TaxiJet

[Dangerkitty]

Let the nay-sayers toss their pennies into the conversation, they're the same folks who live paycheck to paycheck, depend on their J.O.B., have no financial plan, and no long-term vision of anything. You have airlines uniforms hanging up in your closet and have learned your lesson. They haven't and either will, or never will. In either case they'll continue to shoot from the hip on issues they neglect to investigate in depth. It's easy, fun, and creates drama on the board.

Painting with a pretty broad brush there, dont ya think?

 

[AZ Typed]

Painting with a pretty broad brush there, dont ya think?

Well, that's the truth. What's your point? I'm missing it?

AZT

 

[Dangerkitty]

Well, that's the truth. What's your point? I'm missing it?

AZT

Well I really dont believe that this whole Taxijet thing will work. I just think that the logistics are too complicated and regulations not flexible enough. So I guess you can label me as a naysayer. HOWEVER:

Let the nay-sayers toss their pennies into the conversation, they're the same folks who live paycheck to paycheck

Nope not me. I live below my means and have 6 months of my six figure salary tucked away in my emergency fund.

depend on their J.O.B., have no financial plan, and no long-term vision of anything. You have airlines uniforms hanging up in your closet and have learned your lesson. They haven't and either will, or never will. In either case they'll continue to shoot from the hip on issues they neglect to investigate in depth. It's easy, fun, and creates drama on the board.

I dont have a J.O.B. I have 2 seperate careers. One flying for a Fortune 500 company and the other working in the Insurance and Financial Planning fields. So I really dont have to depend on either. Being that I work in the Financial field as a CFP and insurance agent I also have a very well thought out Financial Plan.

I also have two pilot uniforms hanging in my closet from two seperate airlines. A Major airline as well as a large Regional. So whatever lessons he has learned I am sure I have been exposed to them just as well. (When it comes to that however I am really not too sure I know what you are talking about.)

As far as shooting from the hip I see it a little differently. I call is calling a Spade a Spade. I dont think this whole Taxijet will work however I would love to be proved wrong. I agree that taking chances and risks is what makes America work and thrive. I just dont think that with the FAA keeping a tight grip on anything Part 135 related and the profit margins being almost nil to none that much money can be made from this endeavor.

Just becuase I am a naysayer doesn't mean I dont have any depth or I want to create drama. I have an opinion and have chosen to state it easy as that. I have looked into this whole Taxijet thing and really dont think it will work. Simple as that.

So when I state you are painting with a pretty broad brush I am telling you that I have looked into this alot more than you think. And just becuase I am a naysayer doesn't mean that I dont have my $hit together.

 

[Taxijet]

AZT:

Thank you for your encouraging words.

I realize that what I propose is a huge investment and I want to be sure it has every chance of success. That is one reason I am responding to this thread. So I can learn from pilots where the problems lie. So I can concentrate on those problem areas while building the web site and supporting programs and minimize the risk.

I will do my best to make this a win-win-win for everyone involved.


Dangerkitty:

With six to ten partners working together to operate one aircraft there will always be four to eight partners on the ground. Any of them will be able to help with operational aspects of their operation. They will have state of the art software, hand held computing devices and high-speed communications that have never before been available. With that sort of support the logistics will not be too complicated.

We all know the regulations for air charter are strict and inflexible but the FAA has interest in helping make the air taxi business model work. Why would they spend tens of millions of dollars a year on the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) and then deny reasonable use of it? I believe the FAA will work with pilots who wish to pursue this type of service.

If I believed the profit margins were almost nil to none I would certainly not propose that anybody risk huge investments to attain them. So here I definitely disagree with your opinion of the possible payback of the investment. I appreciate that you have taken the time to look into my idea and would greatly appreciate any specific comments as to what part of my plan you feel is flawed. That is the sort of input I covet from this message board. I hope to use your input, and that of other pilots, to make adjustments to the plan early in its development.

