What does it take to start an Air Taxi service?
The recent advent of Very Light Jets (e.g. Eclipse) got some groups excited about starting an Air Taxi or Air Shuttle service, like Day Jet (Florida).
The concept seemed perfect: Instead of flying on a commercial airline and being forced to fly through Hubs, one is picked up by a "jet shuttle", at a convenient small airport and delivered to another small airport near your final destination. Maximum of one stop in transit (pick-up or drop-off another passenger), and prices are negotiable depending upon the flexibility of your schedule. You only pay for the seat you are using.
Day Jet did not succeed due to two (I believe) reasons: Eclipse jets took longer to develop and deliver and the economy tanked in late 2008 and 2009.
However, there seems to be some resurgence of this air taxi shuttle service in Europe (1000 nm maximum origin to destination).
I believe that if the tickets could be priced at full-fare commericial business class or less, then companies and the government might flock to this for many flights that require switching airplanes at a Hub. For example, if one wants to fly from Boston, MA to Dayton, OH, one needs to spend 6 to 8 hours and fly through Chicago or Baltimore, etc. Yet, it should be a 2.5 hour flight by a VLJ. How about $400 to $500 one way? Could someone make a business out of this? Note: Day Jet was using two pilots per flight (one to fly and one to do the paperwork, and the pilots were guaranteed to spend the night at their homes.
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