A new members-only airline is being created in the USA by start-up company Club Air, de-signed to sell individual seats on business jets via the internet and drive down the cost of charter.
Club Air is developing reservation software that will allow passengers to post a trip online and invite other members to book a seat on the same flight. Once the flight is full, members are sent a voicemail or email, to which they must respond, and a travel itinerary then follows. Club Air vice president of operations Ian Becker says annual membership costs $3,000, but payment will only be enforced a year after the member's first flight.
The reservation software should be completed in the fourth quarter, but Becker says the programme will not be formally launched until Club AIr has built up a portfolio of around 5,000 members, to make the programme viable.
Source: Flight International
