In an ideal world, air travel would be less stressful and comparable in price to driving.
Air taxis are bringing that ideal closer to reality for consumers who want to fly from Westchester County Airport. With air taxi service, consumers book flights on small aircraft to regional destinations on their own schedules ”” avoiding the hassles of security lines, checked baggage and connecting flights.
“It”™s remarkably similar to Uber,” said Linear Air CEO Bill Herp, whose company operates a website used to book air taxis through four different operators on the East Coast. “We”™re building a new technology that really helps people travel efficiently.”
Linear Air”™s website enables customers to search for flights by origin and destination, as well as number of passengers. When a customer runs a search, the site returns results with the cost per passenger, flight duration and type of aircraft.
One of Linear Air”™s partners, Hopscotch Air, operates air taxi flights with Cirrus SR22 aircraft, which can carry three passengers and about 100 pounds of luggage.
“The idea is that with us, you”™re using the right tool for the mission,” said Andrew Schmertz, the CEO of Hopscotch Air, who said that his company”™s average trip is about 90 minutes. “You don”™t need a Gulfstream G4 for that kind of trip. It”™s too expensive and inefficient.”
Schmertz said Hopscotch had a booking to fly a same-day round trip from White Plains to Ithaca. Had the customers elected to fly commercially, they would have had to make a connection in Philadelphia before landing in Ithaca, making the trip about four hours in each direction for about $710 per passenger. By comparison, the same trip on a Cirrus SR22 is about 75 minutes with no stops or connections for about $660 per person.
“For a trip like that, there”™s no other simple option,” Schmertz said.
Another advantage Schmertz pointed out was that Hopscotch Air”™s planes don”™t need large runways, making it easier to access remote destinations. He said that even though some of the remote airports are small, they have comparable ground transportation options to large airports, including taxi service and car rental.
“There are between 3,000 and 5,000 airports that air taxi services can use” depending on the aircraft employed for the trip, Schmertz said. “There”™s only about 300, including the regional airports, that commercial airlines can use.”
The Government Accountability Office in April reported sharp drops in service to small and medium-sized airports across the country. Medium-sized airports ”” airports that handle between 0.25 and 1 percent of annual boardings ”” saw a 23.9 percent drop in flights and 18.5 percent drop in seats between 2007 and 2013. Westchester County Airport falls into this category and saw a 14.46 percent drop in passenger boardings from 2012 to 2013.
“It”™s too expensive for the airlines to operate a 70-seat regional jet and so the smaller markets lose service,” Herp said.
Herp said this reduction in airline service to smaller airports has made air taxi service a good business.
“We”™ve seen significant search volume for regional airport pairs on Kayak and Hipmunk,” Herp said. Kayak and Hipmunk are popular websites used to search for and book flights. “When people search those websites, they search hub-to-hub. We”™ve been working to upgrade our website so that people can get the advantage of regular airports with an air taxi service.”
Concurrently, Hopscotch Air”™s business has risen.
“What”™s great is that our marketplace is the traditional air traveler,” Schmertz said. “Linear Air caters to the traditional air traveler” who may not have otherwise considered an air taxi service because of a lack of available information.
“We”™re seeing a lot more business travelers. The first two weeks of October, we”™ve had nearly double the number of flights we had at this time last year,” Schmertz said. “We”™re growing into the potential market, not the other way around.”
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