Bill Would Allow Online Flight Sharing

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Bill-Would-Allow-Online-Flight-Sharing-225082-1.html

Bill Would Allow Online Flight Sharing

By Russ Niles | October 27, 2015

As a Washington, D.C., court weighs the legality of posting flight sharing
offers online, an Arizona Republican has introduced a bill that would compel
the FAA to accept services like Flytenow. Flytenow, which hosted a website that
allowed pilots to post their planned flights so prospective passengers could
come along and pay a share of the expenses, was told by the FAA that their
website was illegal. It's legal for passengers in private aircraft to pay an
equitable share of the fuel and other expenses on a flight but the FAA said
opening that offer to the masses via a website wasn't legal. Flytenow sued the
FAA and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has heard both
sides of the story and is deliberating. If the Aviation Cost and Expenses
Sharing Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3593
gains traction, however, the decision might be moot.

David Schweikert, R-Ariz., introduced the bill a month ago and it's clearly
aimed at the FAA's interpretation of the current rules, which say that
passengers are allowed to chip in for expenses. The summary of the bill is as
follows: "This bill directs the Federal Aviation Administration to issue or
revise regulations to ensure that persons who hold a private pilot certificate
may communicate with the public in cases where operating expenses of the flight
are shared between the pilot and passengers." The FAA contends broadcasting
flight availability Uber-style is an abuse of the rule that allows passengers
to buy up to half the gas. Flytenow says the FAA needs to keep up with the
times. "It's OK for pilots to post a written notice at an airport or a college
campus with 10,000 students, but if they post the same message online, the FAA
says no. Where do you draw the line?" Matt Voska of San Francisco, a private
pilot and a cofounder of Flytenow, told the LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-california-commute-20151027-story.html.
"What we are doing is permissible."