An opportunity for small airports/commuter airlines?

[Jay Honeck]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050826/ts_csm/aruralbus

With Greyhound abandoning hundreds of rural towns, perhaps there is an
opening for an affordable air taxi service? What percentage of people
who ride the bus would rather use an air taxi, if it were reasonably
priced?

Is it even possible to create an "affordable" air taxi, with all the
FAA crap on the books? History would seem to prove otherwise.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Jimmy B.]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050826/ts_csm/aruralbus
>
> With Greyhound abandoning hundreds of rural towns, perhaps there is an
> opening for an affordable air taxi service? What percentage of people
> who ride the bus would rather use an air taxi, if it were reasonably
> priced?
>
> Is it even possible to create an "affordable" air taxi, with all the
> FAA crap on the books? History would seem to prove otherwise.

I would agree that it would be very difficult to run an air taxi
business and keep fares low enough to attract the Greyhound set.

If Greyhound can't turn a profit at these locations, I don't see how an
air taxi could.

Jay, you're an experienced entrepreneur. Why don't you give it a shot?




> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>

[Robert M. Gary]

At around $35/seat it would be a challenge. My instinct says you'd be
better off marketing towards people who have the financial means to pay
for their transportation and are willing to pay for the speed of air
travel vs. driving their own car. The greyhound pax are people who
don't drive their own car because they can't afford to travel by car.
Marketing to the bottom of the market is always more challending than
marketing to the top where you can compete with alternatives on service
not just on price.

-Robert

[Brad Zeigler]

Jay, this is a joke, right? Greyhound is pulling out of these markets due
to lack of demand. I'm not even going to touch on the price sensitivity
issue...

"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050826/ts_csm/aruralbus
>
> With Greyhound abandoning hundreds of rural towns, perhaps there is an
> opening for an affordable air taxi service? What percentage of people
> who ride the bus would rather use an air taxi, if it were reasonably
> priced?
>
> Is it even possible to create an "affordable" air taxi, with all the
> FAA crap on the books? History would seem to prove otherwise.
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"
>

[George Patterson]

Jay Honeck wrote:
>
> With Greyhound abandoning hundreds of rural towns, perhaps there is an
> opening for an affordable air taxi service?

That's one argument the VLJ (very light jet) people have been advancing.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

[Jose]

> What percentage of people
> who ride the bus would rather use an air taxi, if it were reasonably
> priced?

The same percentage of bus passengers who would take a limo.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

[W P Dixon]

HEE HEE,
You got that one right Jose!!!! ;)

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

"Jose" > wrote in message
m...
>> What percentage of people
>> who ride the bus would rather use an air taxi, if it were reasonably
>> priced?
>
> The same percentage of bus passengers who would take a limo.
>
> Jose
> --
> Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
> except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no
> universe.
> for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

[john smith]

> Jay Honeck wrote:
>> With Greyhound abandoning hundreds of rural towns, perhaps there is an
>> opening for an affordable air taxi service?

George Patterson wrote:
> That's one argument the VLJ (very light jet) people have been advancing.

Who is going to pay for all that TSA/HS/FAA mandated security,
background checks, etc at the small airports SATS is supposed to utilize?

[[email protected]]

Jay Honeck wrote:
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050826/ts_csm/aruralbus
>
> With Greyhound abandoning hundreds of rural towns, perhaps there is an
> opening for an affordable air taxi service? What percentage of people
> who ride the bus would rather use an air taxi, if it were reasonably
> priced?

No. Perhaps something using passenger vans, though the regulatory costs
(safety inspections, insurance, driver hours) which would be
proportionally greater for the 8-seat van than a 50-seat bus, probably
conspire against it.

> Is it even possible to create an "affordable" air taxi, with all the
> FAA crap on the books? History would seem to prove otherwise.

Yes, it's called Southwest.

-cwk.

[james]

fort collins colorado would be excellent example. (FNL) modern airport,
long runway, huge growth in northern front range, and DEN is 40-60
mile drive for them.

alligent air already has charter service. i think a carrier like
southwest would do well there. (they don't serve DEN due to high fees)

[[email protected]]

james wrote:
> fort collins colorado would be excellent example. (FNL) modern airport,
> long runway, huge growth in northern front range, and DEN is 40-60
> mile drive for them.
>
> alligent air already has charter service. i think a carrier like
> southwest would do well there. (they don't serve DEN due to high fees)

SWA is pretty sharp about these things so I suspect they are watching
the numbers there.

Regional jets have really changed the map for small local carriers and
air-taxi services. You used to have carriers like Colgan that fed
people from all over New England into BOS. Now you have the option to
take an RJ direct from Portland ME or Manchester NH to CVG, ORD, or DTW
and from there, anywhere. Colgan's still going but I have to assume
their business isn't what it was 10-15 years ago. With fuel prices and
security regs being what they are, it's hard to see small air carriers
succeeding anywhere except where you have favorable geography and
affluent travelers- thus Cape Air.

-cwk.

[nooneimportant]

>Colgan's still going but I have to assume
> their business isn't what it was 10-15 years ago. With fuel prices and
> security regs being what they are, it's hard to see small air carriers
> succeeding anywhere except where you have favorable geography and
> affluent travelers- thus Cape Air.
>
> -cwk.
>
>

Actually the've been doing quite a bit of hiring, think they are very
successful in limited point to point airports that are nonservicible to jet
traffic, and feeder service from areas that dont' support jet traffic. Think
of airports with shorter runways that are insufficient for an ERJ/CRJ/Etc,
but quite sufficient to a B-1900, Saab340, Dash-8 etc, think Piedmont is
targeting same market/different region as Colgan.

[[email protected]]

nooneimportant wrote:
> >Colgan's still going but I have to assume
> > their business isn't what it was 10-15 years ago. With fuel prices and
> > security regs being what they are, it's hard to see small air carriers
> > succeeding anywhere except where you have favorable geography and
> > affluent travelers- thus Cape Air.
> >
> > -cwk.
>
> Actually the've been doing quite a bit of hiring, think they are very
> successful in limited point to point airports that are nonservicible to jet
> traffic, and feeder service from areas that dont' support jet traffic. Think
> of airports with shorter runways that are insufficient for an ERJ/CRJ/Etc,
> but quite sufficient to a B-1900, Saab340, Dash-8 etc, think Piedmont is
> targeting same market/different region as Colgan.

Yeah, I looked up their routes and was surprised to see how many they
still had. Maine and NY are big places with a lot of smaller cities
that are a hella long drive from anywhere, especially in Maine where
the roads can get kinda gnarly.

-cwk.