All business class carrier Maxjet has slashed the price of its soon-to-be-launched transatlantic service. The US carrier launches a six times weekly service between London Stansted and New York JFK on November 2 (the eastbound flight starts on November 1). Maxjet hopes the lower price of £854 return will encourage more business people to try the flights. It will certainly appeal to the many small to medium-sized firms located within the Stansted catchment area.
Maxjet CEO Garry Rogliano told Business Traveller: "For the same price as a flexible economy ticket you can now fly business class. Our aim is to make business class more affordable and attractive to a larger market."
Rogliano believes that transatlantic business class passengers have been getting a raw deal from the big carriers. "We analysed 15 different UK-US routes and we saw that 8% of the passengers were providing 50% of the revenue."
Maxjet expects most of its passengers (60%) to come from the UK/mainland Europe with the remainder from theUS.
Although some UK travellers may view Stansted as inconvenient that view may not be shared by travellers on the other side of the Atlantic. Says Rogliano: "US travellers will find they can reach the City in 45 minutes by the Stansted Express. Stansted will offer US passport holders faster clearance. The other morning [as a US national] it took me 90 minutes to clear passport control at Heathrow."
Maxjet will operate with a 102-seater wide-bodied B767. Seating layout will be six across (2-2-2) with 60 inches of legroom. Flights depart Stansted at 10.00 returning from JFK at 18.30. The carrier says it will offer Stansted passengers use of Fast Track along with the SAS lounge. Passengers leaving JFK will have access to the Korean Air lounge. When they reach Stansted they'll be able to use an arrivals' lounge at the adjacent Radisson/SAS hotel. For more information go to www.maxjet.com
Report by Alex McWhirter
