in today’s challenging economic and credit environment, investors believe in Eos. Unfortunately, some issues arose that prevented the parties from moving forward.

Nice spin. Maybe the airline’s investors held out hope, but hope is not a plan. And in today’s economic environment, the bankers didn’t see that plan coming together.

Of the three all-biz airlines on the NYC-London route, that now leaves Silverjet. They’re appealing to Eos ticketholders, saying they’ll “honour the price you paid to EOS, subject to seat availability and a minimum price paid” — a minimum of £600 / $1,200 plus taxes one-way or £1,200 / $2,400 plus taxes round trip. I note that they say they’ll honor the PRICE, not the TICKET. I’ve put in a question to Silverjet, to see if this means they’ll be accepting Eos tickets as-is, or if they will require a payment in the amount of the original fare. I’ll update if and when they respond. (Updated: See below.)

British Airways is offering reduced rates to Eos customers for business class fares. No word on how big a discount.

No word yet from Virgin, American, or anyone else on the NYC-London route as to how they’ll approach Eos customers.

If you can’t be rebooked, call your credit card and try to get a refund. With Eos’ pricing being on the higher end, you’ll want that money back.

UPDATE: Silverjet clarifies their policy. “This statement means you will need to purchase new flights from Silverjet and then claim any monies owed from Eos back from them, your credit card company or your travel insurance provider.” In other words, they’ll let you buy a new ticket at the original Eos fare, which, if it was purchased a while back, may be cheaper than a walkup fare today, but they aren’t honoring Eos tickets as-is.

Upgraded: Your luggage in 25 minutes or less or your pizza is free
United’s revised customer commitment (the “promise” which airlines keep revising to try to head off a passenger’s bill of rights) has been changed, with the airline pledging to get customers their checked bags within 25 minutes of arriving at the gate. Of course, there are no consequences for missing that deadline, but still, glad to hear that they’re setting a benchmark. Beats American Airlines’ technique of simply tacking 7 minutes onto every scheduled flight time, to make flights look more “on-time.” Classy!

Separately: One thing I’m happy to see survive the revision at United: the 24-hour penalty-free cancellation policy.

Upgraded: Passengers’ bravado
Speaking of luggage, a Tacoma, Washington, couple has sued British Airways for losing its luggage. And that suit could gain class action status, representing “American British Air [sic] travelers who flew internationally between Sept. 5, 2005, and Wednesday [September 5, 2007].” (via Consumerist)

Upgraded: Helicopter fares to the airport
Downgraded: Helicopter business plans
U.S. Helicopter isn’t making the fat bank that they were hoping for. Their SEC filings include the warning that they may not be able to continue as a “going concern.” So what do they do? Fare sale! New Yorkers rejoice: $99 to JFK or Newark. Faster than a cab, for (nearly) the same price.

Upgraded: Memories of Hooters Air
Remember Hooters Air, the airline that featured flight attendants AND Hooters Girls onboard? If you think I’m kidding, you’re wrong. It existed. Seriously. 23-year old student and Hooters waitress Kyla Ebbert got kicked off a Southwest plane for wearing a skirt that was too short for the flight attendant. A bit overzealous? And now she’s milking the notoriety: She was on the freakin’ Today Show. Slow news day. So she showed a bit of leg (and maybe a little more). Note that Southwest flight attendants often wear shorts, and that’s usually more leg than I want to see from my front-line airline staff. (Thanks to reader J!)

Downgraded: The letter V
CondeNast writer Sarah Kerr offers her “awards” for the best travel related movies. And she calls her awards the “Travies.” Not to be confused with the “Travvies,” the travel blog awards. One letter V makes all the difference. I hereby insist that the film awards be pronounced “TRAY-vees.” See you in court, Sarah! (I kid, I kid.)

Upgraded (or Downgraded?): Silverjet wants to fly to Heathrow
Silverjet, the all-business class airline (a la Maxjet or L’Avion) already flies Newark to London-Luton. Now they want to fly to Heathrow. But to do that, they’ll need to merge or partner with another airline. This could be interesting: It would be the first of the all-business class airlines to merge with another party — presumably a legacy airline. Might be a way for a down-on-their-luck American carrier to pick up some sassy trans-Atlantic action?

Upgraded: FlightStats
FlightStats.com, which offers the most comprehensive suite of real-time flight information on the web, has added live-updating Google maps. Now, I still think that FlightAware’s maps are a little sexier for those looking to track a flight graphically. But FlightStats’ gate-arrival information is more relevant to travelers. I’ll still keep both sites in the toolkit.

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Summer is coming soon in the northern hemisphere, which means it’s time for the annual business class fare sales. As business travel slows, paid premium traffic slows along with it. So bring on the sales!

