All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#2Fascinating! Although, as a cautionary data point, selling "all you can fly" didn't work too well for American Airlines:
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/05/business/la-fi-0506-...
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#3It's funny that a huge part of the reason that a business like this exists is the TSA. If flying commercial airlines didn't require an hour and a half of waiting in line for security and a fair dose of humiliation, I think people would be much more willing to fly from SFO to LAX.
Instead, we're running inefficient propeller planes for short distances and really high prices, and people are treating it like it's some amazing new innovation.
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#4Very cool. Virgin started with one only plane. SA's present niche is quite different. The bottom line is that it's doable considering others still exist.
Tip: Virgin LHR counter is well run and I look forward to stopping by for that reason. It's not about promoting a particular brand as a good way of doing life... leave the world a better place.
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#5It's funny that a huge part of the reason that a business like this exists is the TSA. If flying commercial airlines didn't require an hour and a half of waiting in line for security and a fair dose of humiliation, I think people would be much more willing to fly from SFO to LAX. Instead, we're running inefficient propeller planes for short distances and really high prices, and people are treating it like it's some a…
I fly a fair amount and don't find that I wait significantly longer for airport security now than I did before 9/11. I don't like the TSA any more than you do, but I don't think they're the major cause of commercial airport delays.
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#6I've never quite mentally reconciled the idea that people whose industry is built on telecommunication should have to spend hours and days traveling to talk about it.
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#7Fascinating! Although, as a cautionary data point, selling "all you can fly" didn't work too well for American Airlines: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/05/business/la-fi-0506-...
That was because the people were allowed to fly with a "guest", and started selling their seats to strangers in violation of the rules.
With this airline, everyone will be required to buy a membership -- no "guests".
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#8It's interesting that he ran the numbers and picked single engine aircraft for safety (but with two pilots); this seems correct from what I've seen of small aircraft stats. If you look at successful dispatch rate, it's even more clear that single engine is the way to go.
I'd do something like this if they covered Seattle, SF, Reno, Portland, and central-WA (datacenters) and central-OR (datacenters). Throw in SB/LA/SD/LV for extra fun, but the northern areas are what I care about much much more.
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#9It's funny that a huge part of the reason that a business like this exists is the TSA. If flying commercial airlines didn't require an hour and a half of waiting in line for security and a fair dose of humiliation, I think people would be much more willing to fly from SFO to LAX. Instead, we're running inefficient propeller planes for short distances and really high prices, and people are treating it like it's some a…
Turboprops or even piston are a better choice for routes like SB to Burbank than turbofan aircraft; it's just that passengers strongly associate turbofan aircraft with "quality and comfort", so the commercial market loves those.
And, for commercial service under some parts, you're forced to use twin engines. Single engine aircraft are objectively better in a lot of ways, and on par for overall safety (it's better to lose an engine in ideal cases in a twin, but things often go wrong with the recovery procedures, and engines are very reliable, and with twins you have twice as many engines to potentially break anyway...)
Some of the badness is actually FAA not being able to fund better ATC allowing more flexible routing.
Re: All-You-Can-Fly Airline Plies the California Coast
#10It's funny that a huge part of the reason that a business like this exists is the TSA. If flying commercial airlines didn't require an hour and a half of waiting in line for security and a fair dose of humiliation, I think people would be much more willing to fly from SFO to LAX. Instead, we're running inefficient propeller planes for short distances and really high prices, and people are treating it like it's some a…
The Pilatus PC12 single engine turboprop is far more efficient for this sort of mission than a twin engine turbofan jet. This lowers operation and maintenance costs which this airline is passing onto consumers.