Named after the Greek goddess of the dawn, Eos said last week that it was covering all the costs of running its business apart from its corporate overheads less than eight months after launching.

The new US airline, which is headed by the former British Airways executive David Spurlock, flies between New York and London. It has just one flight per day, with corporate travellers charged £2,500 to cross the Atlantic.

Spurlock said Eos had load factors of 60% in May, but that the figure had risen to 75% at the start of this month.

He predicted that June would be "materially better" than May, adding: "We are still seeing an explosion of growth within the business."

He said that a load factor of 60% was "getting to be a very good performance for a premium airline".

"Today through next week, we're booked at 75%, and roughly 25% of our seats are sold in the last week."

The airline was started with $87m (£47m) of cash raised privately from a number of investors, including Maveron, the venture capital fund founded by Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz.

Eos is planning to start a second daily flight between JFK Airport in New York and London this September.

MAXjet, a rival operation, started its own businessclass service in November, and a third airline, the AIMlisted Silverjet, is planning its launch for the autumn.