I have never flown in a small airplane. All my flying has been in the larger airliners paying a per-seat fare between their scheduled airport stops. However, it would be nice to fly from my home near Trenton/NJ to visit family in Watertown/NY, both places off the airlines' beaten path. Two options are apparent, one totally inconvenient and the other priced in the stratosphere. The first involves a plus-or-minus hour drive to either Newark or Philadelphia, a scheduled airline flight to Syracuse, then rent a car and drive over an hour to Watertown (or charter a flight from Syracuse to Watertown). I might just as well do the seven hour-plus drive all the way. 

Much more desirable would be to fly from the smaller regional airport near Trenton to the one in Watertown, however, today the cost is out of sight. The choice is air charter with a per-plane price, $8000 and up for a weekend round-trip by small jet (website quote). A little pricey. The propeller plane option was indicated as "Call for quote" -- hardly worth it in my view. The figure is probably less, but I'm sure not enough so to make it an attractive option. If I could collar some other people to fly with me at the same times I'm flying, my cost would come down, but the prospect of doing that approaches lottery winning odds. (It might be a different story and make sense for a group of people on a business trip.)  

There are efforts afoot to bring down the price of on-demand flights to levels of airline per-seat fares. Credit NASA's Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) initiative, innovative new aircraft manufacturers that have planes in the works with dramatically lower operating costs, and some air taxi operators planning and/or starting to put the pieces together. 

It has to be no small feat to set up a system that can fly planes with enough paid seats between many scattered airports at all hours to make a profit. Any air taxi startup company must have to consider how long it's going to take to have the critical mass of customers waiting at the right airports at the right times, so that a plane's vacated seat after landing can be filled before taking off again often enough to come out ahead. And, the price has to be right, to boot, or there are no waiting customers. A true Chinese puzzle -- figured it out? Time's up. 

It may be a while, if ever, until I can fly direct from Trenton to Watertown at an acceptable per-seat price. Nevertheless, I support and commend those working to make it happen.  

11/02/02 

Update 12/18/02 --- See our air taxi business calculator

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