A couple of days ago I flew a new all-business-class airline from New York to London, and here's my report: The Eos seat rules. Yes, fellow travelers, Eos Airlines has a better lie-flat seat than you will find on airlines now offering the best business-class products, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
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Eos, named for the winged Greek goddess of the dawn, promises something more like a corporate jet experience than the standard airline squeeze on its Boeing 757s, fitted with just 48 seats on an airplane that typically carries 180. Seats will fold down into beds six-feet-six inches long, outfitted with cashmere blankets and cotton sheets. Instead of tray tables, Eos seats will have large credenza-like surfaces, and "companion seats" for in-flight meetings. Fares will be around $6,500 round trip, about 20% below the high end of existing business-class fares. The company is starting with three planes and two round-trip flights per day.
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Got to go: got a flight to catch to the New York shows. It's an Eos - the new exclusive airline service from Stansted to JFK. It's all business class - none of the animal kingdom to contend with - and only 48 seats. With 21 sq ft of personal space I can do my sun salutations, do "sharesy" hors d'oevres with a neighboring tycoon and swathe myself in a cashmere travel blanket. Nearly a PJ!
Luxe airline Eos has an all-club-class 757, with 48 seats in place of the usual 200 (that's 21 square feet all to yourself!) and cashmere blankets.
Champagne glasses drained in the lounge, we head to our Boeing 757, 48 seats where normal flight configurations have 200, and lay eyes on the cabins. Our seats are the size of small Japanese hotel rooms, long enough when fully extended for a 6ft 6incher to stretch out (and I'm just 5ft 8in). Gentle classical music is playing in the background. . . And then comes lunch. Parma ham, mozzarella and roasted sweet peppers, followed by fillet of salmon and sole, and a chocolate soufflé, the latter deemed "damn good" by Doug. . . It's certainly comfortable enough as I lie back; more space than I can remember on BA's Club World. I'm asleep in moments, tucked into my cashmere blanket.
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It is clear that Eos is selling international first-class travel at business-class fares. It has also adopted the fare code R - the letter once use to flag Concorde service - as its computerized identity. . . One neat trick: All the Eos suites are configured so they have both window and aisle access. . . The Eos passengers I've talked to have all raved about the Eos suite, the helpful staff, the high-quality in-flight meals, the easy check-in procedure at Kennedy's new Terminal Four and the fast customs and immigration clearance at Stansted.
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How do you launch a luxury airline that simply has to stand out from the pack? If you're Dave Spurlock, you start with the seats.
The bar may be set high, but Spurlock knows exactly what Eos must do to exceed it. Says Spurlock: "I've flown so much international that the core deliverables in terms of quality and product innovation were well known." He ticks them off: 1) a lie-flat bed (ideally long enough to accommodate Spurlock's 6'3" frame); 2) the ability to work with a partner; 3) a high degree of privacy; and 4) unimpeded access to the aisle. In the rarified world of premium aircraft seats, nothing "off the rack" met those standards.
Spurlock explains, "We saw this as core to the launch of the airline. Period. We could go down a path of commoditizing what was out there, or innovating. So to be 'me too' just really doesn't fit who we are as an airline." He adds, "If you have a chance to innovate, why wouldn't you?"
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With the launch of two brand-new all-business-class airlines, a change is in the air. Will upstarts Eos and MAXjet really fly? A peek inside the cabin.
Eos is offering more than a nice blanket. Named for the winged Greek goddess of the dawn, the airline promises something akin to a corporate jet experience (albeit a jet outfitted by someone with rather spartan taste). Each of its three planes has just 48 seats (most 757s hold at least 180), with an unprecedented 21 square feet of personal space. The seats, which fold down into six-foot six-inch flat beds, are staggered, so you can't see your neighbor. Instead of tray tables, compartments have large credenza-like surfaces and "companion seats" for in-flight meetings. With just a few dozen passengers, escorts to speed you from curbside to gate, and flights that land at London's small Stansted airport (avoiding congested Heathrow but requiring a long cab ride into town), boarding, Spurlock crows, will be a cinch.
