Plane Conversations

Aviation supports a role in society that is analogous to the Internet itself. While the hard work gets done at the points on the ground, Aviation provides the diversity of ideas that can congregate.

Sure, Twitter, Facebook, and Linked in are great for broadcasting across the globe, but nothing can happen until the rubber meets the tarmac. Emerging trends in the Last Mile of Social Media portend opportunities for Private Aviation.

The following video describes how the components of the next economic paradigm must act locally, but share globally. For anyone wondering what to do next or where the great opportunities are, think about building out the Last mile of Social Media.

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Over the past 18 months we have witnessed the failures of several attempts to innovate private aircraft travel through the business model of “Air Taxi”. The Air Taxi is as simple in concept as the name implies. Someone needs to go somewhere so they take a taxi. Stand out on the street, hail the cab and get moving. Simple.  The aviation concept is (was) go to the nearest airport (air taxi stand), hail an aircraft and get moving. Again, simple.

Most notable of the Air Taxi start-ups was Florida-based Dayjet, using the Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet as its launch aircraft. Not only did the Air Taxi company fail but the aircraft manufacturer (Eclipse Jet) also failed. Recently SATSAIR, the South Carolina-based Cirrus air taxi operator covering the southeastern United States, fell victim to the hard economy and ceased operations. Others have tried to get off the ground and either never got to the stage of actually flying, or had to modify their business plans early on to more resemble the traditional air charter companies like ours. The aircraft manufacturers have seen widespread fleet cancellations over the past twelve months as the financial markets have withdrawn their willingness to finance aircraft.  Maybe those cancellations saved investors from losing a lot of money with future startups of air taxis.   

So what happened?

I am not sure if anyone has the total answer. Was the Dayjet operation the right idea but wrong aircraft? Or would the business have worked even with the right aircraft?

I believe the idea for an Air Taxi in its raw form is fantastic. Taking the idea and developing it into a working business that can execute and make a profit is another thing.

Too many startups focus on the marketing side and don’t understand the absolute necessity for operational execution at the highest level of efficiency. Even if the operational side is executed flawlessly you still need passengers to show up in sufficient numbers at the right time, place and price to make it work. Where are those passengers and why wouldn’t they show up?

Could the problem be that, so far, the business models put out there have been a sort of “field of dreams” model? “Build it and they (the flying public) will come?”

What if the market had assembled itself to create the demand and then come to the air taxi businesses and said, “here we are and this is what we want!” Impossible you say? Maybe so, but maybe not. The technology is out there to allow “The Market” to communicate among itself and create its own “Request For Proposal” of sorts, and then go to the supplier (the charter or air taxi operator) and solicit  pricing proposals (air cab fares) for specific routes that make sense, and thus evolve naturally over time.

Who says the Air Taxi concept has to be proved in a big scale way? Didn’t some of the greatest technology companies of our time start small in the garage or home office?  What about  building the air taxi concept one route at a time?

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