The failure of Silverjet this week to secure its funding lifeline from an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates spells the end for the great British business-class-only experiment. In the space of just six months, first Maxjet, then Eos and finally Silverjet – all offering premium-only services between London and New York - were forced to stop flying.

Both Eos and Silverjet managed to generate reasonable and sometimes excellent levels of traffic so the market was obviously there for such services. But the problem for them was not their lack of popularity but their inability to raise fares fast enough to cope with the rising price of oil.

As start-up carriers, Eos and Silverjet were forced to pitch their prices at levels below those of their big competitors – British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Yet while Virgin and BA in particular have been able to push up their fuel surcharges, this option was unpalatable for new carriers trying to win a share of the market. It was to prove fatal.

It is interesting to note that in the same week that Silverjet finally had to admit defeat, American Airlines announced it was to end its services between Stansted and JFK – just eight months after they were originally launched. Many saw the flights as merely a spoiler for the all-business airlines flying on the same route and now that American’s work is done the airline has dropped them.

Yet that’s being unfair – the airline industry is in crisis over the price of oil. Several airlines, American among them, have said that the traditional airline business model does not work when oil costs so much. It announced last week that it planned to cut its overall capacity dramatically. A new, relatively unproven route from Stansted was always a likely casualty.

I said earlier that the business-class-only experiment was over but how’s this for a coincidence? This week, Airbus announced that British Airways had handed it a firm order for two of its A318s. What will BA use them for? Only to launch its planned business-class-only service between London City and New York next year.

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