19 June 2008

Arabjet "a bunch of timewasters" says Silverjet boss

Silverjet MD Lawrence Hunt has rubbished reports that Middle East proposed airline Arabjet will come to the rescue of his failed all-business carrier.

Hunt called the airlineââ¬â¢s board ââ¬Åâœa bunch of timewastersââ¬~ and said it had been in negotiations with Silverjet since February with no results.

He said: ââ¬ÅâœThey canââ¬â¢t even raise the Ã&#pound;125,000 needed to secure negotiations with the administrators. They just do not have the funding. We presented business plans to them way back and they just did nothing. They havenââ¬â¢t got anything else to do because they canââ¬â¢t even launch their own airline, never mind Silverjet.ââ¬~

Arabjetââ¬â¢s website says it plans to launch an upmarket airline serving premium passengers within the Middle East region.

Silverjet was grounded on May 30 after failing to secure funding. It made no profit in the last 16 months.

Hunt was forced to make the carrierââ¬â¢s 420 staff redundant on Friday after a handful of bids failed to materialise into concrete purchases.

Hunt added: ââ¬ÅâœArabjet are just flying a kite. Anyway, thereââ¬â¢s nothing left to buy, except the website which I own, because the CAA has now revoked all the licences.ââ¬~

By Dinah Hatch

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• SILVERJET? GIVE ME BRASS ANYDAY...
  
  

  You can well understand the fortmer operators of SILVERJET for being bitter. But this is nothing new, when British Airways took over British Caledonian the speed of burial of the airline was amazing , BA even hired a construction crew to knock down an exterior brick wall so a huge oil painting of BCALs chairman could be removed from the boardroom.. These days with aircraft leasing deals, it's not a matter of where the aircraft are but how many can you take. It's not a requirement that only new aircraft can be used by startups personally I'd rather fly in a crate that had been round the block a few times and knows the airports .... Seriously Silverjet potential buyers would do well to look at http://eventandroadshowplanners.com itws not so much about bthe aircraft but how much you can afford to mbuy the 'slots'! http://eventandroadshowplanners.com

  By JULIAN BRAY, Thursday, June 26, 2008