Eos Airlines Ceases Operations

[PhilDernerJr]

http://eosairlines.com/

Wow. I did not see this coming!!

[Iberia A340-600]

Beat me by one second, Phil.

I am also very surprised. I wouldn't be surprised to see Silverjet go next...

[LGA777]

Really sad news and did not see this one coming !

http://www.eosclass.com/

Looks like a chance to still get a few shots Sunday. I wonder how much this will help Silverjet as I here they have been on life support ?

Best of Luck to the Eos Employees !

LGA777

[T-Bird76]

Surprised but not surprised, these niche carriers server a very limited market and with the economics of today's airline industry it was matter of time. Sad for the ppl of EOS.

[nikon50bigma]

Wow, so many airlines have gone belly up so to speak in 2008.

[DHG750R]

Very sad , I feel for the employees.. Guess that $50mil financing I read about Thursday fell thru.

[Alex T]

My turn to chime in...

I had just gone to visit my friend at EOS who is/was a F/A for them. We were discussing the 50 Mill and assumed it had gone through. This was to push them to 2009 and if DXB had not worked for them EOS was going to file CH11 anyway, just not this soon.

The financing that was supposed to happen I guess did not hence the expedidated filing of CH11.

My friend is currently working the 8:30pm departure out of JFK right now, and I am absolutely sick and gutted to find this out. Hopefully the best of luck to him and the many other EOS employees.

Alex

[Nonstop2AUH]

Sad for the employees but you could kind of see this coming, with their tiny niche and soaring fuel prices there were just no economies of scale to be able to work through the downturn. Would have been crazy for any investor to sink further capital into a situation like this. In recent weeks they had kept up the branding campaign, putting out alot of releases from the "lifestyle officer" and even producing a lifestyle magazine (future airline collectible for sure). While they were rebranding as the 'unairline,' it turns out even unairlines have to buy fuel and sell tickets, no hype machine (and they were really good at hype) can overcome that fact.

The financiers, lawyers and fashionista types who have been using Eos as their NY-London shuttle will either go private or, more likely (once they get over the shock of having to travel with people not like themselves), get reacquainted with the not-too-shabby offerings of BA Club and Virgin Upper Class. The other day I did a Kayak search on business class flights to London, and Eos was coming up for the first time as the cheapest. Guess you can post crazy prices for flights you know you are not likely to operate! In any event, perhaps they can keep the magazine going -- it is more likely to turn a profit than the airline would have been...

PS You can see the bankruptcy filing here:
http://www.kccllc.net/documents/9914000 ... 000003.pdf (http://www.kccllc.net/documents/9914000/9914000080426000000000003.pdf)
Interesting to see who the creditors and owners are. Apparently an affiliate of the Qatar government had taken a 24% stake.

[JZ1]

would L'Avion be the next victim, too?

[Delta777LR]

Very sad to hear about this, I never saw that coming at all..

[Matt Molnar]

would L'Avion be the next victim, too?
That was my first thought too...having heard so little about them since their launch, I thought maybe they had died already and I had missed the bulletin. They're still alive, but I can't imagine they'd be doing any better than the London carriers, and probably a lot worse.

[Tom_Turner]

I imagine more airlines are going to go out of business; as are many other non aviation companies in the next few months. Forget niche players; United would have been out of business several times over by now had it not been repeatedly protected.

Tom

[mirrodie]

Surprised but not surprised, these niche carriers server a very limited market and with the economics of today's airline industry it was matter of time. Sad for the ppl of EOS.

I was thinking along the same lines. Its a good product but not at a good time.

[Matt Molnar]

Eos faced multiple negative influences. The most obvious is fuel costs. But then there's also the problems of their cornerstone market: linking the financiers of the world's two greatest financial hubs, Wall Street and Canary Wharf. With the sorry state of the finance industry, massive layoffs and a general struggle to turn a profit, it's safe to assume their travel budgets have taken a hit. A few firms canceling their contracts with Eos could have left their planes pretty empty. There's also the major problem of not one, but two competing services soon to be launched by British Airways, which has exponentially deeper pockets and vast marketing resources.

[Nonstop2AUH]

http://www.aviation.com/firstclass/0802 ... igger.html (http://www.aviation.com/firstclass/080215-eos-airlines-getting-bigger.html)

Interesting read on where these guys thought they were just a couple of months ago. Either things turned on them really fast, or they were putting out a lot of wishful thinking, or probably both.

Of particular interest is the claim that they had 200 corporate contracts, including with "nine of the world's top 10 corporate banks." While on the surface that may have sounded reassuring, these contracts are not necessarily exclusive, apparently all but one of the bank contracts wasn't...i.e. 9 of the 10 contracts simply meant that Eos was an officially approved supplier for the banks (obviously, at a negotiated discount fare) along with others.

