Point2Point Airways

[Sticky]

Heard of this? Airline service in a SR22. Gotta love government spending.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/business/11447477.htm

Mike

 

[mattpilot]

Gary Ness, director of the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission, said the concept of adding a regional airline in North Dakota has been studied before, but would have used smaller airplanes than those proposed in the Point2Point business plan.

HAHA! like what... a 152?

 

[Sticky]

Yeah..got a kick outta that too. Why on earth would someone think a $440,000 dollar 4-place plane piston could make money flying charter?

 

[urflyingme?!]

I'm sure it will do well in the ND winters....

 

[imacdog]

Do any Cirrus guys here know if the TKS package is a known ice system or just deice?

 

[Dan CFI/CFII]

I once knew of an airline that operated one flight a week, carried no passengers, carried no cargo. That 182 was quite the racket for the guy.

If you can figure out how an airplane that doesn't carry anybody or anything can possibly make millions of dollars, you get a prize. I'll give you a hint--this was about 15-20 years ago and apparentlyl the regs were easy to do this with.

I was just a young punk (as opposed to now, I'm just a young punk with facial hair), but I was amazed at this business...

Dan

 

[Carl_Spackler]

Boehle said one idea is to sell companies 50-hour blocks of flight time for up to $20,000. Based on those numbers and interest from companies, a study shows the airline would break even in two years and be in the black in three, he said.

Only $400/hr. What a deal.

 

[mattpilot]

I once knew of an airline that operated one flight a week, carried no passengers, carried no cargo. That 182 was quite the racket for the guy.

If you can figure out how an airplane that doesn't carry anybody or anything can possibly make millions of dollars, you get a prize. I'll give you a hint--this was about 15-20 years ago and apparentlyl the regs were easy to do this with.

I'll take a stab at it.

He was probably keeping an arrival slot/gate busy for a bigger airline. If an airline doesn't use a slot, it gets reassigned and someone else will get it. I guess an airline wasn't ready to operate to this airport so they send the little guy there since its cheaper to operate. Those arrival/departure slots can get expensive - especially in places like LHR in the UK.

So basically the airline saved lots of money by paying a dude in a 182 a small amount.

 

[JimNtexas]

Do any Cirrus guys here know if the TKS package is a known ice system or just deice?

I'm pretty sure it's emergency decide only in the Cirrus, not known ice certified. They'll need a new Mooney if they want known-ice single.

Years ago I flew a several times on "Airways of New Mexico", aka "Scareways of New Mexico", an airline that flew a Cherokee six between Alamagordo and El Paso.

They assigned seats based on your percieved importance in the community, so if you looked like a peon you'd get crammed into the child sized back seats.

 

[ceo_of_the_sofa]

400 bones an hour, for a ride in a single? Sure it's "legal", but for $300 less, enterprising business owners could rent themselves

 

[AeroDMB]

The SR22 is not certified for known icing, I think the Mooney is the only type with TKS that is certified for known.


It´s too **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** cold anyway for any ice to stick on the airplane...we never needed known ice equipped aircraft up there. Just use your head.

 

[imacdog]

I have to disagree with that statement. In the winter there are icing airmets all the time, and when I was flying around the Dakotas I still picked up plenty of ice. I would not want to be running, or flying for, an operation in the winter out of Bismarck without known ice aircraft.

 

[JimNtexas]

For $400/hour couldn't they afford some new Senecas, that are ice certified. A Senaca might could carry 3 people and their bags if they did that.

And where do I sign up to get the goverment to buy airplanes for me?

 

[AerroMatt]

Point2Point T!ts up

Just thought I'd post this link here,

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/05/02/news/topnews/132842.txt

It is appropriate to this thread. Point2Point founder apparently put it in writing;

Boehle, in his letter to the city, blamed much of the airline’s woes on “the inability of the airline to reliably dispatch aircraft due to inclement winter flying conditions.” He said the company’s fleet, including three-passenger planes made by Cirrus Design Corp., and twin-engine, four-passenger planes from the London, Ontario-based Diamond Aircraft Co., were not yet certified by the Federal Aviation Administration for charter operators to use in icing conditions.

No surprise that the lack of known icing shot them down. Too bad. Looks like everyone here who predicted their downfall due to this was correct.