Linear Air, which has operated an air taxi model with upscale Caravans and Eclipse 500s - is mixing it up a little. It has previously offered a seasonal per seat service from New York or Boston to Nantucket. Now, it has begun offering a per seat Eclipse service during mid week between Boston and New York. Most interestingly, the pricing model is similar to what DayJet utilized by offering a lower price if the passenger provides a greater flexibility of travel times. The lowest one way price with a 4 hour window of flexibility is $350. It's website states:
"Linear Air now offers customers per seat, on-demand service between Boston and New York City. Linear Air will operate flights between Hanscom Field in Bedford, MA and the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, NY. Service will be available each week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays."
"Linear Air now offers customers per seat, on-demand service between Boston and New York City. Linear Air will operate flights between Hanscom Field in Bedford, MA and the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, NY. Service will be available each week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays."
I have talked about Linear Air before here. Much like SATSAir, Linear Air moves forward with slow, measured, thoughtful expansion and various flight options based on what appears to be well thought out economic models. Linear Air's President and CEO Bill Herp was recently featured as a speaker on a panel at the World Low Cost Airline 2008 Conference in London. That's quite the mix - low cost air carriers and air taxis. Herp stated in an article in The Columbus Dispatch discussing that Conference: "The first customers are those who are already familiar with business aviation and private air travel," Herp said. "We're now starting to see people come over from full coach fares on airlines."
Speaking of conferences, there will be a discussion of air taxis at NBAA next week in Orlando. The discussion Tuesday October 8th is called "NBAA TAAs & VLJs in Air Taxi Operations." So, what's a TAA? Technologically Advanced (piston) Aircraft. Finally, there is an air taxi discussion that is not just about VLJs! In fact, we have learned that some of the most successful US air taxi operations are TAAs indeed.
About a month after NBAA is Aviation Week's "The VLJ Horizon: Gaining Actionable Insights to Drive Sustainable Growth VLJ." I will be speaking there on November 11th. Both of these events are two of my favorites along with the upcoming International Air Taxi Convention ("IATC") which will be on February 25-26 of 2009.
And finally, speaking of the IATC, we had a great Legal Workshop at the IATC last year. You can see video clips here and I will discuss that in greater detail later. I will admit my expectations about how the air taxi marketplace would develop this year were markedly optimistic earlier this year. But, I am not too sure who could have predicted -- or for that matter foreseen -- the current economic state of our country. Regardless, these conferences are all well worth the time and effort because there you find yourselves in the midst of folks who still believe in aviation, especially the air taxi model. And, they are all in Florida in the fall and winter.
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