1.
Miwok: As mentioned
recently, yet another air taxi company has started up. This one,
Miwok Airways, is using small, posh Cirrus SR22 propeller-driven airplanes and serving Southern California roughly between San Diego in the south, Oxnard in the northwest, and Palm Springs in the east.
The
Air Taxi Law blog -- yes, there is such a thing, a sign in itself -- has more
interesting info about the thinking behind Miwok. It also includes a service area map and this comment about its strategy:
Miwok's business plan is making several interesting assumption. First,
one assumption is that people will use an air taxi for much shorter
trips. While Miwok has entered a partnership with Enterprise Rental
Car, will the added factor of a rental car (even with a premium no wait
service) or a taxi at the destination outweigh the pain factor in just
driving your own car for such a short trip? Second, another assumption
is that the passenger is willing to trade low fares for a shared
airplane although Miwok will price the trip higher if no one else joins
your trip. Sharing an Eclipse is one thing. Sharing the back seats of a
Cirrus is a little more intimate, but still much more comfortable and
more room than a center seat on an airline coach class flight!
Also, I see that AVWeb has just put up an interview with Miwok's founder,
here.
2.
SATSair: This note from an employee of probably the best known air-taxi service that uses Cirrus airplanes:
I read your original article about Air Taxis years ago [2001] while I was a UPS driver.
Now
I am a pilot at Satsair. They still have a way to go but it is a
brilliant plan almost like when fedex came out with the overnight
letter. Everyone needs the service, sometime they just did not know it, same way with air taxi.
This faith in the "ahah!" potential of the small-airplane taxi model is what motivates people trying to get these companies going. My thinking is: if times get tough enough in the print journalism business, like the ex-UPS driver I can consider other career options...*
______
*Note: this is a little joke, based on my having flown a Cirrus for many years. And things are actually great in this part of the print journalism business!
Read the complete post at http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/two_air_taxi_updates.php
Posted
9 Sep 2008 8:50
by
James Fallows