Is Uber moving into the sky?

Sharing a private aircraft with 6-7 other people can be a quick way to get from A-B and a way of generating new business at the same time, by networking in the sky. A number of new Business Jet companies have embraced today’s new disruptive technologies and bringing private jet travel to a whole new group of people.

JetSmarter

Launched in March 2013, JetSmarter is essentially a cross between a tech company, travel agent, and airline – and aims to bring private jet travel to the masses.

With already 200,000 active users it is well on track to achieve that.
For booking private charter flights, the process is simple…

JetSmarter is an App and, just like booking a regular flight, enter your departure and arrival cities, plus the date and time of travel.

With 3,200 private jets in its fleet, available at any time, JetSmarter and its independent partners display the schedules and locations of the jets through the App. Users can request flights from anywhere in the world, and as close as six hours before departure.

Plus, just as Uber allows you to choose what car you want – be it a regular sedan, limo, or larger vehicle – JetSmarter offers flyers the same flexibility, depending on their needs. Users can see photos of the planes, plus the interior layout and amenities on board.

JetSmarter doesn’t actually own these planes; they belong to its charter firm partners – who are also responsible for maintenance, inspections, and pilots. JetSmarter is essentially the middle man that facilitates the travel part.

So for all of JetSmarter’s comparisons to Uber, there’s a big difference between a company that generates roughly $30 million per year from three to four bookings per day, and the multi-billion-dollar valuation behind Uber – a company that makes $30 million per week from roughly one million rides.

JetSmarter’s founder and CEO, Sergey Petrossov wants to make it the “Uber of the sky,” and knows that prices need to be driven down to meet this goal.

JetSmarter draws inspiration from another disruptive tech company – eBay . It functions like an online auction site.

For example, let’s say a husband and wife charter a JetSmarter private jet from Logan Airport in Boston to Nantucket Island for a quick getaway. But for their trip home, the couple won’t need the jet.

Nevertheless, JetSmarter’s plane will still need to leave Nantucket, whether the couple is on board or not. So the company will send push notifications to JetSmarter members in the Nantucket area who need a flight, and let them bid for it at a steep discount. That’s much better than the plane leaving Nantucket empty, and gives JetSmarter revenue it otherwise wouldn’t have made.

There’s another way that JetSmarter is going after ordinary folks…
Got No Friends? Share a Jet.

All the planes in JetSmarter’s private fleet come with multiple seats – around seven or eight. So that $4,000 flight from New York to Dulles is a lot more affordable if it’s split between a group of friends, or business colleagues traveling together.

But what about people flying solo?

Petrossov has them covered through the next leg of its business – “jet sharing.”
Let’s say John and Jane charter a private jet from New York to Los Angeles for $6,000. However, the jet they’re flying on has eight seats, leaving six available.
With jet sharing, John and Jane can sell those seats to someone else – in this case, $750 each.
I just pulled up tickets for a United Airlines economy flight from JFK to LAX, and got the following rates…
Lowest Fare (Non-refundable): $636.
Flexible Fare (Refundable): $757.
First Class: $1,064.
Keep in mind, that doesn’t include baggage fees, in-flight Wi-Fi, or any other “convenience” charges.

As you can see, the United flight saves you $114. But that’s for an economy flight that comes at the cost of luxury. Instead of flying in a private jet, you’ll be stuffed into a middle seat with screaming children, or an obese man spilling into your seat, and a chair reclining into your lap. But hey… it’s only a six-hour flight!

Petrossov’s goal with jet sharing is to make private jet travel more affordable – and thus, open it up to the masses. In doing so, it offers competition to the commercial airline industry – and makes JetSmarter as disruptive to commercial airlines as Uber is to cabs.

Surf Air

Surf Air’s business model is slightly different. For a flat monthly fee, subscribers are able to take unlimited flights. The company currently own and operate 7 Swiss built single-engine turboprop Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. In August 2014, Surf Air raised $8 million in new equity funding and secured a $65 million loan to place a five-year order for 15 new Pilatus PC-12 planes, with an option to buy 50 more over that timespan.

The airline's inaugural service in early 2013 offered West Coast flights between Silicon Valley (San Carlos Airport) and the Los Angeles area (Burbank Airport). In July 2013, it added L.A.-area service to Santa Barbara Airport as well.

