Plane Conversations

All of us at Social Flights extend our deepest holiday wishes to all the people who have supported us during this our Launch year.  A lot has happened since February 2011.  We thought we should report to you what has been accomplished and some new developments underway:

Over 13,000 people have joined Social Flights Traveler’s Network receiving unlimited access to the following services:    

• Over 90 Private Charter Operators have joined the Social Flights platform.
• Over 500 aircraft are available in the Social Flights Virtual Fleet.
• Social Flights website can now deliver an instant auto quote under our “Create a Flight” option.
• Social Flights Allows you to embed our quoting feature in your website
• Social Flights Developed a full suite of Community Airline services for small cities that are losing – or never had – airline service.
• Social Flights allows members to create alerts to desired locations or invitations to join a flight formation.
• Social Flights assures privacy with our internal networking features which are never released to the public domain.

Beginning next year:

• Social Flights will expand scheduled public jet charter service through the community airline program to smaller markets and even “stranded” communities.
• Social Flights will expand one-way flight program from 100 per day to over 1000 per day
• Social Flights is building out the affinity travel and social jet charter service to include colleges, Sports, concerts, conventions, events, tourism, and family travel.
• Our Elite Travel Services division will initiate international social jet charter service between the US and China as well as Latin America.

To our Partners:

Our partner network is growing to include hotels, Concierge services, tour operators, marketing firms, Facebook page owners, event managers, and economic development agencies.

Our partner network will continue to grow to serve the traffic that we now steadily deliver hassle-free to your communities.

These are the highlights off the accomplishments this year and some insider information on what to expect next year. 

If you are a traveler please invite your friends and colleagues to share a jet.  If you are a community or event organizer, please keep in mind that we are here to serve you and your community travel needs.  If you are a certified aircraft operator, let us help you increase utilization of your inventory.  If you are a hospitality or experience service provider, please let us help you build travel packages around the freedom of flight.

Ok, now this airline game is becoming serious business.  It is bad enough when small communities that never had air service options have given up trying to grow (where new opportunities fail to materialize and young knowledge workers move away).  It’s a whole different matter when companies pick up and leave a community because the airlines pull the plug on air service.

[via When Airlines Depart Cities, Businesses May Follow : NPR]

Last month when Chiquita announced it was moving its corporate headquarters from Ohio to North Carolina, it said it was lured there in part by the number of flights in and out of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Cincinnati came out on the losing end of the deal because like so many other cities, it faces a shrinking airline hub, which can affect the city’s business climate.

US Cities are vulnerable to decreased economic development due to Airline Service loss

Regressive Economics

When a company leaves town, it takes with it the self-identity of the people who worked their entire careers to make that company great.  When people are forced to migrate to find new work, they impose a cost on their families and futures.  While corporations maintain economic freedom to make decisions in their own best interest, the public does not have the economic freedom to respond in their own best interest.

Daily Departures

Cincinnati; At peak, 2005: 673 daily (5 international); Current: 200 daily (1 international)

Pittsburgh; At peak, 2001: 579 daily (3 international); Current: 145 daily, (1 international)

St. Louis; peak 2001: 595 daily; Current: 250 daily

And, this is ONLY THREE Cities. 

Looking at the above statistics; well over 1000 flights per day have been eliminated from these three not-so-small cities.  That is 365,000 flights denying economic equality to over 50 million travelers in a single year.  The scale of entrepreneur career-years alone squandered due to lack of air service is absolutely catastrophic for the American Economy. The irony is that people who move away need to travel more to stay connected to families. The economic friction imposed on communities is staggering.   

“I remember coming here a few years ago and it was a hub of activity, you know, with all three concourses,” he says. “Now there’s only … one concourse left, if that, and it’s just really amazing to see this huge infrastructure supporting very little flights.”

Van der Horst with the Cincinnati chamber says she doesn’t expect Delta to go back to 673 flights a day at CVG, but she knows that for Cincinnati to attract and retain more business, it will mean landing more flights.

Social Flights is working overtime to create a Community Air Service Program that allows communities to access modern jet aircraft to fulfill their own travel needs whether they need direct flights, hub flights, corporate shuttle flights, or charter jet operations.  Social Flights has the operational experience to teach communities how to manage their own air transportation operations through their own airports, FBOs, and responding to their own social priorities with modern aircraft.

Economic Freedom belongs to everyone. This is the cornerstone of the Social Flights business model –  Social Flights is the people’s airline.  Let us know where you want to go, before someone else does that for you….