Beacon airline service: Not your typical monthly membership
Commuting can be a chore for some, but Wade Eyerly wants to make it a little easier, and possibly cheaper, for New York-to-Boston commuters with a membership-driven airline service.
Eyerly calls his new venture Beacon Inc. and, as co-founder and CEO, launched it earlier this month with a water-cannon salute ”“ a tradition for new airlines or retiring pilots ”“ at Westchester County Airport, where Beacon-contracted planes will make 18 daily trips to and from Boston”™s Logan International Airport.
- Beacon co-founder and CEO Wade Eyerly with one of the company’s planes at Westchester County Airport in Harrison.
 The new service will also offer flights will also be offered to Nantucket and the Hamptons during certain seasons.
Beacon members pay $2,000 a month ”” until October when the monthly rate goes up to $2,250 ”” to fly an unlimited number of times between the New York and Boston destinations.  This subscription concept, Eyerly said, has only taken off with two other companies in the country, one on the west coast also co-founded by Eyerly and another based in Dallas for which he sat on the advisory board.
Ryan Morley, Cory Cozzens and Reed Farnsworth are the other co-founders of Beacon, the latter two also co-founded Eyerly”™s west coast venture, which is called Surf Air.
In July, Beacon announced it would receive $7.5 million in investment led by Romulus Capital with addition funds from MiVentures and Western Technologies Investment.
In starting it’s new service, Beacon will face some already-established competitors at the county-owned airport in Harrison.
On Sept. 15, the same day as Beacon”™s launch, Oxford, Connecticut-based Tradewind Aviation LLC announced it will expand its charters to Boston and Stowe, Vermont. Tradewind is one of six commercial airlines flying from Westchester County Airport, which also houses a number of private charters.
The membership model of his company is what Eyerly thinks will set Beacon apart. Because member subscriptions are funded on a month-to-month basis rather than typical membership contracts, such as those for a gym, that are year-long, the idea is to “build the relationships with our members over time,” he said.
Eyerly said Beacon’s subscribers already numbered in the hundreds before the company’s official launch.
“People are rabid about how much they like riding with us,” he said, adding it”™s a personal and luxurious experience, but not the top tier of flying options.
Eyerly used the analogy: “We really want to be the Westin [hotel], not the W.”
In deciding to start the service in Westchester, Eyerly said the area had the right market of people who would find the value in a nearby, all-you-can-fly charter to Boston. He said traditionally, in order to get to Boston, county residents have to drive an hour in the wrong direction to one of the busiest airports in the country for a trip that can take more than two hours once security lines and air traffic delays are factored into the mix.
“We”™re a better valued proposition because of time savings,” he said.
Beacon can get its passengers to Boston in 50 minutes and members sign up for flights using the company”™s mobile app.
To provide the vessels by which its subscribers can take advantage of the county airport’s convenience, Beacon’s three eight-seat Beechcraft Super King Air 200 planes are contracted through Dynamic Aviation Group Inc., a Virginia-based company, which owns and operates the planes.
Over the next three years, Beacon anticipates it will add 27 more planes to the service and is looking to eventually add flights to other east coast cities.