Yes, it’s true. A reader alerted me to the fact that, as the website says, “MAX is back.” Don’t get too excited though. The airline is coming back as a charter carrier focused on NCAA sports travel, so you probably won’t have much of an opportunity to fly them.

Weird, huh? Apparently, the airline has been bought by NCA Sports Group, a company which wants to provide bus and air transportation for college sports. On their website, they say that they will be starting University Airlines with A320s and CRJ-700s. Well, now they own a fleet of fancy 767-200s with all business class, so their plans have apparently changed.

So, if you see a MAXjet plane at your local airport, you’re not going crazy. There’s probably just some college team in town on a very nice charter aircraft.

As we approach the end of 2007, it’s time to follow up the tradition I started last year with a tribute to those airlines that won’t make it until 2008. Ok, maybe two years doesn’t make a tradition, but I have to start somewhere.

Of course, this doesn’t include every single airline worldwide that went out of business this year. I mean, there would probably be a million of them in Nigeria alone. So, I’ve culled the list down to some of the most notable for one reason or another. If you think I’ve left one out that should be recognized, leave a comment below.

So, here they are in the order which they shut down this year. May their employees all find new jobs with ease.

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Hapag-Lloyd – January 2007

Back in 1972, the recently created shipping conglomerate Hapag-Lloyd decided it was time to start an airline to serve its own purposes. I can see the thinking now . . . “we have a bunch of cruise ships and need to get people to them. I know, let’s start an airline!” That strategy has rarely worked in the past, but over the years, Hapag-Lloyd grew to operate more than 30 aircraft in the charter market until they were swallowed up by the giant TUI. This year, the airline’s name disappeared as TUI began operating all flights under the incredibly un-catchy name TUIfly. While the name may be lame, you’ve undoubtedly seen them buzzing around European airports with their frightening powder blue livery.

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Atlantic Express – January 15, 2007

Poor Atlantic Express. Their mission was very simple . . . fly people from the tiny island of Jersey (off the coast of France) back to London. Their airport of choice? Stansted. Unfortunately for them, you can fly FlyBE to Gatwick, British Midland to Heathrow, VLM to City, and even ThomsonFly to Stansted itself. Needless to say, an airline solely focusing on this route isn’t going to last very long. And they didn’t. Oh sure, there are rumors that they’re going to be revived, but I wouldn’t put much stock in those.

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Slovak Airlines – February 2007

The tale of Slovak Airlines is a bitter one. Back in the mid-1990s, newly independent Slovakia saw the Czechs take the airline they used to share. (Well, they did fly mainly out of Prague.) So what did they do? They got some private investors to start up an airline of their own. As you might have expected, the airline did terribly and in 2005 they turned to Austrian Airlines (not exactly a shining star of profitability itself) to take a controlling stake. Two years later, Austrian was so frustrated with the government’s unwillingness to hold up its end of the bargain and fork over some cash, that they pulled the planes out from under Slovak Airlines and the airline disappeared like that. So there.

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FlyMe – March 2, 2007

I’m not sure that there was really anything remarkable about FlyMe. They were just another airline that got caught up in the low cost carrier frenzy of early 2000s Europe. For some reason, several airlines thought that these generic and annoying names stating that yes, they actually do “fly” would bring them riches. Please don’t confuse them with FlyBE, FlyNordic, TUIfly, Flyglobespan, or Thomsonfly. FlyMe was based in Sweden and brought people from the frozen north down to warmer spots in Europe. Many other airlines had this idea as well (go figure), so the airline never made it very far.

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RegionsAir – March 8, 2007

Though we didn’t see much activity in the first couple of months of 2007 in the US, it picked up in March with the shutdown of RegionsAir. Who? Well, RegionsAir was one of those EAS airlines. They took government money from the Essential Air Service program to fly people to little towns that had very little demand. (The awful EAS program warrants a big long post of its own sometime.) Most recently it was flying as American Connection and Continental Connection from the hubs to places like Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. (Motto: Our name is more entertaining than our town.) The EAS world is a hard one to make work these days, and that’s why you’ll see airlines like Big Sky on this list next year. But, RegionsAir didn’t shut down for financial reasons. Nope, they were forcibly shut down by the FAA for training problems. Yikes. They keep saying they’re under new management and they’re going to come back bigger and better than ever. Uh huh. That hasn’t happened, and I wouldn’t put any bets on it.

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SN Brussels and Virgin Express – March 25, 2007

We’ve got a two-fer here, but it’s not a sad ending this time around. SN Brussels and Virgin Express merged to form Brussels Airlines, a new carrier that hopefully will not overserve Belgium as has been tradition for years and years. You may be surprised by the early start date of SN Brussels. Many people think it was created to replace Sabena after it shutdown in 2001. But no, it actually was Delta Air Transport beforehand. When Sabena shutdown, the Belgians transformed DAT into SN Brussels and anointed it as the flag carrier. The death of this airline marks the end of the stylized “S” logo that Sabena used to use as well.

