BlackJet

San Francisco-based Black Jet is arguably the current leader in the ‘semi-private jet charter’ category. Though they claim they are the only player in this space there are other players such as SurfAir, Arrow and JumpSeat. They are somewhat focused on the social aspect of the ‘semi-private’ jet travel. In an interview founder, Dean Rochin actually touts the social benefits of flying with their service, while still emphasizing the convenience factor.

Black Jet was announced in October, 2012 and was officially launched in February, 2013. Since that time, they have brokered approximately 1,000 flights.

blackjet_volume

Working backwards, that is an average of 250 flights per month or approximately eight flights per day between San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, South Florida and Las Vegas. This puts them as operating within the grey zone of the trip volume : convenience level ratio. At this flight frequency it is difficult to match people’s travel plans to a degree that it is convenient for the members. Like Jumpjet, BlackJet’s biggest challenge right now is getting Member’s flights matched up enough that they retain a perception of convenience while also reaching maximum occupancy on the aircraft. It is very difficult to do with eight flights spread out across five markets per day.

The question is, will BlackJet be able to grow its membership base to achieve that critical mass of flight frequency that achieves customer satisfaction in terms of convenience? Of course, no one knows what that certain level of customer satisfaction is. And therefore we can’t calculate the exact flight volume required to achieve that level. However, we have roughly estimated that critical mass point in Operations » Volume, and BlackJet is currently well short of that level.

If they can build their membership level up high enough, they might just be able to reach cruising altitude. However, there is little press coverage about BlackJet since their announcement of the launch of the San Francisco and Las Vegas Routes other than a few articles around the launch of their iPhone app.

They have yet to begin a pay per click advertising campaign, so it isn’t clear what their marketing strategy is for achieving the necessary growth.

Pricing

Black Jet sets pricing on a per flight basis, with different prices established for specific departure/destination combinations.  Once logged into the console, members simply select the two cities they plan to use and it provides an instant quote for the trip.  (There is no mention in the process about which airport they will fly in and out of).

blackjet_console_pricing

By breaking down the distances between cities we are able to arrive at an average cost/mile basis that can be compared to Social Air.  We can see that the shorter the trip, the higher the cost/mile–obviously to adjust for the non-flight related costs associated with maintenance, prep and taxi time.  When averaged out, the cost comes to about $1.92 per mile.  This is in the same ballpark as Social Air’s $2/mile and Under pricing strategy.

blackjet_pricing_chart

Under Social Air’s plan, short trips would cost less and longer trips cost somewhat more.  Social Air’s mechanism for cost averaging the ground costs is to provide more rewards for more miles of flight.

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