UPDATE: Eos Airlines, All-business Carrier, Will Close Operations
TEL AVIV (Dow Jones) - Eos Airlines, a premium-class airline operating flights between New York and London , said on Saturday that it filed for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy law and would wind down its operations.
The all-business-class carrier had needed, and was unable to secure, additional capital in "today's extremely challenging economic and credit environment," the carrier's chief executive officer, Jack Williams , said in a statement.
The company said it was close to agreeing on an investment that would have enabled its operations to turn profitable in 2009, but "some issues arose that we could not overcome."
The company filed its petition for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York .
It said it would operate two flights on Sunday - both from Stansted London to Kennedy Airport in New York . It canceled all other flights and said it would cut almost all its staff and end operations.
Eos, based in Purchase, N.Y., is the latest of several U.S. and foreign airlines that have closed shop because of high jet-fuel costs, difficult credit markets, tough competition, and wavering consumer demand.
And of the four carriers launched in the all-business niche over the past two years, the closings of Eos this weekend and MaxJet in December leave only Silverjet of the U.K. and L'Avion of Paris .
The stock of Silverjet, which flies London-Dubai and London - New York , jumped earlier this month when the carrier said it was in talks about a possible takeover. The company didn't name the suitor.
L'Avion last week reported an improved load factor, the critical airline- industry metric that shows how full a carrier's planes are.
Analysts had considered Eos the strongest of the rivals in the group, and its failure may spark concern for the future of the remaining competitors.
All-business transatlantic company  has filed for  bankruptcy protection. The United States based company ran flights between London  and New York's .

Eos, named after Greek , flew what will likely be its last service on Sunday. Founded in 2005, the airline had had difficulty in securing investment to keep it going, starting last year. Plans had been aiming for securing funding to keep the service running up until 2009, but this failed and the business has insufficient funds to continue.

Several other airlines have closed worldwide recently over difficult conditions in the industry, including all-business carriers like Eos. Last year the sudden collapse of  left passengers stranded on Christmas Eve. The company offered services connecting London with New York,  and . Eos had been considered by analysts as the most viable of the transatlantic all-business carriers.