Thank you for your comments,

Roger Burton
CEO-Taxijet
www.Taxijet.com

 

[Dangerkitty]

Dangerkitty:

With six to ten partners working together to operate one aircraft there will always be four to eight partners on the ground. Any of them will be able to help with operational aspects of their operation. They will have state of the art software, hand held computing devices and high-speed communications that have never before been available. With that sort of support the logistics will not be too complicated.

We all know the regulations for air charter are strict and inflexible but the FAA has interest in helping make the air taxi business model work. Why would they spend tens of millions of dollars a year on the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) and then deny reasonable use of it? I believe the FAA will work with pilots who wish to pursue this type of service.

If I believed the profit margins were almost nil to none I would certainly not propose that anybody risk huge investments to attain them. So here I definitely disagree with your opinion of the possible payback of the investment. I appreciate that you have taken the time to look into my idea and would greatly appreciate any specific comments as to what part of my plan you feel is flawed. That is the sort of input I covet from this message board. I hope to use your input, and that of other pilots, to make adjustments to the plan early in its development.

Thank you for your comments,

Roger Burton
CEO-Taxijet
www.Taxijet.com

Mr. Burton,

Let me provide an example.

Let's say a Taxijet pilot gets a call to fly from his homebase of DFW to ATL. He flies three folks to ATL. At this point he has a few choices to make. What if he doesn't have any more flights scheduled for that day. What does he do? Pay for a hotel (on his own dime) and hope he gets a call in the morning? Or fly back to DFW (on his own dime) so that he or one of his partners can hope to take out the plane for another trip. Either way any revenue that he just brought in could be potentially wiped out if there is some sort of break in the chain.

What if the pilot makes it all the way to say the Northeast but has to be home the next day for an important family function. In my opinion he might as well have never taken the trip becuase the flight back will eat up all the profit he made and then some. Unless of course he can someway find a group of folks that want to go to Dallas at the same time he is leaving and that he can accomodate them.

What about training? Are these pilots going to have to come up with thousands of dollars each year to subsidize their initial and recurrent training? How much is that going to cost the pilot? I know that you can pass that along to the customer but it might get to the point that the cost is just to high for most pilots to justify. Add to that all the Part 135 hoops the Feds want you to jump through and I just dont see it all that appealing to the average professional pilot.

From my brief time flying for a Part 135 Charter operator (who was quite big and did ALOT of flying for Sentient, Netjets, Flexjet et al.) we played a guessing game 80% of the time. Should we deadhead back to our homebase on our on dime to get back into position or grab a hotel and hope someone needs a flight? I can't tell you how many days I spent skiing in Aspen while my company prayed that some big shot would need a flight out of there ASAP. When it didn't happen I would have had 3-4 great days on the slopes and my company would have a huge hotel room bill that was all for naught.

I really dont think that Taxijet will be all that different.

If there is someway you can find yourself around that then more power to you. I just don't see how you can make this work. Doesn't matter how many communication gizmos and pilots you have. The exposure to the pilot is just way too great and after a few of them fly trips for a huge loss I think the idea will not be as exciting to whoever signs up.

For the record though I really hope it works for you and your company. I just have become quite cynical since my furlough from American Airlines. I have been promised the world by every Charter Operator that I have interviewed with. Of the three Charter Operators that I interviewed with 2 never got off the ground (each owner told me that they were well financed and would dominate their areas of operation) and the third is not exactly in the best financial shape.

Those are just a few of my concerns. I wish I cold have typed it up a little more clear but I have been in the office all day with my other career and am quite tired of sitting in front of the computer.

I look forward to your response.

 

[Taxijet]

Dangerkitty,

Thank you for expressing your thoughts, even after a long day at work. I'm sure that many other pilots have similar questions so this gives me a good opportunity to address common concerns by addressing your specific scenario based problems.