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Eos, which also flies from Stansted, is more luxurious. . . Eos offers a contemporary palette of muted greys and blacks, with just 48 state-of-the-art chairs in an aircraft that usually carries 200+ passengers. In fact, given that each seat has a huge 87in pitch, Eos feels more like a private jet or first-class cabin. . . Eos passengers stretch out on 78in of flat bed and snuggle down with cashmere blankets.
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"It's unlikely any other airline will feature seating as spacious. The seats give fliers a lie-flat chair and 21 square feet of space. "I tried out the seat last week," writes Joe Sharkey of The New York Times (free registration). "There's actually enough room to hold a conference with a colleague sitting in a fold-down seat, without touching knees."
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Eos, an upstart premium carrier, showed off its seating configuration yesterday at the annual National Business Travel Association convention in San Diego. Passengers will have 21 square feet of personal space, including lie-flat beds. That's more per-person space than in any other business-class cabin, Mr. Spurlock said in an interview. Eos has pledged that its fares will be about 25 percent lower than the approximately $8,000 "rack rate" of major carriers with top-level business-class cabins.
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Departing from London Stansted Airport, Eos' converted Boeing 757 aircraft carry just 48 passengers on the flight to New York City's JFK airport (standard 757s hold over 200) for an introductory fare of $5,000 round-trip. These pampered few will dine on nouvelle cuisine and watch first-run movies on personal DVD players, while recumbent on fully flat, almost 2-m-long beds.
The bed is the centerpiece of the positively decadent 1.95 sq m of space allocated to each passenger, which also features a companion seat and a retractable table for tête-à-têtes. The benefits aren't just limited to the air. With so few passengers to process, boarding, disembarking and baggage retrieval should be a breeze.
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"They picked the right airplane," said airline analyst Robert Mann of RW Mann & Co. "The 757 is the most efficient narrow-body airplane, period." Mann said Eos has several advantages over the traditional airlines, many of whom have been cutting costs desperately to try to keep fares as low as possible. "Eos has got a very efficient operating structure," Mann said. "They're not burdened by the complexity of the traditional hub-and-spoke business model."
Boutique hotels proliferated because some hoteliers figured out that there is a sizeable niche of travelers seeking style and experience while they're on the road. Could boutique airlines be next in the evolution of air travel? . . . Eos Airlines, started by former British Airways executive David Spurlock, took its maiden flight Oct. 18. The premium carrier features a Boeing 757 with 48 pod suites with lay-flat seats and fares promotion-priced for one way at $2,500.
"Part of the smarts of these niche products is that they are really niche," said David Melancon, president of FutureBrand, a New York brand consultancy. "They're focusing on the market. That's harder to do when you are mainstream because you offer baser-level product that serves lowest common denominator which is what carriers have been doing for a while."
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"I think they're putting their toe in a deep and lucrative market that Dave Spurlock knows real well" from his background with British Airways, said Robert W. Mann Jr., an industry consultant. ".my take is that the market is sufficiently deep and their need for the crumbs is sufficiently small and as long as they stay on target and deliver service, I think their prospects are pretty good."
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Eos has been formed by a team of US entrepreneurs led by David Spurlock, 38, who as a former BA executive has good knowledge of one of his main targets in the market for premium business travel. His group has $87m in equity funding, chiefly from three US private equity groups.
Eos is setting out to offer a superior product to both BA's Club World and Virgin Atlantic's Upper Class Suite, both with fully-flat beds, and is pitching its prices accordingly. It has leased three single-aisle Boeing 757s, with 48 seats rather than the 228 seats that the aircraft has in an all-economy configuration. . . For this Eos is giving passengers what it claims is a "unique suite seat", including 78-inch, fully flat beds, cashmere blankets, china crockery and a personal DVD player. "We've raised the bar on what business travellers should expect and deserve," says Mr Spurlock.
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Eos will fly Boeing 757's outfitted with 48 seats -- about a quarter of the number in typical 757's. Every seat will recline into a private 78-inch flat bed and be equipped with a cashmere blanket and Tempur-Pedic pillow.
The new service puts pressure on legacy airlines that fly to London. U.S. carriers especially are counting on profitable international routes to balance losses in the domestic market.
