Dispatchers - Business Oportunity or no?

[minitour]

Just got to thinking...what if you guyz (galz) that didn't want to work 121 anymore started a company.

Say, I call you 2-3 hours before a flight. I give you the N-number, passenger/baggage, airplane type and where I'm at to where I want to go, and pilot information (name, address, phone).

You call/fax/e-mail me about an hour or so later with a completed flight plan (filed), fuel burn, alternates, weight and ballance, required fuel, etc.

How much would you need to charge per flight to make it profitable?

Would you be able to go low enough to keep it within the realm of most/all GA pilots?

Perhaps it's the lack of sleep getting to me and this already exists or maybe it's even illegal...quite honestly, I'm too lazy to look it up to see if it's either of the two right now...

Just thought I'd bounce the idea out there and see if it bounced back...

Take care!

-mini

 

[rvsm410]

Been there done that...

2 years ago I started a business with 2 other furloughed dispatchers. We catered to the filthy rich and their private jets.....we had set up a complete flight operations office with flight tracking, flight planning software for releases, world wide communications, a sita address etc..you get the picture....

Further we set up all the fueling, food services, and very important, security and media protection....these people dont want the world knowing where they are going or what they may be up to..

We looked into do other private release like you suggested as well. As we all know there in nothing requiring our services except under Part 121 rules, 135 and part 91 require the pilot to be responsible for all of these processes, there is no way for a service like ours to be able to assume or take that responsibility from the PIC under these FAR's....

The costs for operating the ops center paying a salary to a dispatcher makes the cost per flight plan/flight follow much higher than most would be willing to pay. Now our VIP tyoes did not care about money, they wanted all the other services we provided and the extra set of eyes over seeing them while they traveled...it paid very well....

 

[minitour]

well there you have it...

I guess I can trash the idea of making the infomercial on "get rich quick by..." for that one eh?

-mini