The acquisition of SATSair by Cirrus Design has to be one of the most notable air taxi items of the year.  If you are not familiar with Cirrus Design, it manufactures the Cirrus SR-22, the world's best selling piston single-engine four-seat airplane.  SATSair is a southeastern U.S. air taxi service utilizing Cirrus aircraft.  

This may be a "first" in the air travel industry, if not in all travel segments.  How many manufacturers of transportation vehicles also own the travel service, which uses them to carry passengers?  Scaling up, this would be like Boeing owning United Airlines, or General Motors owning the Yellow Cab Company.

A strong competitive advantage could be wielded by Cirrus/SATSair by holding a near monopoly of providing service in any market area with its planes, popular in no small measure due to the whole-plane parachute.  Rather than just sell their aircraft to air taxi carriers there, they could set up their own competing service.  (“You want to fly in Cirrus aircraft?  Great.  We'll set up SATSair service in your area.”)  

This tight integration between manufacturer and service provider may be a strong selling point to the travel consumer.  Will the model work, and will other aircraft manufacturers follow suit, particularly, when the very light jets come along?  Is this how the air taxi business is going to go -- combination manufacturers and service providers running the show?

11/19/05

Read the acquisition news
Cirrus Design website
SATSair website

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