16th
The airline business simply sucks. In the history of the airlines the business overall has lost money, it is one of the few businesses that can claim that title, yet people still seem to always be attracted to it and start-up airlines continue to pop up (less will now I am sure).
About 2 years ago a few airlines popped up to offer all business class service between a few US cities and Europe. The last of them announced that they were closing up shop today, Silverjet.
I actually had the chance to spend some time with the CEO Lawrence Hunt in NYC about a year ago. Very sharp guy and really seemed to have a great plan for his airline, so I was sad today to see that it did not make it.
I guess Southwest is going to continue to be the only model that works, as it seems all others have failed.
