A new concept in the aviation business has been made which would enable everyone to share a private jet with fellow passengers - a concept in land transportation which UberPool is famous for. Although it's not yet clear when this would be launched, business aviation forecaster Rolland Vincent believes that this could be the future of private air travel.
This concept is not entirely new, however. Backtracking to the late 80s, fractional ownership of private aircrafts was launched, enabling individuals to share the total cost of owning an aircraft with co-owners. In 2000, jet cards were introduced, a more flexible alternative to fractional ownership. This enables passengers to access a private aircraft any time of need by paying a flat rate. These two concepts are still practiced until present. Now, this UberPool-like concept may be a more elevated yet public version of the jet cards program.
The concept of sharing airplane rides without the membership requirement is now being tried in Europe, but can't be seen to be available in the U.S. anytime soon. In 2013, Flytenow, one of the first to offer flight-sharing by flying from Boston to San Francisco, has tried to run the concept of sharing expenses between the pilot and the passengers. But after two years of operations, it was shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in December 2015. Similar online flight-sharing companies have also been affected by the court's decision. The court has put the stop in the concept to prohibit private pilots to advertise for shared flights. Currently, what is being run are private companies that offer memberships, such as Wheels Up and JetSuite.
Ultimately, the purpose of publicly shared flights is to offer private aviation as an affordable alternative to commercial flights. According to The Wichita Eagle, companies have clarified that their services are in no way competing with commercial airlines and offer only flights to cities which do not have airline services. This UberPool-like flights might just be the solution of giving passengers a more cost-effective, hassle-free way of flying between remote areas.
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