16 June, 2008: An attempt to rescue all business class carrier Silverjet has failed and all 420 staff have been made redundant.
A deal with prospective purchaser Kingplace, signalled by the carrier´s administrators last week, collapsed on Friday.
Joint administrators Nigel Atkinson and Mark Fry of Begbies Traynor said that as a result of "unusually complex negotiations with third parties" Kingplace was no longer able to acquire Silverjet as a going concern.
"We are extremely disappointed to have had to make these redundancies which we had been working to prevent.
"We continue to negotiate the sale of Silverjet´s assets for the benefit of the company´s creditors and will provide an update as soon as we are able."
The Luton-based carrier´s CEO Lawrence Hunt had been confident of winning backing from a long term invstor to relaunch the airline on services to New York and Dubai.
But today´s news suggests that there is now little chance of Silverjet ever flying again, despite strong support from the travel trade and passengers for the concept.
