Highfliers

	An Armrest of One's Own
	Photo: EOS Airlines

It used to be that gourmet meals, turndown service and cushy leather seats were the special touches one could count on when flying business class to London or other points abroad.

But thanks to the growing number of Americans flying overseas and the prospect of collecting lucrative transatlantic fares, some airlines are aiming to capture valuable market share by kicking up the level of premium services they provide.

For newcomer Eos Airlines, the strategy appears to be working.

The airline's formula of providing lavish service at competitive prices -- along with the unprecedented amount of personal space allotted to passengers who board its specially designed planes -- is quickly winning over business-class fliers.

Eos has been flying daily from New York City's JFK International Airport to London's Stansted Airport since October 2005, and it recently increased its number of flights from one to two per day in order to meet increasing customer demand.

The price of a round-trip unrestricted ticket on Eos is $6,850; other airlines offer a similar premium service for as much as $9,000.

Single Market Focus

It's no wonder the competition is so intense: For the airlines, transatlantic fares are far more profitable than those from domestic flights.

And international travel is on the rise.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that international travel from the U.S. increased 6% during the past year, compared to 2005.

Eos's founder and Chief Strategic Officer Dave Spurlock is an airline executive whose experience includes five years as director of strategy with British Airways (BAB).

Spurlock says the inspiration to create Eos was in part a result of a weakness he saw within his own industry.

"I realized the international airline industry was 20 years behind other industries, because it hadn't migrated to a set of specialists who were the best at what they did. Instead, it was dominated by a 'be all things to all people' model that wasn't serving anybody well," he explains.

"It occurred to me that it was possible to launch a business specializing in one segment of this market -- the business traveler who's flying overseas."

Spurlock looked to successful luxury brands in other industries to see how they built a specialty company for one type of customer.

"We looked at auto manufacturers like BMW that focus solely on the high-performance, high-end car market. In retail, it was places like Williams-Sonoma, Tiffany and Ann Taylor, where the store layout and service protocols are all dedicated to one type of consumer."

To view Anne McDarby's video take of today's Top 1% segment, click here.