[SengaB]

Just got back from JFK..The pilot ESS004 (N401JS)and the controller were talking about the airline. The pilot said they have 2 remaining flights that have to come in ESS007 and a EOS charter flight.
This self described old pilot stated that this was the best airline he ever flew for.
Senga

[AirtrafficController]

EOS Flight #7 just landed on 13L
N403JS http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6225767

[LGA777]

One thought I had today. With the failure of first Maxjet, and now Eos, and with Silverjet bleeding cash and on many followers of the industries failure list, and the fact that earlier US Luxury carriers such as MGM Grand Air, Air One, and McClain all failed, I don't think we may see another all luxury type such carrier for a long time. I just don't see how anyone wanting to start such a venture will be able to attract enough investors and capital to ever get off the ground.

The biggest competition Eos had IMO was not Silverjet, or BA, or Virgin but instead the Netjets of the world. Again IMO the type of clientell Eos was designed for who could afford the price of their ticket could also afford (and would prefer) and even higher fare to fly on a G4, G5, or Global Express out of TEB or HPN on their schedule, not Eos's.

Regards

LGA777

[cancidas]

One thought I had today. With the failure of first Maxjet, and now Eos, and with Silverjet bleeding cash and on many followers of the industries failure list, and the fact that earlier US Luxury carriers such as MGM Grand Air, Air One, and McClain all failed, I don't think we may see another all luxury type such carrier for a long time. I just don't see how anyone wanting to start such a venture will be able to attract enough investors and capital to ever get off the ground.

The biggest competition Eos had IMO was not Silverjet, or BA, or Virgin but instead the Netjets of the world. Again IMO the type of clientell Eos was designed for who could afford the price of their ticket could also afford (and would prefer) and even higher fare to fly on a G4, G5, or Global Express out of TEB or HPN on their schedule, not Eos's.

Regards

LGA777
ron, i'm willing to bet that netjets (and other operators like it) is the reason EOS failed. they just offer so much more to thier customers in terms of flexability and security.

[Alex T]

Just got back from JFK..The pilot ESS004 (N401JS)and the controller were talking about the airline. The pilot said they have 2 remaining flights that have to come in ESS007 and a EOS charter flight.
This self described old pilot stated that this was the best airline he ever flew for.
Senga


Yep, the chief pilot also came from TWA/AA, they are DH STN-CAI, then doing the charter CAI-STN, then DH back to JFK and Eos will forever be gone/done.

As for why Eos failed, the truth of matter is loads were very well, yield was working, the business plan was working, but the combo of the fuel rising, and the fact the investor withdrew the 50 million dollars at last minute left eos scrambling and could not pay the May bill hence the expedition of filing CH11.

The flights were flight profitable and always were since 8 months after they started the flights, the 50 million they were supposed to get was to push them into COMPANY profitable by 2009. However we won't ever know that now.

Alex

[PhilDernerJr]

I know several pilots and F/As that worked for Eos. A shame, but I think all that got involved knew that this type operation was a risk. Best wishes to them all.

[kc2aqg]

As mentioned, this is the problem with catering to a niche market in a flailing economy. Definitely sad to see another great airline bite the dust, and all in such a short time period as well.

Does anyone have any guesses or actual information regarding where their 757's will end up? Are they leased or owned by EOS? Since they're ETOPS qualified birds, I would love to see them join the TATL 757 fleets of DL or NW or DLNW or other Pratt powered fleets.

[markg]

The biggest competition Eos had IMO was not Silverjet, or BA, or Virgin but instead the Netjets of the world. Again IMO the type of clientell Eos was designed for who could afford the price of their ticket could also afford (and would prefer) and even higher fare to fly on a G4, G5, or Global Express out of TEB or HPN on their schedule, not Eos's.


Not necessarily! Our company allows business class travel across the Atlantic, but certainly not any kind of corporate jet, except in very very rare circumstances for the CEO of the American division, and higher people in our German division. We were getting ready to promote EOS as a cheaper and more efficient alternative to CO/BA/VS from EWR, as STN is closer to our London office.

[Alex T]

Does anyone have any guesses or actual information regarding where their 757's will end up? Are they leased or owned by EOS? Since they're ETOPS qualified birds, I would love to see them join the TATL 757 fleets of DL or NW or DLNW or other Pratt powered fleets.


Leased. Most of them came from Aero Mexico which they themselves got from ATA.

Not sure where the birds would go.

As I said to tommy maybe wishful thinking is someone would buy the certif like max jet got and come back as full charter service.

Alex

[PhilDernerJr]

From conversations I'm hearing, 757s are in good demand, but the Pratt engines are an issue for certain airlines that would love to grab them up (not implying my own airline).