Many of these sales aren’t advertised as such. The airlines simply load a lower business class fare into the system, and it’s not necessarily available every day on every flight. These are usually “Z-fares,” i.e., they have a fare code that begins with the letter Z. These come with more restrictions than a typical business class ticket, and will often need to be purchased relatively far in advance — sometimes as far as 60 days.

Bottom line: Before you hit “purchase” on an expensive international coach ticket, check the business class fare.

Beyond the big carriers and their summer discounts, there are a couple other business class offers worth mentioning:

All-business class Silverjet is rolling out its own loyalty program — the “Freequent Flyer Program”, har har. If you join the club and buy a ticket on the airline, you get a redemption code for a free ticket. The promotion ends May 25, 2007.

Oasis International Airlines, the low-cost long-haul London to Hong Kong carrier (that plans to fly to Hong Kong to Oakland later this year) is similarly featuring a buy-one-get-one-free offer on their Hong Kong-London route. Buy one business class ticket for , get a transferable voucher for another business class ticket free. £1595 (~US$3200) including taxes buys you both tickets. Purchase the first ticket by June 15, 2007. The voucher is good through March 2008. (via RoadGladiator)

Related:
- Why are there no Y-UP fares to Europe or Asia?

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Silverjet, the latest entrant in the all-business class segment of travel between New York and London, has done something no other airline has ever dared: imposed mandatory fees to cover the environmental effects of the trip.

Silverjet, which is working with the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management, said the exact cost of the carbon charge had yet to be calculated, but was likely to be between £10 and £20 for each passenger.

Expedia and Travelocity recently partnered with third-party organizations like TerraPass to give customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets — monies that go toward planting trees and other carbon dioxide-reducing environmental projects. (If you want to go beyond offsetting your flights, you could also opt for the 8-week “carbon diet.”)

But Silverjet, which just began taking bookings for its service between Newark and London-Luton (flights start on January 25, 2007), is the first airline to require such a charge.

The move isn’t purely charitable. CEO Lawrence Hunt puts it succinctly: “If the airline industry does not do something about [emissions] then it will get regulated to hell by the European and UK governments.”

This might be the start of a trend among European airlines, but don’t expect Asian or American airlines to follow suit anytime soon.

Related:
- Reduced-guilt flying now readily available for online purchase
- Do we really need ANOTHER all-business class airline to London?
- Silverjet IPO enables third London-New York all-business-class airline
- Are open skies dirty skies?

A few years ago, Warren Buffett assessed the airline business this way:

…if a capitalist had been present at Kittyhawk back in the early 1900s, he should have shot Orville Wright. He would have saved his progeny money. But seriously, the airline business has been extraordinary. It has eaten up capital over the past century like almost no other business because people seem to keep coming back to it and putting fresh money in.

Sure enough, fresh money is coming into the business.

Silverjet, the latest entrant (alongside Maxjet and Eos) in the London-New York all-business-class space, successfully raised £25 million (approx. US$46.6 million) in an IPO. 75% of shares went to institutional investors, with management retaining 19%. While funding does not guarantee that the airline will actually fly, it’s certainly far more likely.

The company’s goal? To “offer passengers ‘the same level of service as EOS but at the same price as Maxjet.’” Flying from the London-area Luton airport, served primarily by discount airlines, Silverjet promises speedy check-in, as late as 30 minutes before departure.

Unlike Maxjet and Eos, Silverjet states that it plans to expand outside the transatlantic space:

The airline has already identified 30 routes that would suit the airline’s business model and started the licensing process for three long-haul routes outside North America.

We’ll be watching. But, perhaps like Warren Buffett, we won’t be buying the stock.

First it was Maxjet and Eos, the all-business-class airlines connecting New York and London, who introduced their service to compete against the major airlines. Now there will soon be another rival, if investors sufficiently capitalize upstart Silverjet in an IPO scheduled for May on London’s Alternative Investment Market.

Silverjet, which seemingly does not have a website as of yet, plans to operate 10 aircraft within three years, all with lie-flat seats. The primary route would be between London’s Luton airport and Newark. Like MaxJet, Silverjet intends to operate Boeing 767s.

But how much demand can there really be for airlines like this? Loads on MaxJet (which is also seeking to raise cash — $50M from hedge funds) and Eos aren’t great, though MaxJet optimistically sees the plane half full. Literally. Better than reports, but not great.

At the same time, the major airlines are lowering prices, offering greater flexibility, and slating for increased amenities. Plus, the power of the major airlines’ loyalty programs shouldn’t be underestimated. People really like collecting those miles…

This is getting ridiculous. We’ve now got business class service to Heathrow and Gatwick by the majors, plus Stansted and Luton on the startups. What’s next?: Will someone determine that London City airport needs nonstop business class service to White Plains or Islip?

I’d be very wary of investing my money in a new airline in such an already-crowded space.