Attentive readers will be familiar with the trail of tears recounted
here, involving the dashed hopes of the small-jet maker
Eclipse and the pioneering air-taxi company
DayJet. Sigh sigh sigh.
But all along, air taxi companies that have flown passengers not in the spiffy new Eclipse jets but rather in also-spiffy Cirrus SR-22 propeller planes have survived and have steadily been expanding their service. For background on the best known of these,
SATSair, see
this; for info on another called
Miwok, see
this. For more on the propeller/jet difference in business models, see the second half of
this post.
Recently, there's another entrant, which will use the same Cirrus SR-22s to transport passengers on short-haul trips around the SF Bay area. It's called
Indigo Flyer, and its service map is here (detailed pricing and route info at its site):
Will it succeed? Lord knows. But the entrepreneur in me, and the aviation enthusiast, and the person who thinks this air-taxi model actually has a future, all wish it the best. (Thanks to Chris Baker, my instrument-rating instructor ten years ago, for the tip.)
Read the complete post at http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/12/nondepressing_more_air_taxi_ne.php
Posted
2 Dec 2008 16:36
by
James Fallows