When places like slashdot have posts about deteriorating conditions on sched-air and then look to the internet for the air taxi replacement, you know the culture is getting primed for air taxi. While the debate rages about the viability of air taxi, the fact is that there is a growing demand for it - the problem is, in its present form, no one can use it.

Some air taxi start ups have a lot going for them. Take DayJet for example: I read recently that they have a few key cornerstones - good geography, excellent climate, existing market and poor airline service. On the surface, the conditions are right. However, what the slashdot post highlights is something very interesting about the typical corporate flight department / air charter mentality: We are special and only accessible to the few.

So long as we continue to focus on the deep pockets (managed aircraft, that subsist on the deep pockets) and getting excited about our famous and wealthy clients, we will constantly run aground on the shores of the non-scalable and inaccessible marketplace. Here is a fact about rich charter clients: There aren’t many of them.

Here is another disturbing fact: There are too many charter operators throwing themselves at these same people, which keeps prices artificially low given the typical low aircraft utilization (compared to actual operating costs) and causes the very same wealthy aircraft owner (management client) to subsidize everyone else’s charter flying. Presto - a non-business! How do I know this? I was one of these said companies not too long ago, and I know what it is like. The thrill of flying famous Hollywood or Wall Street people, going to their parties, and yes, saying that I am an acquaintance of so and so’s.

So why I am a writing this? Because I write the same thing about once per month, but I dress it up in different clothes in an attempt to educate my comrades in air taxi and air charter that we really need to rethink the way we do business if we are going to grow this marketplace.

The wealthy will always have their own special flavor of air charter, but if posts like the one on slashdot this morning are to find any good fruit on the internet, we need to think of ways to dramatically lower our costs, and that leaves only one real solution - vastly increased utilization.

More to come on this topic for sure - hint: How do you get a PC-12 or Caravan to fly 2184 hours per year? I don’t know, but I’d love to hear some ideas, because my next call will be to Herb.

Popularity: 9%

• Pages

  • Bio
  • Contact
  • Sign Up for Updates
  • White Papers
    • Aircraft Reviews
    • Aircraft Sales (Help)
    • Fractional Ownership
    • Risk Management
• 
  

• Categories

  • Air Charter
  • Air Taxi
  • Airlines
  • Economic Drivers
  • Fractional Ownership
  • Hangar Flying
  • Industry Trends
  • Jet-A
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Story Telling