DFW to ATL is 635 miles – I’ll round it off to 600nm leg length. For this problem let’s assume $3.70 per gal fuel cost and no winds

Comparisons:

Type acft KingAirC90B Learjet 60 Eclipse 500

Purchase Price $2.76 mil $12.5 mil $1.5 mil

Avg TAS 228 kts 424 kts 325 kts

Flight time 2+38 1+25 1+51

Direct cost/leg $1,175 $1,574 $757

Direct cost/nm $1.96 $2.62 $1.26


With these costs you could charge a passenger much less if you were operating an Eclipse while the service you provide is essentially the same, assuming you were transporting small groups of passengers. With the decreased operating expense fares will be lower so more passengers will be compelled to take the flights. www.Taxijet.com will be set up to provide a clearinghouse of empty legs. SATS will make flights more efficient. Advanced avionics will make the aircraft easier to fly and therefore safer. Single pilot operation will increase efficiency tremendously once the flying public overcomes their fears. The need for safety is paramount if the air taxi business model is to succeed this is why I appeal to high time pilots to pursue the venture.

The big question is how much will a passenger pay to ride in an Eclipse? Take your best estimate of that price and subtract the operating expenses (which are not all included in the list above) multiply by the utilization and you will have the profit (or loss). My estimate is that the target passenger will pay $6.10 per nm to book an Eclipse 500. My estimate of total costs to operate an Eclipse 500 will be about $3.08 per nm. My estimate of reasonable utilization of equipment is 70% full fare, 10% at cost and 20% empty legs. Using these estimates the total profit will be $1.48 per nm.

Even with a utilization rate of 50% full fare and 50% empty you will still make a profit of $0.09 per nm. This is after paying the pilots. Check out my Air Taxi Cost Analysis spread sheet, on the research page, to see how I came to these conclusions.
If you find something I left out or an estimate out of whack, or a math error please point it out to me.

Family functions are important to the individual, not so important to a big company. If your company is comprised of five of your close friends they will fill in for you that day and you won’t have to go on the flight at all. Or maybe the plane sits on the tarmac that day and you fly it next weekend to make up for it. No big, it’s your plane.

I’ll go one further. What if you have a family reunion in Fresno on some particular weekend when you are scheduled to fly. You have a trip to take two business men from DFW to Sacramento that Friday and a flight taking one business man out of Salt Lake to DFW on Sunday afternoon. You could bring your wife along on the trip, spend all day Saturday at the reunion and get paid for the vacation. Try doing that with somebody else’s plane.

Our concept for a bidding process will allow you to pick up those two business flights. You can bid 20% or 40% below your normal fare because you are benefiting personally. The pilot’s personal schedules are interwoven into the bidding process and they orchestrate their own schedules.

Cost of training is included in the Cost Analysis spread sheet.

The internet will connect the pilot to the customer so you could be online trolling for paying passengers while you are on the ski slopes. If you find a passenger request going where you need to go all you have to do is under bid everybody else and the fare is yours. So maybe all you get out of it is the cost of the flight and no profit for that leg – but you didn’t lose money either. What’s great about this is that the other operators who bid full fare (and lost to you) are still available, in their home base, for another paying passenger. Since there will be thousands of vlj’s flying air taxi there will be more passengers flying and more chance you will find someone going your way.

What is different this time is the technology. Taxijet is right in the middle of the technology and I am right in the middle of Taxijet. Get it? Tax-I-jet? get it? I know it's corney but I had to use it somewhere.

Thanks for your good wishes, and for your input.

Roger Burton
CEO-Taxijet
www.Taxijet.com

Info for KingAir and Lear were from the 2005 Operations planning guide Business & Commercial Aviation magazine – Aug 2005. Info for the Eclipse is derived from Eclipse Aviation performance guarantees. (most of the guarantees are +/-5%).

