Social Air is an innovation in the private jet travel industry, introducing a completely new and radical business model based on the nascent ‘semi-private jet charter’ sector. Semi-private jet charter involves booking multiple parties on business jets that are traditionally reserved strictly for private jet travel, thereby allowing passengers to pay far less to fly on these jets, while operators benefit from higher utilization of their valuable assets.
The Problem We Solve
Today, air travel is currently separated into two distinct types: commercial and private.
Commercial, including first-class, business and coach, involves 100 or more people all making their way through traffic, security and lines at major airports before being packed into cramped seats on huge jets. It is generally considered a stressful and unpleasant experience. But at least they get peanuts to eat. And it is affordable. The vast majority of travelers fly this way.
Private jet travel is where a super wealthy individual or a corporation has access to a jet that shows up precisely when and where they want it. They drive right up to the jet, skip security and board at their leisure. They enjoy fine dining on a small jet with big plush seats. They travel alone or with their private party. And it is so expensive that only they and a few other elites in the top 1% of the nations’ wealthiest people can afford it.
The Target Market
Semi-private jet travel offers an option between these experiences. The objective is to make semi-private jet travel affordable and easily accessible to a segment of society that would never have considered it before. The service is targeted at the top 10% of the U.S. income scale—people earning from $150K/year and up. This represents about nine percent of the U.S. population—a market size of approximately 30 million people. Yet despite this large market segment and the gaping hole in choices between commercial and private jet travel, there are currently only a few brand new companies offering similar services.
How Social Air Works
Social Air is a membership program focused on semi-private jet travel.Membership is purchased by buying packages of travel miles at a price of $2/mile, starting with the 5,000 mile package. At this rate aircraft can be operated profitably at a utilization of about 75% (depending on volume levels). Members book trips and access information about itineraries, destinations, services, aircraft, other Members and more through an intuitive web-based Portal. A Key Success Factor is getting Members arranged on flights with higher than 75% utilization while maintaining frequent enough flights and a standard of service to maintain a high Member satisfaction level. This is a matter of achieving a enough Member volume, and managing their expectations during the low-volume early stages. It is accomplished through sophisticated booking technology that includes flight matching filters, heuristic algorithms, and social booking mechanisms.
Unique Selling Proposition
Social Air is the first player in the semi-private jet travel space to emphasize the social aspects of flying on business jets as a key benefit. The Unique Selling Proposition of Social Air is that we regularly gather together groups of smart, successful, cool people in the most incredible environments on the planet to share ideas, plans, jokes, food and a lot of fun—all within a budget we can easily afford. Sure we have the convenience, the luxury and the prestige of flying on business jets. But the most valuable things about a Social Air flight are the ideas, assets and network of the passengers.
This focus on the community aspect is simply a matter of recognizing the essential nature of the business. Since the core product itself involves hours spent in a confined space with other members, there is an inherent social element. Rather than ignore it or treat it as an inconvenient compromise, we embrace and highlight it. This will have a direct impact on the bottom line. As Members become engage on board flights, they will become friends and associates in real-life as well as through the web-based portal, resulting in a very sticky membership.
Management Team
Social Air was founded by Dane Christensen, a web professional with 18 years experience in the Internet industry. He has recruited the technical team to develop the Members web portal and other technical aspects of the business. He is currently recruiting a management team that will bring the proper mix of inter-disciplinary skills required to execute on this plan, including:
- deep aviation industry knowledge
- executive and director level management
- online marketing/advertising/pr
- sales
- web development
- product management
- design
- multimedia
- member relations
- finance
- legal
- etc.
Dane is currently seeking people with direct aviation industry experience to engage with Social Air on a basis TBD.
Funding Plan
Social Air is currently at the Friends and Family funding level. We are seeking $100,000 to complete the following objectives:
- Develop and test the first generation Members Portal
- Launch a Google Adwords campaign that generates a steady flow of 100 leads per month
- Build and coordinate new management team
- Prepare for a launch event to sell 100 memberships on a target date (tentatively set for 9/2/2013)
- Develop and document operational processes
- Train staff
The plan is for this $100,000 will get us to the stage where we have sold 100 memberships and are testing the beta version of the Members Portal. After that we will determine which direction to go for subsequent rounds of funding.
We are exploring alternative means of fundraising, including (but not limited to):
- Sweat equity (in particular people with skills listed in the Team section above)
- Crowd funding
- The SEE Launch system
Exit Strategy
In order to survive, Social Air must achieve five-figure membership levels. If it successfully achieves that cruising altitude, there is no reason to expect that it wouldn’t expand to the full potential of the market. I don’t have complete statistics or research yet on which to make a firm estimate, but I think it is reasonable to see a market well into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions worldwide. At a membership level of 100,000, Social Air would be grossing something $2-3 billion a year, and netting 10% of that. I suppose at that level it would go public and stock could be sold on the open market. But even if it remained private, at that size any shares would easily marketable. So exiting the enterprise will be a simple matter.
But why would you want to?