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Credit crunch claims second US Stansted service | Credit crunch claims second US Stansted service |
| Written by John Fenton | |
| Monday, 28 April 2008 | |
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![]() Eos rides into the sunset New York-based Eos was due to launch a Stansted-Dubai service this summer. It had recently slashed prices on its second Stansted-JFK service. Like MAXjet, which went bust at the end of January, Eos had tried to raise long-term funding but the deal collapsed, leaving the airline nowhere to go but the US bankruptcy court. CEO Jack Williams blamed the “challenging economic and credit environment” for the nosedive. Eos is the fourth US airline to go bust since the end of March as soaring oil prices and the credit crunch take a crippling toll. Having started 2008 with three US airlines serving the business market in the East of England, Stansted now has only American Airlines still standing to serve New York. Ironically, since analysts were sounding the death toll on its behalf a few weeks ago, Luton-based Silverjet is also still operating from the East of England to the States. Eos launched in 2005 with funding from West Coast venture capital firms. Return fares ranging from $2,700 to $3,400 were much lower than business class on larger competitors. Inevitably, the bigger carriers – American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and BA raised their game with the latter two announcing plans for their first ever all-business class flights. It was thought Eos had reached agreement on a new funding package last week but Williams said: “some issues arose that we could not overcome” and the financing fell through. It is believed that rising fuel prices, tight credit markets and the slowing economy are wreaking havoc on all US. carriers. But it’s the smaller, less well-funded companies that are proving unable to withstand the challenges. Aloha Air, ATA and Skybus have all halted operations in the past few weeks and Frontier has filed for bankruptcy but so far continued operating. Wall Street insiders say Eos expected to receive $50 million in new capital from a current investor – “financing needed to take us to corporate profitability in 2009.” Analysts say the latest events confirm their view that it is impossible for the smaller carriers to operate on a shoestring and win business from larger rivals.
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