For those of you analyzing costs -- it seems to me that some lower costs might come about for dead heading (flying empty somewhere else for a pickup of a full price charter). Presumably a given charter was going to require the aircraft to do that route anyway so they may as well get some cash for it.
Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
11–20 of 61 posts
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#12I don't understand this article. What does the "social web" have anything to do with why this is now possible? Even their example, flying three planes of sports fans out to another city, seems like something that could easily be arranged by the president of the fan club or something. If what they mean is that the "social web" makes this easier, then firstly, I'd love to know in what way exactly (they don't really des…
It means a dozen random strangers who happen to want to do the same itinerary can now meet each other and get a Learjet. It's a matter of scale.
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Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#13I don't understand this article. What does the "social web" have anything to do with why this is now possible? Even their example, flying three planes of sports fans out to another city, seems like something that could easily be arranged by the president of the fan club or something. If what they mean is that the "social web" makes this easier, then firstly, I'd love to know in what way exactly (they don't really des…
They just need to get ahold of the do not fly list, there are a few hundred thousand people there that can take private flights but not commercial airline flights.
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#14The article is a bit disingenuous. While this might bring the cost down, it's certainly not going to be an alternative to commercial flights. Let's look at a flight that I would love to take right now: Phoenix to Seattle. Here is a map of the route you [could] take for this flight: http://wh98.fltplan.com/mapgenerator/index.cfm?UdTimer=40838... This 1028 miles, but lets say (for ease of calculation) that it's 1000 ex…
The article is a bit disingenuous. While this might bring the cost down, it's certainly not going to be an alternative to commercial flights.
I think anyone with some common sense or basic economics knowledge would get that on average it's still going to be more expensive than a commercial flight. The point is that the use of social brings the price down.
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#15One benefit of flying on a private/charter plane - you don't have to go through security.
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#16I've got a better idea in the same space.
I've always wanted somebody to take the idea of "leave when full" minibuses in the 3rd world and apply it to popular airline routes.
How cool would it be if there was an operator running flights from Los Angeles to San Fransisco using small commuter jets with no fixed schedule and plenty of planes. You'd just turn up, buy a ticket, make your way to the gate, and get on the plane. When it filled up it would taxi away and another one would fill its place.
Average wait time: less than 15 minutes. No more showing up at the airport 2 hours early.
Naturally, you'd have to charge a premium, but if you pick your routes correctly and target people with more money than time, you would clean up.
The only downside is that you couldn't do it from actual commercial airports like LAX and SFO because you'd never get a slot to take off. You'd need to use smaller airports such as Boeing Field in Seattle. It still seems pretty doable though.
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#17I've got a better idea in the same space. I've always wanted somebody to take the idea of "leave when full" minibuses in the 3rd world and apply it to popular airline routes. How cool would it be if there was an operator running flights from Los Angeles to San Fransisco using small commuter jets with no fixed schedule and plenty of planes. You'd just turn up, buy a ticket, make your way to the gate, and get on the pl…
Personally I'd rather know the exact time I'm going to be taking off, so I can turn up at the perfect time (when I fly, at least out of England where I know the airports well enough, I turn up, drop off baggage, drink a coffee while smoking a cigarette, go through security, and I sit down in my seat a couple of minutes before the plane moves away from the gate). As opposed to your system, where I turn up, get on the plane, then... wait for an unknown time until it fills up.
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#18I've got a better idea in the same space. I've always wanted somebody to take the idea of "leave when full" minibuses in the 3rd world and apply it to popular airline routes. How cool would it be if there was an operator running flights from Los Angeles to San Fransisco using small commuter jets with no fixed schedule and plenty of planes. You'd just turn up, buy a ticket, make your way to the gate, and get on the pl…
Most of the weekday traffic is business travelers, who have meetings scheduled and need to be guaranteed on the ground at a certain time. That would certainly work for a lot of leisure travel though.
Part of the reason why it's considered a sign of a civilized country if their trains run on time.
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#19I've got a better idea in the same space. I've always wanted somebody to take the idea of "leave when full" minibuses in the 3rd world and apply it to popular airline routes. How cool would it be if there was an operator running flights from Los Angeles to San Fransisco using small commuter jets with no fixed schedule and plenty of planes. You'd just turn up, buy a ticket, make your way to the gate, and get on the pl…
I routinely have my flights into SFO delayed hours in advance due to weather and traffic considerations. The ATC system doesn't seem like it's set up handle such an arrangement without major changes being made to the way flights are programmed. Just a guess.
Re: Fly Like You're Rich With Social Flights (And Private Planes)
#20The article is a bit disingenuous. While this might bring the cost down, it's certainly not going to be an alternative to commercial flights. Let's look at a flight that I would love to take right now: Phoenix to Seattle. Here is a map of the route you [could] take for this flight: http://wh98.fltplan.com/mapgenerator/index.cfm?UdTimer=40838... This 1028 miles, but lets say (for ease of calculation) that it's 1000 ex…
Phoenix to Seattle is not the market. Even if I owned a private plane, I'd probably fly commercial for hub to hub flights like that. (and almost definitely for super long haul point to point like SFO-HKG; it's reasonable to own or charter a Caravan or King Air or Citation II or something if you fly a lot with a group of people, but a G650 or BBJ3 is an order of magnitude more. I've been a passenger on a moderate number of business/corporate/government vs. super-rich-person jets, and a top quality commercial business class or most first class products are actually a more comfortable experience, at a much lower cost).
A better market is for something like rural Texas to rural Montana; not hubs, and might require 3 flight segments each way (get to nearest hub, hub to hub, hub to destination); these can easily make a ~1000 mile flight into an all-day fiasco (plus, driving to the nearest commercial airport vs. a general aviation airport).
Flying 4-6 people on those flights might be $2500/day per person, plus $1000+ in last minute tickets, plus hotel.