Owning a second home in Europe is surely many people’s idea of a dream come true. Problem is, the commute can be a nightmare.
But a new crop of airlines may offer a solution for second-home owners willing to shell out a couple of thousand dollars for a quick trip to their weekend getaway. There are now four all-business-class airlines operating primarily between New York and Paris or London, with some flights to London from Washington and Las Vegas as well.
While they all aim for the business flier, the airlines say they have attracted more leisure travelers than expected, with fares that often are cheaper than normal business class.
Three of these airlines — MAXjet Airways Inc., Silverjet Aviation Ltd. and L’Avion — offer round-trip ticket prices starting in the $1,400-to-$2,000 range, including taxes, with occasional sale fares that are lower. The fourth carrier, Eos Airlines, offers more of a first-class ride between New York and London, and its fares are priced to match that level of service, starting at $3,280 round trip.
The main appeal of these airlines: between 48 and 102 business-class seats on each plane (instead of closer to 200 on a typical transatlantic flight); an easier process checking in and getting through security (these airlines have their own screening areas in some terminals); and a quicker trip through customs in Europe, since these carriers fly to less crowded airports — Stansted and Luton near London, and Orly South near Paris.
“It’s not so much about what we’ve added — it’s about what we’ve taken away,” said Jack Williams, chief executive of Eos. “All the pain points in the process of traveling have been eliminated.”
David Liederman and his wife, Susan, of Katonah, N.Y., are among those second-home owners who have discovered these business-class carriers, and they have flown MAXjet from Kennedy Airport to Stansted three times. Since their second home is near Perugia, Italy, they connect at Stansted to the low-cost carrier Ryanair to fly to Rome.
Liederman, an entrepreneur in the food business, estimates they have made the trip across the Atlantic about 20 times during the last three years, yet have managed to fly comfortably without spending a fortune.
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“On MAXjet, we’ve never spent more than $1,500 total for both of us — $750 each,” Liederman said, though that price reflected an early promotional fare. The current lowest published round-trip fare from New York to London is $1,548, including taxes, but lower fares may be available through special promotions.
MAXjet and Eos, which also flies to Stansted, have been flying since late 2005, while Silverjet and L’Avion began service in January. The two newcomers are positioned between MAXjet, which offers fewer frills — for example, a seat that doesn’t recline fully flat — and Eos, which gives each passenger a 21-square-foot space with a seat that reclines to a flat 6-foot, 6-inch bed. Silverjet flies from Newark to Luton airport near London for about $1,950, including taxes. L’Avion flies from Newark to Orly South airport near Paris; the current lowest fare is about $1,600 with taxes.
Michel Berty, a retired technology executive whose home base is in the Hamptons, has already flown L’Avion six times. He and his wife own a pied-a-terre in Paris and a home in St. Tropez, and travel to France at least once a month.
“What I’m looking for is to avoid wasting time, and to be able to sleep,” he said, explaining that he appreciates that the flight attendants are friendly and don’t wake passengers with announcements in the middle of the night.
” Lawrence Hunt, chief executive of Silverjet, said half of the carrier’s customers were leisure travelers, a figure he attributed to travelers’ growing desire to avoid an unpleasant experience at either end of a vacation.
Indeed, Charles Giessen, a technology executive who regularly commutes between New York and London, has flown with MAXjet, Eos and Silverjet primarily for business but recently bought tickets on Silverjet for his wife and three children to meet him in New York.”Anybody who flies between New York and London for leisure and deals with the whole airport experience going back and forth — it’s not my definition of leisure,” he said.
Of the three airlines, he finds Silverjet the best combination of price and service, giving high marks to the quick and painless check-in process compared to the chaos at Heathrow.”They have a virtually private security checkpoint in London, and that’s an incredible difference — the line is never more than five or 10 people,” he said.”At Heathrow, you don’t know if it’s going to be a 30-minute check-in or three hours.”
For travelers with homes outside Europe’s major cities, another advantage of flying to Luton, Stansted or Orly is that they are hubs for low-cost carriers like Ryanair and easyJet, which offer direct service to smaller airports in vacation destinations, especially along the Mediterranean coast.
But most of all, better service is the factor passengers cite as the main reason they have gotten hooked on these airlines.
Wendy Schmidt, a management consultant based in New York City, and her husband, John Schmidt, a filmmaker whose company is based in London, frequently travel between their home in Riverdale and their flat in London and have become loyal Eos customers. That commitment was sealed during a harrowing car ride to the airport in London earlier this year, when traffic was backed up due to a fire.
“My husband got a call on his cell phone saying, ‘This is Brian from Eos Airlines, we noticed you haven’t checked in yet — will you be flying with us tonight?’
” Schmidt recalled.” He said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll be waiting for you and get you checked in.’ We made it within five minutes of our flight time. With any other airline, the doors would have been shut — we wouldn’t have been allowed on the plane, nor would they have called us.”