Virgin Express, on the other hand, is a reminder that not everything Richard Branson touches turns to gold. It was never a very successful operation despite its early entrance into the European low cost carrier market. It really ended up being more of a pest to Sabena and SN Brussels than a real threat for world domination. This is probably one of the brighter spots on the list this year, because a merger should help the fortunes of both parties.

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Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB) – April 1, 2007

The story of LAB is a long and proud one. Um, well, until the end. LAB was one of the oldest airlines operating in the world with roots going back to 1925. The only airline predating them in South America was Avianca. Incredibly, the airline survived throughout the years, and even thrived at some points. Unfortunately, the death spiral began in the 1990s and there was very little chance it would recover. Brazilian-disaster VASP took a stake for awhile and proved that it could hardly run itself, let alone a successful partnership. LAB teetered back and forth until this year when the government finally euthanized the airline. There continues to be talk of resurrecting the airline once again, but I wouldn’t expect to see that succeed any time soon.

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Harmony Airways – April 9, 2007

Ah, Harmony. These guys had one of the more colorful histories. Well, it wasn’t the airline itself – it was the CEO. Dr David Ho founded the airline as his personal play toy. He basically decided that he didn’t like the way airlines treated him, so he thought it would be good to start his own. The airline went in and out of routes on a whim, depending how Dr Ho felt that day. But that wasn’t a crime. His only crime was, well, being caught with hookers and blow. I’m not kidding. Just a month or so before the airline shut down, Dr Ho was found driving high on coke with a couple of hookers in his car. Now there’s a role model for you. Shortly after, the airline folded. Related? Probably not directly, but well, you know.

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Peace Air – May 18, 2007

I’ll bet you’ve never heard of Peace Air. I know I had never heard of them before I started looking into this post. But Peace was a long-time airline based in Peace River, Alberta that folded under financial pressure this year. Some say it was just the tough competition from Air Canada and WestJet while others say it was the inability to fly to Edmonton’s City Centre airport for various reasons. Either way, things weren’t adding up and the airline had to shut down. It’s always sad to see these little guys give up the fight.

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O’Connor Airlines – December 14, 2007

Our entry from down under this year is O’Connor Airlines. They just shut down within the last couple of weeks. O’Connor had a laundry list of problems highlighted in their press release announcing their closing. “Ongoing trading losses, declining customer support, flight crew shortages and significant aircraft maintenance issues also contributed to the decision to immediately cease operations.” Yeah, I’d say that the odds were stacked against them here. O’Connor was based in Mount Gambier but the only city they flew in the end that non-Aussies would recognize is Adelaide. I’d say this one appears to have been coming for a long time.

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MAXjet – December 24, 2007

And now, for the one for which you’ve all been waiting. After a couple of weeks of speculation following a suspension of trading of shares, MAXjet shut its doors on Christmas Eve, making Santa find an alternate route for delivering presents at an affordable price in a seat in which he could fit. What happened? A lot. There’s no question that high fuel prices were problematic, especially on gas guzzling routes to LAX and Vegas. We know Washington/Dulles never worked for them despite multiple attempts. And New York? Well, there was crushing competition there.

I continue to believe that there’s something to this model, but it may just not be the right time. With fuel prices where they are, there just isn’t much hope. You’ll hear Eos and Silverjet crowing about how great they’re doing, but that’s just not possible. I can’t imagine they aren’t bleeding. It’s just very difficult to generate the revenue necessary to offset those costs these days when you have so few seats. It wouldn’t surprise me to see some more casualties in this market in the next year, I’m sad to say.

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That’s it for this year’s addition. Let’s hope that we see Alitalia on this list next year. (What, you thought I could get through this without a snarky Alitalia comment?)

I don’t know if I’ll post again this year, so if not, I hope you enjoy the long weekend. I hope you’ve enjoyed my crankiness this year. I look forward to more crankiness next year.

It’s been a long time since I put one of these together, but there were so many, well, random bits of info around that I decided to do it this way today. Unfortunately, most of the news is bad today as some routes and even some airlines becomes endangered species.

It would be nice to have some happier news, but, well, at least I’ve tried to end on a high note at the bottom. Just be glad you aren’t stuck in the ice storms in the middle of the country. (If you are stuck in those storms, well, um, I’ve got nothing.)

