Summary
Social Flights was a short-lived attempt at a semi-private charter broker service that was formed in February 2011 in Nashville, TN and was last heard from around September of 2012. Their website currently has a message saying the
Failure Analysis
Though Social Air has apparently not conceded defeat, their long stagnant status doesn’t bode well for their future. While little is known about the reasons the company didn’t take off, it’s likely that they fell victim to the primary obstacle faced by all the other players in the space: the inability to achieve adequate travel volume to ensure fully booked flights on a schedule that is convenient to members. Social Flights started by using Nashville as a hub in order to consolidate trips into a limited range in order to achieve booking density. But apparently the Nashville market didn’t have enough volume to achieve a critical mass that would allow them to expand membership beyond this market.
Social Flights also made the mistake of deviating from their ‘social’ strategy by focusing on price as a primary selling point. In order to try and boost sales they promoted $50 flights to Nashville, which was obviuously delivered at a loss. They also tried to offer regularly scheduled trips, which meant they were committing to flights that they didn’t know were fully booked. This strategy inevitably leads to flying under-utilized jets at a loss in order to meet schedule obligations.