There’s nothing like a short, sharp jab to the lower chest and a crotch-numbing dip in frigid waters to start the week. The jab came in the form of an early Sunday morning text from my friend Bruce in Moscow who sent word that the all-premium carrier Eos Airlines has just gone into Chapter 11.

The dip has become an annual ritual with Mats to celebrate the opening of the summer house in Sweden and this year involved a very rapid, ungraceful jump rather than dive into the Baltic (temperature about 9ºC) and a speedy ascent up the ladder to bundle up. While we were drying off, I texted Bruce back to verify it was true. Seconds later he confirmed that it was no rumour and that Eos would be operating its final flights over the next 24 hours.

News of collapsing carriers isn’t such big news at the moment, particularly the premium sort. Runways around the world are littered with carcases of all-premium concepts that never quite made it (anyone recall the days of MGM Grand?) for the long haul but I was a little stunned by the sudden disappearance of Eos because I had breakfast with the senior management only days before and they couldn’t have been chirpier about their prospects.

They were relieved that they had their letter of intent for an additional $50m of financing and were gearing up for the launch of their Newark service.

I have sampled Eos a number of times and it’s a shame that they didn’t make a go of it. While I wasn’t exactly a fan of flying across the Atlantic in a tarted-up 757, the price was right, there was as much space as on BA First and with enough business to do in the back of the car it wasn’t so bad having to travel to Stansted with its speedy security set-up and the airline’s fast boarding procedure.

Eos got most things right but there are a few lessons to learn:

1 They relied too much on the US market and should have marketed themselves more heavily in the UK to build awareness.

2 The crew should have been a mix of British and Americans. At times the service felt a bit too robotic and charmless.

3 They might have done a better job disguising the provenance of the aircraft – all the Spanish safety signs made you wonder where in Latin America the plane was acquired and how well it was maintained in its previous life.

4 Special offers are never a good idea for a premium brand.

5 Letters of intent are not unlike departure times: they’re only useful when you stick to the schedule and are officially airborne.

I was due to fly on Eos next week but will now take my London-New York business back to BA. It took me a while to switch over from Heathrow to Stansted but the combination of price, privacy and a painless airport experience made me a convert. There’s also a certain satisfaction in supporting a small, emerging brand in a deadly competitive market.

All eyes are now on the last man standing and, if we’re to believe the press reports, Silverjet is on shaky ground. A few weeks ago the rumour was that Lufthansa was potentially interested but the German flag-carrier’s confirmation that it’s keen on picking up the rest of the shares it doesn’t already own in BMI suggested it was more interested in playing number two at Heathrow rather than building a base outside London.

I might be proved wrong but given that Lufthansa uses Geneva-based PrivatAir for all its premium services it’s doubtful it sees much value in Silverjet. So is there a future for this type of independent, all-business airline?

I think there is. Big network carriers have already proven that there’s a market for it (KLM, Swiss and Lufthansa all have single-class products and BA’s warming up to launch its own transatlantic service out of London’s City airport) but independent operators have trouble because they’re not part of a bigger network and high-paying passengers tend to be shackled to their frequent-flier programmes.

Eos might also have failed to get its passenger numbers up because it wasn’t premium enough.

The carrier offered up a very competitive product price-wise but, in handbag terms, it was fighting Gucci with Coach when it really should have been delivering a brand that was more Bottega Veneta – crafted, elegant and very desirable.

We won’t be seeing an independent, all-premium airline launch for a while yet but when the current mood in the market lifts I promise there’ll be a wine-filled lunch attended by a clutch of high-fiving, daring entrepreneurs that will produce a business plan for a ground-breaking, super-premium airline. And by the time they go to the banks all will be forgotten, and past mistakes forgiven.

Tyler Brûlé is the editor-in-chief of Monocle  tyler.brule@ft.com