Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The development means Stansted could be providing flights to three major US destinations on both the East and West coasts within the next year as American carriers cash in on demand both sides of the Pond.

Regional development representatives from California, and the East of England are upbeat following talks with an unnamed US carrier eager to link Cambridge with Silicon Valley; the progression of talks stems from a trade agreement signed earlier in the year.

Two other carriers, MAXjet and Eos, are also interested in supplying a West Coast service, though both are currently dedicated to making a success of their business-class Stansted to New York JFK routes which begin over the next month.

MAXjet chief executive, Gary Rogliano, has just revealed that the firm intends to spread its reach to Washington DC, by the end of the year and is also looking at the US West Coast as a possibility.

Eos meanwhile is backed by three West Coast firms, one of which has already said it would "love" to see a link to California.

Joseph Hedges, international program manager for the City of San Jose, said: "The Economic Partnership Agree-ment between San Jose and Cambridgeshire/East of England calls for both parties to work to develop aviation linkages.

"During our meetings at Stansted Airport in April, Mayor Ron Gonzales and members of our San Jose delegation were briefed by Airport officials about the development at Stansted and the interest by several start-up carriers to establish UK-US air service.

"The City of San Jose – the Office of Economic Development and the Airport – and the East England Internat-ional office in San Jose has met with a US-based aviation company that has expressed plans to establish air service between the US and UK.

"We are optimistic of this opportunity to provide an important linkage between our regions, particularly for our businesses, but the airline has not finalised their plans. The aviation linkage is a priority for both San Jose and East England, but this remains a work in progress."

MAXjet chief executive, Gary Rogliano, said: "With our Boeing 767, which has only 102 seats on it, we can reach the West Coast of the United States from London.

"We are focused on five to eight other markets that we want to reach, all of them from London Stansted.

"The second one we’re looking at after JFK is Washington Dulles in Washington DC.

"Our target for launch is before the end of the year. The third destination could be in the West, middle or East, a lot depends on market dynamics.

"We want to go as broad as possible and it depends on what’s needed here at Stansted. Predicted traffic is on everyone of the models we looked at."

MAXjet only has one aircraft at the moment, but it is believed to be in the middle of negotiating for a number of others with: "Deposits down on some of them right now and one will be available later this year."

Washington Dulles makes sense for MAXjet not only because that is where the airline is based, but it matches the model of JFK and Stansted of having a lot of destinations and a lot of low fares servicing them.

Rogliano said: "The company was originally designed to do point-to-point flying between the United States and Europe, it was to connect the low cost carriers in the US with the low cost carriers here, that is why we’re here at Stansted, with easyJet, Ryanair etc serving over 100 destinations.

"The cabin originally used a mixed offering, but over the past year a lot has changed, fuel prices for example. So what we have done is taken the low cost model and applied it to business class, providing a lot of connectivity from both our destinations."

However, the first transatlantic passenger service to fly from Stansted on a regular basis will be supplied by Eos Airlines, who recently announced its flights between New York JFK and Stansted would start on October 18, two weeks ahead of schedule.

The new launch date will make Eos the first airline to fly from Stansted to the US since Continental dropped its service in 2001.

The date change was made possible after Eos received final certification from the US and UK Department of Transportation (DOT) to begin its service early.

Eos was due to make its maiden voyage on the same day as MAXjet, which itself had brought forward the launch of its dedicated business-class service between Stansted and New York JFK.