Silverjet raises £25 million for its venture

Silverjet, which emerged as a new business class airline for the London-New York route last month, has reportedly raised £25.3 million from an initial public offering of shares.

The airline plans to start a twice-daily service from London Luton to Newark airport near New York within the next six to nine months.

As per the information available, after raising £25m in a flotation on the London market, 75 percent of the company was placed with institutional investors. The management has retained just less than 19 percent of the shares.

The new airline hopes to appeal to small- and medium-sized businesses, up-market leisure customers and corporate clients looking to save money. Silverjet chief executive Lawrence Hunt said that with two million passengers a year flying between London and New York, it needed only a tiny share of the market to be financially viable.

According to Times Online, a mixture of institutional and other investors have backed airline’s plans to operate twice-daily services on Boeing 767s fitted with 100 inclined flat-bed seats at average fares of £999. 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.

Hunt says business travellers want three main things: to get through the airport quickly, a flat bed seat and as low a fare as possible. “Getting through the airport at Heathrow and Gatwick is becoming increasingly difficult,” he reportedly said. Hunt believes that flying from Luton is no disadvantage for an all-business service.