Miwok Offers On-Demand at Economy Prices

While the cost of most air taxi service is equal to business class ticket prices, Miwok Airways intends to change that by launching a new program this fall in Southern California, offering the first on-demand air travel at economy-class ticket prices. It has also partnered with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to offer premier benefits to members of Miwok Airways' innovative 6-Degrees loyalty program and expects to launch in September or October using a Cirrus SR22 fleet. It plans adding Personal Jets (Cirrus Vision Jets) and VLJs add as it grows.
The company, based in Burlingame, Calif., is offering its loyalty members access to special rates and expedited online reservations directly through the Miwok Airways reservations system.
Miwok executives spent the past 2.5 years developing a proprietary and highly capital-efficient business model to offer on-demand air-travel at economy-class ticket prices (or less), CEO Gad Barnea told Aviation Today's Very Light Jet Report, insisting that this can be accomplished both profitably and consistently.
Barnea said Miwok, which boasts former FAA Chief Counsel Ted Ellet as an advisor to its executive team and aviation counsel, is not an air-charter/air-taxi because "our economic unit is the seat-mile (not the airplane), our price-point is affordable to anyone (at airline economy-class ticket prices – or less), our pricing is based on demand-curves (not an hourly rate) and our service area is limited by demand-curves (not airplane range)." It is also not an airline, he said, adding, "we never lose money on a flight. We require very little capital to be operational and consistently profitable, we do not have pre-set routes and schedules (we are 100 percent on-demand), we can serve any general-aviation airport as well as large airports. We focus on the underserved and highly-profitable, ultra-shorthaul market (200-250 mile or less with a maximum range of 500 miles)."
Its team includes Barnea, a former Israeli Air Force, commercial pilot and "serial entrepreneur;" Preston McAfee, the company's economic advisor and a leading economist (UCLA, Yahoo); Jack Keady (marketing - American Airlines); Ted Ellett (former FAA Chief Counsel); Veit Irtenkauf (an Intel veteran) among others.
"Miwok Airways gives travelers unprecedented control over their travel plans,” said Barnea. “Our focus is on providing a seamless, consistent and reliable experience to our customers. Ours is truly a new, disruptive, yet capital efficient, business model that has been validated by top industry experts and analysts. We have developed deep technological assets to support our business model."
"Enterprise has placed a strong emphasis on expanding its service capabilities in the general aviation community," said Pat Malone, assistant vice president-corporate business of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. "Our partnership with Miwok Airways, a true innovator in on-demand air travel, underscores this commitment to our general aviation customers."