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Written by Mr Five Star
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 Here is a story I hate to write. Maxjet airline is gone. Maxjet created a niche market by flying from New York, Washington, Las Vegas and LA to a little known airport to most Americans, Stansted; just north of London. I had the pleasure of being an invited guest aboard the inaugural flight from Las Vegas to Stansted November 2006. I further had the pleasure of interviewing and chatting with Ken Wooley on the flight across the Atlantic. If I were a betting man I would have bet the farm on Maxjet, just because Ken Wooley was one of the founders and an original investor in Jet Blue. It is my opinion, Ken is a real smart guy who saw an opportunity for an all Business Class airline and put it together. Ken also put his money where his mouth is and at the beginning was the largest single investor. Read more about MaxJet here.
 So what went wrong? Here is what I put together based on what I know. Maxjet was doing fine when flying out of New York and Washington. Even starting the Las Vegas to London schedule was good. I think at that time Maxjet was healthy. Then along came Silver Jet and EOS as well as other airlines like American creating a discount product to go head to head with Maxjet and the clincher, the sky high price of fuel and the addition of the LA route. Oh, least we not forget the weak dollar. The “little Airline that could” just couldn’t keep up any longer. An airline with less integrity would have continued to operate and mounted massive losses. Maxjet did go in the red 36M in November 2007. Enough was enough; all the engines were shut down December 26, 2007. There just wasn’t any light at the end of the runway to provide a glimmer of hope that the business would turn around in the near future. Good business decision! Never fall in love with your investment.
Good bye Maxjet, I am sorry to see you go. You had a great vision and an excellent product. Thanks, Ken Wooley for your foresight. Now the box score for you and the airline business is one big win with Jet Blue and one little loss with Maxjet. Ken Wooley is just one of many entrepreneurial Americans that “do things”. Let’s face it; no one hits a home run every time at bat.
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