Most business flights are not last minute trips with connections to far flung destinations. I don't understand how that would relate to these two new airlines anyway--they're both covering one of the most popular routes in the biz, plenty of choice there.). But I DID get my $1200 RT biz class fare less than a week before the trip. And last September, when my father died, I had to book a flight right away from Paris to Orlando and got a RT coach fare on Continental of under $600 (which wasn't the bereavement fare).

Lots of good points made above.

I read that Maxjet's original business plan was to be an all-economy airline. The plan was to strike up an agreement with Ryanair and other low-cost carriers at Stansted for connections and interline baggage transfers. Well, that fell through when the other airlines said "Thanks. But no, thanks"; they then changed the model to be all business class.

I really have no idea if they will succeed or not, but I too think Maxjet has the better chance.

If they (both airlines) have calculated a realistic profit margin they could very well make it. Right now they don't have to fill very many seats per day -- what is it, like 48 and 110? - I forget. Once the kinks of start-up are worked out, they plan on adding DC and Boston flights.

The CEOs said they saw that the airline industry would be changing rapidily and drastically in the next few years, which it will, and decided to draw up business plans to fit a niche that they see forthcoming in an evolving air-carrier industry.

It's been two years since the Concorde stopped flying, maybe they thought some of that market was ready for something new.

I wish them success.

I don't have any difficulty with the concept, AAFrequentFlyer, of a company getting discounted fares. His company used LUV because the vaste majority of their business was served by them at lower fares than the legacy carriers would provide even at discounted prices. Using AA was an anomaly.

Why do you question my statement? Are you calling me a liar?

No, I'm sorry if you got the impression. I'm not calling you a liar.

I thought we're having a friendly debate and doing some <i>speculating</i> :-)