• Delta’s LAX Hub – Looks like Delta is pulling down some LAX flying. Just after the new year, nonstops to Columbus, Jacksonville, Raleigh/Durham and more disappear. Sure, some of them seem to come back in a few months, but I wouldn’t put money down on that staying put. Interesting that Skybus flies from Columbus and Greensboro to the LA Area. I’m not convinced these are connected, but it could very well be the straw that broke the camel’s back. More likely, Delta’s realizing that LAX isn’t working for them as well as they’d hoped.




• United’s Intra-LA Basin Flying – There’s nothing more fun for an airline/LA dork than flying from Ontario or Orange County to LAX. I’ve flown the latter, and it’s a great ride. You depart Orange County to the south and then make a big backwards “S” before landing at LAX shortly after departing. Sadly, those days are numbered as both routes get the axe from United. Those little Brasilias are going to be phased out, and these short hauls had to get the axe first, especially with fuel prices where they are.




• Icelandair’s Home in North America – Icelandair may still have their US headquarters outside of Baltimore for now, but as of early January, they will no longer actually FLY to Baltimore. In my college days, my friends and I took a far-too-cheap Spring Break trip from BWI to Glasgow for 3 nights and then Reykjavik for three nights. Why was it cheap? Um. Iceland in March? Exactly. The flights were great, but the hostel that doubled as a homeless shelter left much to be desired. BWI will miss you, Icelandair.




• MAXjet – We knew MAXjet was losing a bunch of money, but the recent request to have shares suspended from trading made the situation seem much more dire. Mark over at Upgrade: Travel Better has good coverage of this. Hopefully they’ll keep going . . . I haven’t had a chance to try them yet.




• Emirates Across the Pond – Those Dubai runs may be working well for Emirates (check out Towers and Tarmacs’ coverage of the Houston inaugural), but apparently that one run from New York that goes through Hamburg is getting killed. Don’t worry. The few of you who want to go from New York to Hamburg can still fly from Newark on Continental.

See, lots of doom and gloom. Let’s try to end on a happier note. Delta put out their latest in their Planeguage video series, and this is a great one. Every time I get an empty middle on a full flight, it does seem like divine intervention. Though sadly, the first question I had after watching this video was, “How did they get all those wrapped presents past the TSA?!” Enjoy.

Yesterday was just one of those days when it’s great to be an airline dork. There’s nothing I like more than heading to the airport for an event that doesn’t involve the stress of actually going anywhere, and yesterday MAXjet’s launch of service from LAX to London/Stansted gave me that opportunity. Yes, I know. I have issues.

When I arrived, the plan was to start with a press conference/schmooze fest in the Bradley Terminal’s special events room. The room is located on the south side of the fifth floor, conveniently placed as far away as humanly possible from the rest of civilization. It didn’t help that not a soul who worked in the airport had any clue where the place was, but I was still able to find it.

When I walked in, they were handing out gift bags with a bunch of goodies including . . . a stuffed dog? Yes, apparently they’re now revealing how the airline was named. Believe it or not, it was named after Max, one of the founders’ dogs. (I’m not kidding.) So now he’s the airline’s mascot.

After digging through the bag, the press conference still hadn’t started, so I took a look around. I see why this room is located where it is, because it had a great view of MAXjet’s 767 at the close-in gate 106. I have no doubt that gate was chosen for a reason today. I do have to say that the airline’s bluish/purplish livery looks very sharp. The colors are quite distinctive, and as you can see with my poor picture taking skills at left, that’s true even when next to some of the most well known liveries in the world.

Soon, it was time for the press conference, which turned out to be more of an informal Q&A with a couple of remarks up front by Bill Stockbridge, CEO of MAXjet, and his killer moustache. He gave the speech you’d expect about how MAXjet is all about value and the longer the flight, the more value they provide. You know the deal. But the questions from the peanut gallery let to a couple of interesting tidbits.

Stockbridge said the airline puts its fifth 767 into service on September 25. At first, it will just be a system spare aircraft, but in the fourth quarter of this year or first quarter of next, they will add a sun destination in Florida. I’ve heard rumors in various places about Miami, but Orlando could be in the running as well, I’d think.

As for the onboard product, once he got past the awkward explanation about the food onboard (“It’s good food, not great food”), he mentioned that they were upgrading the inflight entertainment onboard with better noise canceling headsets, etc.

A random fact that surprised me is that apparently 25% of MAXjet’s traffic connects beyond London/Stansted. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise considering all the European LCCs with large operations there, but I still didn’t expect it to be that high. Stockbridge then went on to say that he expects open skies to benefit them greatly because they’ll be able to fly beyond London now. The example he gave was having a flight go LAX – London – Dubai and being able to carry local passengers between London and Dubai. I’m not sure whether or not that route is actually on his radar, but it would seem to be a very strong choice for an all business class airline.