 

[leartwenty4]

DFW to ATL is 635 miles – I’ll round it off to 600nm leg length. For this problem let’s assume $3.70 per gal fuel cost and no winds

My estimate is that the target passenger will pay $6.10 per nm to book an Eclipse 500. My estimate of total costs to operate an Eclipse 500 will be about $3.08 per nm. My estimate of reasonable utilization of equipment is 70% full fare, 10% at cost and 20% empty legs. Using these estimates the total profit will be $1.48 per nm.

.

WOW! I know 30 series lear operators with large fleets that charge $3.00-$4.00 a sm regularly. The $4.00 would probably be with a fuel surcharge and associated fees covered! For a bigger and faster aircraft. (Never thought I would say that a lear is bigger than another biz jet!) leartwenty4

 

[Ace-of-the-Base]

Advanced avionics will make the aircraft easier to fly and therefore safer. Single pilot operation will increase efficiency tremendously once the flying public overcomes their fears.

Interesting. Explain how the very HIGH time test pilot was able to forget to put the landing gear down and belly one of those 'advanced' new airplanes on to the runway.

The experienced pilots aren't going to want to take a low wage, fly single pilot and have to cram themselves into a VLJ. So, you are going to have beginner jet pilots flying these things around and there are going to be problems. If these problems surface in the infancy of your program, it will be its untimely death. The general public will have no huge problem with some rich doctors and lawyers running their personal VLJ into a mountain, but if an Air Taxi service does it. Wow. Big, bad press. End of Taxi Jet.

Hope it don't.

Ace

 

[Taxijet]

Leartwenty4:

I don't have cost figures for a Lear 30 but a Lear 40 costs $8 mil and has a direct operating cost of $2.38/ nm for a 600 nm trip. If they are charging $4 per mile then they have only $1.62/mile left to pay insurance, maintenance software programs, misc services, Mid-life/hot section inspections, Engine overhaul, paint, interior refurbishment, upgrades, personnel costs, training costs and facilities costs. I seriously doubt any company can sustain the pricing you quoted. Perhaps unreasonable expectations are why so many charter operators have gone out of business.

By the way, my cost figures are averages. Some fares may be as high as $8/mile while others dip below my $6.10/ mile target figure.

Figures were obtained from Business & Commercial Aviation magazine, August 2005, page 99.



Ace-of-the-base:

Stupidity! I hope they get their act together in the Eclipse flight department or they will destroy the great work their manufacturing department has done.

An air taxi pilot flying single pilot in an Eclipse can effectively pay himself the normal captain pay and FO pay and still give the passenger more service (an extra seat and 200lbs extra useful load). With four other partners and an initial investment of $170,413 he could be making $176,463 per year if the average fare is $6.10 / nm. If he drops his average fare to $5/nm he will make $107,633. This is while he flies 136 eight flight hour days per year and makes it home most nights. Also realize that high time mentor pilots will be in demand by doctors and lawyers learning to fly these jets. Hopefully these mentor pilots will keep the doctors and lawyers alive and the air taxi business model will thrive.

If there is a spate of accidents in air taxis people will not overcome their fear of flying quickly and it will take longer for the business model to succeed. That is why the Eclipse has partnered with United Airlines to provide top rate pilot training. Anyone who can't pass the test will not be allowed to fly the aircraft. Eclipse will refund their deposit. That is why I'm appealing to seasoned pilots to be a part of this new revolution. Don't leave it all up to the likes of DayJet and Pogo to hire new pilots for peanuts and keep the big profits for themselves.

Other VLJ manufacturers are also concerned about safety and plan to provide training through reputable companies.


To be realistic I think it will take more than one or two air taxi accidents to stop the revolution.

Roger Burton
CEO-Taxijet
www.Taxijet.com

 

[Ace-of-the-Base]

This is while he flies 136 eight flight hour days per year and makes it home most nights.

No offense, but your numbers seem a bit out of whack. I know you are trying to promote your idea, but most of us on this board have a lot of experience when it comes to aircraft utilization. To think that you can average 136 eight hour days is quite bold. How many revenue hours are you using per year for your analysis?

Ace