A new app lets you book a seat on a private jet so you can fly from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to business meetings and leisure trips.
JetSmarter allows you to book any jet worldwide from your smartphone, and perks increase if you become a member - for $7,000 per year.
Without the membership, you would pay about $40,000-$98,000 for a week-long round trip from RDU to San Francisco for two people. The cheapest commercial flight on American Airlines in first class for the same trip costs just over $1,200 before taxes.
But for the those who don’t want to spend time in security and waiting on the concourse at RDU, this app is your fast track through General Aviation, onto a private jet that you might share with a handful of other people. And if you’ve booked seats but haven’t filled them, you can sell them through the app.
Members get push notifications when empty seats near them are available at a discounted rate.
The buzz around the Internet is that the app works like auto-ride share apps Uber and Lyft, but for private jets. RDU’s stance toward JetSmarter is much more relaxed than toward the ride-shares.
“I am not aware of JetSmarter’s service. But this is very different from Uber and Lyft. We provide permits to them to operate here; we do not do that for aircraft,” says RDU Communications Director Mindy Hamlin.
It’s not a new concept, however. Companies such as Flight Group Corp allow people to book a seat on a private jet for equity, and NetJets does as well.
“[JetSmarter] sounds a bit like a NetJets type of thing along with a ride sharing idea,” says Trey Walters, owner of RDU-based Blue Line Aviation, a private jet flight school. “There are some ride-sharing types of sites, but most recently for small private planes. Not sure if anyone has ever done it with chartered jets.”
- Source: http://www.bizjournals.com
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Trey Walters and Blue Line Aviation at KRDU are NOT a Jet Training School, in fact they are not even an FAA approved flight school. They operate small single prop aircraft, certification of training is by the flight instructors he employees. Not the first time he has lied in public to over inflate his credibility.
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