Silverjet's on-again, off-again plans to relaunch service officially ceased in June with the carrier unable to secure necessary financing to make its return. CEO Lawrence Hunt in a June 16 e-mail said, "It is with great sadness that we have decided to draw a line under our efforts to raise additional funding for Silverjet. As you know, we have been battling for months to gain the additional investment we need to reach critical mass. In the end, the investment climate has become too cautious and the economic conditions very difficult for us to gain the scale we needed." One week prior to that statement, the carrier said it was on track to relaunch all-business-class service on its Newark-London and London-Dubai routes, shut down at the end of May. Silverjet on June 10 said it expected to complete contractual terms for a relaunch with Ireland-based Kingplace Ltd. Within a week, however, it became evident the carrier would not gain the financing. "My focus now is to ensure that Silverjet is wound up as smoothly as possible and to ensure our amazing team of 400 people find new jobs as quickly as possible," Hunt said.
Capacity Cuts ContinueDelta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and US Airways in June revised fourth-quarter schedule plans. Delta said it now expects to reduce domestic available seat miles 13 percent in the second half of the year, "increasing the amount of capacity pull down another three points" from its previously anticipated domestic seat grown, president and CFO Ed Bastian said at the Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference. US Airways in the fourth quarter plans to remove up to 8 percent of domestic available seat miles, a revision of its anticipated fourth-quarter cuts of up to 4 percent. Northwest adjusted its plans to reduce its system mainline capacity in the fourth quarter by up to 9.5 percent, compared with the same period in 2007. The carriers join American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines in recently revising cuts for the second half of the year
(BTNonline, June 9).
Delta Inks Registered Traveler PactDelta Air Lines in June became the first legacy carrier to sponsor Registered Traveler lanes through an agreement with Verified Identity Pass' Clear. The companies this summer plan to launch the program at Delta terminals in New York's John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia and Los Angeles International airports. As Cincinnati and Salt Lake City airports already operate the Registered Traveler program, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport plans to launch lanes, the program soon will operate at Delta's major hubs. Delta plans to embark on a marketing campaign to target its SkyMiles frequent flyer members, host enrollment stations at lounges in the Atlanta airport and offer SkyMiles members bonus miles for Clear membership, which costs $100 per year, not including a $28 U.S. Transportation Security Administration screening fee.