Cityblogger doesn’t get out much these days, but doesn’t have any complaints. It has never been a great desire of his to spend miserable hours of his personal time embarked on company business abroad, having sampled the joys of corporate travel in the past. The high powered conferences in some exotic location which one only gets to enjoy through the dirt-encrusted window of the taxi en route to the airport. The hours in cattle class watching reruns of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, only to get to the cheap hotel to find one’s room is above the bar and Mr Ventura’s furry friends have set up home in one’s closet.

However, that said, he was very sorry to hear of Silverjet’s woes this morning. The business class airline which operates flights to Dubai and Newark, has sadly announced that it has been forced to suspend its operations, with its last flight departing from Dubai at 7.30am today. The shares were previously suspended on Friday last week after a long struggle to secure funding failed. Silverjet had signed a deal with US and Middle East-based fund Viceroy Holdings to inject much-needed cash into the airline, but an anticipated payment of $5m has yet to be received.

The company says it’s still busy trying to secure funding from investors but nothing has yet come of its efforts, and rising air fuel costs have also contributed to its losses. So it could soon be adios to the airline which is barely two years old, having floated in May 2006 on the Aim market. Pity the poor shareholders who have seen their shares, which are still suspended, plummet in value by a painful 92 per cent over the past 12 months.

But the airline’s difficulties won’t come as a surprise to City watchers. US-based business class rivals Maxjet and Eos recently folded. And while more optimistic commentators had thought this might open up the market for Silverjet, with the global credit crunch many major corporations are thinking twice about letting their employees enjoy jet lag, sorry, lavish trips abroad. Cityblogger knows of at least one major foreign bank which has banned foreign travel altogether, with not even trips on Brianair and that orange delight known as Easyjet allowed. Bankers are reduced to using plain old email and telephone and video conferencing to communicate with foreign clients. And no doubt enjoying the comfort of sleeping in their own beds!

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the City today BG’s advances have been spurned by Australian company Origin and Northern Rock is busy laying off staff, mainly in its sales departments, yet has raised eyebrows by doubling staff for its debt management division, according to documents seen by the BBC. Well, there’s nothing like sticking to what one knows!

Cityblogger wishes you an enjoyable weekend.

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