Xconomy
By Bruce V. Bigelow
April 02, 2014
How long are you willing to drive for a weekend getaway?
Steve Lewis figures most folks are willing to drive two or three
hours each way. If you live in the Bay Area, that means you might get as
far as Mendocino. If you live in San Diego, sandwiched between the
ocean and the desert, the drive to Las Vegas can easily takes six hours
or more.
Lewis, a pilot and software executive in Cambridge, MA, figured a lot
of people might be willing to throw a few bucks his way if he could
make it easy for private pilots to share their ride with passengers
willing to pay their share of airplane fuel and tie-down costs. He is in
San Diego and Silicon Valley this week to introduce a beta trial of AirPooler, an online platform that matches general aviation pilots and passengers who want to share flights and costs.
“We’re trying to create a whole new repertoire of regional travel
experience,” Lewis said. “In a light plane you can travel three times as
far as you can in a car over the same period of time.”
In San Diego, Lewis says AirPooler has struck a partnership with the
local flying club Pacific Coast Flyers, which enables local AirPooler
users to fly out of the McClellan-Palomar Airport near Carlsbad. In
Silicon Valley—AirPooler’s second test market—Lewis is working with the
Sundance Flying Club, so passengers can fly out of the Palo Alto
Airport.
In a statement, Sundance Flying Club CEO Evan Williams says, “We are
excited to be at the forefront of demonstrating how the shared economy
can promote general aviation by introducing more people to flying.”
The idea is for private pilots to list their recreational flights
with empty seats on the AirPooler website. Passengers who book a trip
through AirPooler pay only their pro-rata share of the trip’s cost
because federal law prohibits private pilots from transporting
passengers for hire.
Because of such prohibitions, the AirPooler idea is not so much of an
Über for general aviation as it is Couchsurfing in the sky. The law
says passengers can only pay for certain operating costs, but Lewis says
general aviation pilots are thrilled at the opportunity to defray the
cost of flights they are making anyway for personal business or
pleasure.
“The plane as an asset is way under-used,” he explained. “Because of
rising fuel costs, the average flight-hours for pilot-owners has
declined by 30 percent.”
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