Photos Eclipse jet Aircraft interior Resources NASA SATS program SkyTaxi company Adam aircraft Eclipse aviation Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

	E-mail this page			Print this page

Air taxis: the ride of the not-so-distant future?
by Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio
September 9, 2003

One of the new generation of small jet passenger aircraft being developed by several companies. (Photo courtesy Eclipse Aviation)

A group of Grand Forks entrepreneurs wants to change air travel in the Midwest. They say on-demand air service is the wave of the future. NASA may fund a demonstration project of the concept next year in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Grand Forks, N.D. — Traveling by air is not easy for people in rural areas. The nearest commercial air service may be hours away, and regional commuter airlines fly a limited schedule. Tickets are often very expensive. There's no air service to many small towns. John Boehle wants to change that.

"Our vision is to provide high quality service," says Boehle. "When I say high quality, I'm referring to the fact you can call up with 24-hours notice and book a point-to-point trip traveling where you want to go, when you want to go, for a price that would be some premium over a coach class airline ticket. Those price points would still be considerably less than a business class ticket flying the traditional air carriers."

John Boehle is founder of Expanded Air Service Enterprise, LLC, or EASE, a Grand Forks company laying the groundwork for a new air service. The company is conducting a market survey and is working with NASA to develop a demonstration project in northern Minnesota.

	Aircraft interior

Boehle says a new generation of aircraft will help make this air taxi service a reality. Several manufacturers are on the verge of producing small jet aircraft with room for four to six passengers. Boehle says that will allow rapid air travel and easy acess to small general aviation airports.

NASA has been studying the concept for several years. At the NASA research center in Langley, Va., Associate Director for Airspace and Vehicle Systems Bruce Holmes helped develop a concept called SATS, or Small Aircraft Transportation System. Holmes is convinced the future of air travel is on-demand service, essentially a flying taxi.

"What happens with the on-demand model is you create an equitable access to air mobility in ways that cannot be created with the scheduled hub and spoke model," says Holmes. "Equitable in the sense it's geographically equitable -- you can literally go anywhere, and economically equitable -- you can go anywhere at a price competitive with the scheduled service model."

You can call up with 24 hours notice and book a point-to-point trip traveling where you want to go, when you want to go. - EASE LLC co-founder John Boehle

Holmes says a successful air taxi system needs small, dependable, economical aircraft. Many small town airports will need better navigation equipment, and people will need to think differently about air travel.

That's already happening in the northwestern United States. Salem, Ore.-based SkyTaxi flies to 300 cities in seven states. SkyTaxi CEO Neil Morrow says the company has been operating with six small prop planes for about six months. The customer response has been greater than expected.

"We have way too many customers. We have way more customers than we have resources," says Morrow.

Morrow says the company has done no marketing, but is turning away passengers. He says the SkyTaxi has about 120 passengers a week and is making a nice profit.

"What we're finding is the customers that need us and are seeking us out are the people in rural communities, or the businesses that have locations based in multiple areas," says Morrow.

The company expects to have 40 planes in the air within a year, according to Morrow. He forsees demand for 300 airplanes in the next three to five years. Morrow says finding pilots to fly those planes should be no problem. He says in one recent week, his company received 50 resumes from highly qualified laid-off airline pilots.

He doesn't think the air taxi will hurt struggling commercial airlines. In fact, he says the small air service providers may bring more passengers to the big airlines.

Grand Forks entrepreneur John Boehle believes in the next five to 10 years there will be about 400 small aircraft crisscrossing the upper Midwest, providing a new travel option in rural areas.

News Headlines

Related Subjects