Silverjet secures two extended range 767s

Silverjet has secured two further Boeing 767 extended range aircraft from Thomsonfly for delivery in March 2008 for an undisclosed sum.

The aircraft have been owned and operated by Britannia Airways – now Thomsonfly – since new.

Both aircraft have the powerful variant of General Electric CF6 engines, enabling greater take off performance and range, allowing the low fares all-business class carrier to operate on most long haul routes from its Luton base.

The 767s have an operational range of more than 6,000 miles from Luton and will be capable of operating to Delhi, Johannesburg, Mauritius, Shanghai and Los Angeles carrying 100 passengers, according to the airline.

The new aircraft are fully certified for Extended Twin Engined Operations (“ETOPS”) to 180 minutes, meaning they can fly on the shortest available route over stretches of water being 180 minutes from the nearest diversion airport.

This enables Silverjet to reduce flying time between London and Newark by up to 45 minutes compared to airlines without ETOPS, and reduce fuel costs.

Meanwhile, the airline’s traffic figures for last month showed a load factor of 55.3% with 7,459 revenue seats sold from 13,500 made available on routes to Newark and Dubai, which was launched on November 18

Chief executive Lawrence Hunt said: “We are delighted to have completed the purchase of two further high quality long range aircraft on highly attractive terms relative to current aircraft prices, and to have announced another record set of traffic statistics.

“Yields continue to strengthen which is further testament to the market endorsement of our product. We are seeing very high numbers of repeat customers and New York sales in November was the best month to date.

“The launch of our Dubai service has exceeded management’s expectations and feedback from customers and the media has been outstanding, in particular the reaction to our private terminal experience and revolutionary 30 minute check-in.

“Yields continue to strengthen and forward bookings remain strong.

“Despite the well publicised economic uncertainty, we believe that Silverjet is well positioned to take advantage of business travellers desire to reduce their travel budgets. Silverjet’s fares are from £999 return, representing a typical 50% discount off competitor business class fares.

“We are seeing an increasing number of enquiries from corporate customers and registrations for our frequent traveller programme, the Silverjet Set, introduced last month have exceeded 500 companies.”

by Phil Davies

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