Outside of the press conference, I had the chance to ask how the LAX flight was doing so far. He said they were pleased with advance bookings and that it was building better than any other route had so far. On today’s inaugural, there were 90 people booked in the 102 seats and most of those were paid.

Once we were done upstairs, the fun began. They took some of us down to the gate which was pleasantly uncrowded, a big change from the norm at the Bradley Terminal. It’s not that the plane wasn’t full, it’s just that 90 people in a gate area that usually sees 400 seat 747s is a nice change of pace.

It was a bit hectic at the gate with champagne and cake being served and the ribbon being set up for cutting. This gave me a chance to sneak onboard the plane and check out the seats. I wasn’t able to take the trip myself this time, but I was very excited to be able to at least see the cabin. When you walk onboard, there’s a nice roomy feel even though it has the old style overhead bins which generally make the cabin feel more closed-in. The seats are nice leather and, as you can see, there were pillows and blankets placed on each one.

Though they were busy preparing for departure, I was able to sit down and test out the seat. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at the degree of recline and the overall comfort of the seat. These may be old generation business class, but with the extra legroom they’ve added, you’re able to recline up to 170 degrees. It was really comfortable for the minute I sat there, and I’ve heard others say that it’s comfortable when you’re there for several hours as well. It took me a minute to figure out how to work the seat since it’s all manual. That’s a bit awkward, but as I was told, having electronic seats costs more, they break more often, and they don’t add enough value to make it worthwhile. I’d have to agree; I’m not willing to pay more just to have electronic seat control.

They were clearly trying to prep the cabin so I didn’t want to take too much time. I headed back into the terminal and Nancy Castles, LAX PR person, offered to take some of us to see the new business class lounge for unaligned airlines (ones not in Star, Skyteam, or oneworld) which just opened in the last couple of weeks. It was a decently sized space and it seemed fine. Nothing special like the Virgin Clubhouse, but I hardly would have expected that anyway.

Back down at the gate, it was time to button up and Nancy offered to take me down on the ramp for the water cannon salute. Without hesitation, I jumped at the chance. We drove out to the end of the alleyway and waited while planes taxied all around us. Fantastic. When the plane finally headed our way, I was able to snap a couple shots head-on while the aircraft passed through the water arches. As you can see once again, my photo skills are lacking, but it was an amazing vantage point.

Finally, it was time to head home. As I said, it was a great day to be an airline dork. Click here to see a full gallery of the day’s events including a shot of the Saudi King’s Kingdom Holdings’ (thanks for the update) 747 taxiing by.

Enjoy the long weekend and I’ll be back with you on Tuesday.

Yesterday was the deadline for airlines to get their applications in for seven new flights coming available between the US and China over the next three years. Conventional wisdom says Delta will get this year’s award with Atlanta-Shanghai flights. Next year, United is expected to get San Francisco-Guangzhou while the other spot, which can only be used to second tier airports in China, will likely remain unfilled.

But in 2009, the big competition heats up when four additional daily flights between the US and China come available. All the usual competitors are there (see below), but one that really stands out is . . . MAXjet?!?

I was surprised myself when I got a hold of the filing (PDF) that was quietly slipped in to the DOT yesterday before the deadline. Quick refresher – MAXjet flies an all-business class operation between several points in the US and London. While the business class seats aren’t the newest lie-flat technology, they are sold at the cost of last minute coach seats, so the value proposition is strong. The service appears to be doing well so far, and clearly they’re looking for new opportunities to expand.

This application proposes a LAX-Seattle-Shanghai flight on their ~100 seat 767s. I’m guessing they would have done LAX-Shanghai nonstop if they had the range, but Seattle will do for now. (787s anyone?)

How do I like their chances? Not so great. As long as demand for flights to China continues to outpace the number of flights permitted, the DOT is going to hesitate to add a flight with only 100 seats onboard when the alternative could be a 200-300 seat option on someone else. So I have to think that this isn’t going to happen this time, though when things start to open up further, it could happen.

What it comes down to, ultimately, is that the DOT is allowed to introduce one new carrier to the China market in 2009. Assuming Delta gets a flight this year, that would leave US Airways and MAXjet as the two new options for 2009, and US Airways will probably have the edge with their larger planes, even though the Philly-Beijing route is hardly inspiring.

From a business perspective, it would be interesting to see if MAXjet could pull this flight off. The value proposition isn’t nearly the same as flying to London because market business class fares are lower in Asia. That means the potential cost savings are less, and it may be harder to woo travelers. But there are no flights between Seattle and China right now, so it could fill a nice niche.

If I had to put money down, I’d say Continental (Newark-Shanghai), United (LAX-Shanghai), and US Airways (Philadelphia-Beijing) pick up three slots for 2009 with Delta (Atlanta-Beijing) and American (Chicago/O’Hare-Beijing) fighting for the last one.