The high life

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GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Jack Williams, CEO of Eos.

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Premium seats mean big bucks in the battle for the skies. Jack Williams, CEO of business class-only airline Eos, tells Claire Ferris-Lay about the carrier's new route to Dubai.

When Concorde went out of service in 2003 the world lost an icon, BA lost a British institution and the aviation industry lost speed. But what the world lost in many ways, it gained in others.

Today business class passengers, accounting for just 10-15% of paying plane seats, provide airlines with as much as 30% of their revenues according to Peter Belobaba, head of the MIT Global Industry Airline Programme. Luxury is fast becoming the new speed.

"Anyone can put on a better bed or better food," says Jack Williams, the CEO of business class-only airline Eos. "But we took an airplane made for 220 people and outfitted it for 48 and took away the crowd.

Eos is part of a new breed of airlines focusing not only on the lucrative ticket price the business class traveller can afford, but also luxury. Rising fuel costs have affected the entire aviation business but the increased need for business class and first class tickets has led to more airlines concentrating on providing an improved service for their most valued customers, the business class flyers who, despite the weak dollar and expensive fuel costs, still have work to do.

"Eos is the only all-premium single cabin service in the business marketplace today," says Williams.

"Emirates, BA and Virgin all provide a very nice premium service but Eos provides what we call a ‘category one' service. If you want to have the Eos experience you have to get on an Eos plane, you can't get it anywhere else," he says.

Eos passengers are greeted with champagne cocktails upon departure, a four course meal during their flight, Bose noise canceling earphones and even pyjamas.

Most importantly for the business traveller, they also have enough room to either relax or continue to work in their 21 sq ft of personal space and horizontal flat beds. There is also a ‘premium' price to pay for this luxury. With fares ranging from US$2750 with a seven-day advance purchase to US$6500 for an unrestricted round-trip ticket, the tickets are expensive but at least 20% cheaper than the business class tickets of most large carriers, the airline boss claims.

Eos, which was founded in 2005 by Dave Spurlock, ex-director of strategy at British Airways, is still a relatively young airline and up until this year has focused on just one transatlantic route between London's Stansted Airport and New York's JFK.

Now the airline plans to start a route between Stansted and Dubai, due to start on July 6. It will also launch an extended route between New Jersey's Newark International Airport to Stansted Airport from May 5. "It has been on our radar for quite some time and has always been part of our long-term strategy. The entire market is growing significantly and with Eos being a premium product we decided it would be in Dubai we put our next airplane," explains Williams.

He expects the seven days a week daily service to be a popular choice for business travellers and is already predicting a high percentage of seats to be filled. "We are already taking bookings but it is still some way away. Business flyers tend to leave booking flights until nearer the time. As we get nearer, we expect more. When the route is six months old, we expect to be selling between 70-75% of our seats.

Eos currently leases seven 757's, and plans to expand its fleet after it starts the new routes.

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