The business class airline Maxjet, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Christmas Eve, never really took off for shareholders. Listed on AIM at 138p in June, the wheels momentarily left the runway to reach 140p, but almost immediately came back to earth again. Six months later the plane has trundled to a halt at the end of the runway and shareholders will be lucky to get anything back.

Airline failures are nothing new. The environment is hostile, the regulatory and operational hurdles are daunting and the odds are stacked in favour of the big, established and often state-owned incumbents. And the industry is especially vulnerable to strikes, as BAA workers are now threatening to show.

Maxjet had started to build and foster a base of loyal customers, and it was unlucky in some ways. The price of aviation fuel rocketed, while the downturn in the US made it harder to attract passengers at full price.

But some of the damage was self-inflicted. It was too ambitious too early. Unlike Eos, which concentrated on the one major route, Maxjet spread itself more thinly, choosing to fly to four destinations.

It might have anticipated the fightback by traditional airlines, which saw their high-margin business customers defecting and cut fares to keep them. And it had no adequate protection against the costly maintenance problems that plagued its aircraft.

Thinly capitalised, it did not have enough cash to see it through the turbulence of the credit crunch to calmer capital-raising conditions. The float, organised by Panmure Gordon, enabled the original creditors to be paid back, but failed to leave enough in the kitty for a rainy day.

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