MAXjet Airways - History

History

On 25 April 2005, the airline officially changed its name from SkyLink Airways to MAXjet Airways following a formal objection to the original name from SkyLink Aviation in Canada. On 23 August 2005 it was granted final approval to launch services by the United States Department of Transportation. The airline was publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market as "MAXJ". It operated its first service from New York to London on 1 November 2005. Founded in 2003, the airline was conceived as a transatlantic low-cost carrier that would code share with domestic low-cost carriers at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. During its start-up phase, management expressed concern over the economics of applying the low cost carrier model to transatlantic routes and instead repositioned the airline as a premium all-business-class service. MAXjet's target market was premium economy and "savvy" business class passengers.

The success of MAXjet’s all-business-class service continued to grow as the company claimed load factors of 83.1% (June 2007) on its network from London Stansted.

As well as the scheduled routes, MAXjet’s luxury charter operations continued to grow with the acquisition of more aircraft. Some aircraft were planned to focus on the growing charter business as well as being used as support on the New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas scheduled routes. The airline’s luxury charter business, which experienced significant growth, transported groups to various destinations throughout Europe, the Caribbean and the USA. Charters included Stockholm to Las Vegas, and England to Washington D.C. and Los Angeles including a charter for the 2006 U.S Ryder Cup team. The company had a strong customer base that included corporations, government entities and professional sports teams.

While the company's "MAXflier" frequent flier program had been advertised for more than six months on the MAXjet website as being available to customers, it was not actually yet up and running as of October 2007. When questioned regarding this issue, the company's customer service representatives responded that the program would be introduced soon, but were unable to provide an estimate as to exactly when the program would come online.