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Originally a biochemist from Stanford University, Mr Spurlock started his career at Genentech, the California biotechnology group. His MBA was also from Stanford. "He was very different to the standard British Airways person when he joined [in 1997]. He was noisy, he was erudite, clever and opinionated. And he was right," says a leading aviation analyst. "It is very hard to argue against some of his conclusions. He was a very good strategist and presenter, so it is not surprising he is fronting a new concept, he can be very persuasive."
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Space and comfort exert a significant pull over hard-to-please business passengers. But other considerations will also come into play when travelers decide whether to fly with Eos or its rival transatlantic start-up, Maxjet. Reaction among corporate travel managers and agents in the UK suggests the two airlines should appeal to passengers based within comfortable reach of London's Stansted airport."
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Mr. Spurlock believes the day of the "all things to all men" carrier are numbered, and that the future lies with niche airlines operating simple route networks. . . Mr. Spurlock has ripped out the interiors and thrown out 200 seats to cater for 48 business travelers in an environment that more closely resembles a corporate jet than a business class cabin. For instance, he claims that passengers will have up to one-third more floor area than on Virgin Upper Class - and a staggered seat layout that will allow more privacy than in anywhere but first class.
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"We've designed every aspect of the EOS experience specifically with the business traveler in mind," said Dave Spurlock, the airline's CEO and former director of strategy at British Airways. "We recognize that time in the air could be better spent relaxing and reviving for an upcoming business trip or to accomplish work along the way in privacy."
"We are going to bring innovation to an industry that has sadly lacked it for the last 30 years," said Spurlock. Eos will have just 48 bed-seats on its Boeing 757s.
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David Spurlock, founder and CEO of Eos and former director of strategic development for British Airways, said: "We've designed every aspect of the Eos experience specifically with the business traveler in mind. We recognize that time in the air could be better spent relaxing and reviving for an upcoming business trip or to accomplish work along the way in privacy."
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BAA Stansted's director of communications Mark Pendlington said yesterday: "We are delighted to welcome Eos to Stansted, and wish them every success with this exciting and unrivalled new service to New York. Business leaders have been telling us loud and clear that long-haul services from Stansted are a key component of business success, so we are pleased our hard work and efforts to deliver a transatlantic route has paid off. This new service brings yet more choice for business travelers within the region and provides further support for the growth ambitions of the East of England. Eos offers a unique concept to the international community to use and support this great new service they provide as we all need it to help sustain jobs, competitiveness and economic development."
A NEW business service from Stansted Airport to New York is all set for a successful take-off. The new transatlantic route from airline Eos was due to begin from the airport today. Eastbound flights will depart New York JFK at 7:05 pm and arrive at Stansted for 7:30 am. Flights westbound will leave Stansted at 10:30 am and arrive at New York JFK at 1:29 pm.
Eos, an airline aimed at trans-Atlantic business travelers, said Monday that it would start a daily round-trip flight between London and New York on Oct. 18, two weeks earlier than planned.
The airline will operate between Stansted Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport. The carrier has three Boeing 757 airliners with seating for 48 passengers instead of the standard 200.
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Purchase airline adds luxury flavor to NY-London service
"The cabin has the feel of a top-tier international first-class carrier, combined with the privacy of a corporate jet," said David Spurlock, Eos founder and chief executive officer. "What's so unique about Eos is our exclusive focus on the international business traveler. We're not trying to be all things to all people. We're trying to create a service atmosphere far different than traditional airlines."
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Eos, named for the Greek goddess of the dawn, is led by the former British Airways executive David Spurlock and offers daily flights with an initial fleet of three Boeing 757s, replacing the usual mixed-class configuration of 200 or more seats, to carry 48 passengers in "premium tailored suites" of about 2 square meters, or about 21 square feet. Seats recline into an almost 2-meter flat bed. Passengers can call up meals and snacks at any time. And a second seat is provided for colleagues, allowing them "to comfortably meet, work or dine together."
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There's a buzz among the NY-LON set as the world's first all-business-class transatlantic airline takes off. Eos aims to take the stress out of flying. With only 48 seats, each passenger gets 21 sq ft of personal space and a level of service that will keep even the most sky-high-maintenance celebrities happy.
