in USA the
www.surfair.com is being cloned in Texas (
www.1flyrise.com &
www.txairshuttle ).
Business types who pay the highest airfares want convenience.
Perhaps Free Spirit should sell some seats on the basis of a monthly subscription ? Maybe 4-6.
It would give them free
PR, as never been done in OZ before
AFAIK & it would give them cash flow.
They might need an app, but could also be done, by very simple email or SMS from phones.
Surf Air now charge USD$1750 for unlimited travel on their Californian network for a month, from smaller airports in Pilatus 7 or 8 seaters.
(they have a 3 month minimum)
They have a waiting list for "MEMBERSHIP".
Think you can only have booked 4 sectors, so once flown one, can book another. Guess this stops people booking heaps of flights & doing no shows.
No security BS at check in(prescreening is done), free parking at terminal, no hassles, no stress.
Surfair are planning to fly to Vegas once they get approval to fly interstate.
At present it's virtually faster to drive from LAX to LAS. Think about it. Need to be at LAX hours before flight, park miles away, get a shuttle, q at check in, bend over (here comes the rubber gloves) security handled by people on minimum wages, walk km to gate, wait due to congestion delays, taxi, more delays, actually fly (block time is probably only 20 mins) taxi at other end, deplane, wait for bags, get taxi/rental car etc.
From getting to LAX to departing LAS is probably 4.5 hours.
You can drive from most parts of LA to Vegas, door to door, in less than 4 hours in normal weather/traffic.
Surfair will probably cut the 4.5 hours down to 2 hours or less with absolutely no stress. Actual block time will be longer, but such a short sector, it would probably only be 5-10 minutes longer, far less than more security q's at U.S. airports.
Surfair wins hands down on time over all of it's other sectors as well & the last thing we all need is stress.
USD$1750/month is really nothing for a regular business flyer, who would fly 4 or more times a month.
Surprised to learn that full Y class BNE/MEL on QF or VA one way is now AUD$975.
Think regular flyers are really getting sick of the BS at big airports.
Who has time or wants to sit in a lounge. The only reason many sit in a lounge, is they have to get to airport long before their flight, due to ever increasing q's. We seem to be heading down the disasterous U.S. path at big airports.
Back to Free Spirit ...................
Hardest thing they will face, is convincing media that they are a success.
Full flights in the eyes of the media = success. The media would have no idea, if flights given away free to fill aircraft or not.
A media story like, every Free Spirit full for 1st 3 weeks, would seem to indicate success in the public eyes.