Airline introduces all-business, luxury low-fare transatlantic service. MAXjet Airways, Inc. began it's all business class service on November 1st with six flights each week between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and London's Stansted Airport. MAXjet will offer an all-business class service with everyday fares starting at just $779 each way. Fares will be 50 to 75 percent less than those currently in the marketplace. Based at Washington Dulles International

and serves more than 140 destinations. A terminal express train service connects the airport to Liverpool Street Station in central London with easy access to Canary Wharf and the financial district. "MAXjet was founded to bring greater value to the intercontinental market by connecting key business cities with a highquality, low-fare business class product," said Gary Rogliano, MAXjet's chief executive officer. "MAXjet was designed to appeal to the savvy traveler with luxury amenities for all passengers and the highest standards for comfort, service and value." MAXjet will operate Boeing 767- 200ERs on the initial route. Typically configured to seat more than 200 passengers, MAXjet will configure its B767s with just 102 seats with 60" pitch to greatly increase legroom and space for each of its passengers. There will be no middle seats on the aircraft.

The entry way is elegant and the lounge itself is professional looking and warm at the same time. This is the new and spacious first class lounge launched by Emirates Airlines last month at JFK. The lounge offers all the amenities including a full service business center and high speed internet access. The food and beverage service is first class - pardon the pun - and the seating arrangements are relaxing; not those ultra-modern seats that make you want sit somewhere else. Visiting JFK to be part of the event was Ghatih Al Ghatih, Vice President of World-Wide Commercial Operations. If you are fortunate enough to fly first class to the middle east, I would opt for the services on Emirates First Class lounge.

"What is on-time performance at our Airports" If ignorance is bliss, then the senior senator from New York must be one of the happiest people in the world. Normally, most of us give politicians a free pass when they make comments with no basis in fact. After all, most of us know that they are not interested in the truth; they only care about one thing, re-election. But Airport Press is not going to give Chuck Schumer a free pass after his unfortunate and misleading comments about flight and take-off performance at our local airports. Schumer went into his rant about how our local airports are traditionally the worst and cited statistics to prove his point. What he did not cite is that over the past ten years, on-time performance has in general, slowly but steadily improved. It is not spectacular improvement, only incremental, and yes, generally during this time of year, our local airports do have delays and late arrivals. However, we all know that the very nature of the holiday season puts enormous pressure in the New York region. This is caused by a stream of domestic and international traffic that is unique to our region. It's the late year Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays Chuck. People come home; and home to lots and lots of people is the New York region. You cannot build an infrastructure to handle peak traffic all the year through. It would cost multiple billions of dollars to do that. So you build an infrastructure to handle 99% of the year and work hard to cover those few days where you have a crush. Everyone knows this, especially travelers who are coming in and leaving our region. Everyone except maybe you. There are two other mitigating factors that cause delays during this peak season; one is New York area weather which is just beginning to get ugly in late November and December and the other is the age and geographic growth limits of our airports. Can we improve? Yes. Should we continue to be tough on ourselves? Yes. But the senators broad brush statements are way off base. I think we should pass a law that makes it mandatory for politicians to spend at least part of their career in the private sector where they can learn the real facts of life. It makes me uncomfortable to look at the resumes of both New York senators and realize that neither of them have spent a day earning a dollar in the private sector. It's no wonder that they can demonstrate such naiveté about business facts of life.