In December 2013, Surf Air added service to a second Los Angeles stop, Hawthorne Municipal Airport, which is adjacent to LAX. In May 2014, Truckee Airport, near Lake Tahoe, was added as a destination. The airline also offers weekend flights to Las Vegas (McCarran International Airport) from its Los Angeles destinations through a partnership with other airlines.
Flights to Carlsbad, California and Oakland, California started on November 18 and December 15, 2014. This pushed Surf Air's capacity up from 28 to 48 flights per day as of November 2014. The company says it plans to expand service to the California cities of Santa Ana, Sacramento, San Diego, Monterey, Palm Springs, Sonoma, Mammoth Lakes, San Jose, Bakersfield, San Luis Obispo and Scottsdale.

The airline's co-founder and CEO Wade Eyerly boasts that Surf Air offers frequent commuters a corporate jet experience for not that much more than regular airline prices.

Surf Air’s general aviation facility is on the far side of the Burbank Airport in metropolitan Los Angeles. Instead of using big, busy terminals, Surf Air will flies out of smaller, low-key places like this one. No TSA screening is required, so there's no conga line, no emptying your pockets or removing your shoes.

You're about probably 50 feet from the plane as it pulls up, and then the concierge will come get you when it's time to go. The total amount of time from parking your car to getting inside the plane could be less than five minutes. The Swiss-made, eight-passenger turboprop has a single engine and two pilots. The longest flight — between San Francisco and Los Angeles — is just over an hour.

In the beginning Netflix, customers used to be able to order all the DVDs they wanted but could hold only a few of them at a time. With Surf Air, travellers can only have four boarding passes at once.
This keeps any one member from sort of boxing everyone else out from every flight and makes sure there's enough capacity for everyone to be able to book regularly.

Beacon

Former Surf Air CEO Wade Eyerly and his co-founders have started a very similar private flight startup to their last venture. But this time it’s on the East Coast and it’s called Beacon.

Just like Surf Air, the new subscription service offers an unlimited flight membership to select locations from private air carriers. The main difference is in the destinations served. Surf Air currently flies to seven California locations and Las Vegas. Beacon will serve the Northeastern United States, including Boston, the Hamptons, White Plains and Nantucket.

For Eyerly, the launch of Beacon is his second shot at reinventing private air travel. He was forced out from his role at Surf Air close to a year ago and replaced by the more experienced former CEO of Frontier Airlines Jeff Potter.

He says this is a chance to start over with the knowledge he gained building his first unlimited private flight startup. “It’s the innovators that do all the heavy lifting and the imitators that reap the rewards. I’m the first to come up with the all-you-can-fly private flight model and others come to me and my co-founders for advice on disrupting the airline industry. I feel I can take all the trials and experience I gained at Surf Air to making a successful company here.” said Eyerly.

Part of what he learned will be applied in adapting the business model to make it more efficient. Surf Air operates its own private planes, but Beacon does not. Instead, it operates by hooking members up with private air carriers owned and operated by those holding the necessary government authorization to fly.

Owning its own planes caused Surf Air to hit an 18-month roadblock in the early days of operations. The issue surrounded gaining the necessary licensing from the FAA for its private flight service.
The new model allows Beacon to operate without having to go through the same initial struggles. “It’s like Delta partnering with SkyWest. We’re doing that with private carriers who already have the license to fly,” explained Eyerly.

Beacon will fly to the aforementioned four locations starting this Summer, but it could easily expand with partnership deals in the more than 1500 privately owned charter jet companies throughout the United States.

Eyerly hinted this was on the roadmap with plans to expand into D.C. next. “There is a lot of travel to and from the Northeast and D.C. It’s the natural next step,” he said.
Eyerly will most likely face some backlash from his former startup over the new endeavor. Though on opposites sides of the country, the two are very similar. Eyerly maintains this won’t be an issue because he never signed a non-compete.

He also still owns part of the company he started with his brother David in 2012. “I don’t think this will be a big deal. I have a reason to want Surf Air to do well. I own stock in the company and so do my co-founders,” Eyerly said.

Eyerly brought in former Mitt Romney campaign finance director Ryan Morely as well as his former Surf Air co-founders Cory Cozzens and Reed Farnsworth to work with him at Beacon.

The new travel startup has also nabbed an undisclosed amount of funding from Boston-based Romulus Capital and a host of angel investors, including New York Times bestselling author of “Never Eat Alone” Keith Ferrazzi and former NBA basketball player Danny Ainge.

Beacon passengers will pay $2000 per month for unlimited flights on a maximum 10 passenger air craft. (Surf Air costs $1750 per month.) Concierge services such as car rentals, drinks and even flowers will also be provided at each private air terminal where Beacon operates.

Applying these new disruptive technologies to private jet travel is bringing more people to experience this way of travelling by air. While jet sharing doesn't offer all the flexibility of chartering and/or jet ownership, it is another stepping stone in that direction.