Running all-business airlines is expensive. Eos has this week gone cap in hand to existing investors for a further US$50 million in order to achieve profitability by 2009. The airline is adding Stansted/Newark and London/Dubai services later this year and needs the finance, although chief executive Jack Williams says the airline was always clear that it would need additional funding before breaking even.

Lufthansa, meanwhile, has announced plans to expand its all business services. The route – to Pune in India – may come as a surprise but retrofitting a plane with 48 lie-flat seats isn’t cheap either. Lufthansa will have done its homework.

At the same time, Silverjet - which operates flies twice a day from Luton to Newark – has told the markets that it is in discussions with potential investors about a takeover. There have been rumours that Lufthansa and the billionaire Reuben Brothers, owners of Oxford Airport and existing Silverjet investors, were planning to look at the airline but sources close to the discussions say Middle Eastern money is much more likely.

Silverjet’s chief executive Lawrence Hunt was spotted recently in Abu Dhabi and with hundreds of billions of dollars of oil wealth swilling around, a buyer based in the emirate with a desire to play at airlines doesn’t seem too far of the mark.

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