Flyte takes a different path to air taxi market
A New York-based start-up is establishing an on-demand charter network based on a perhaps unlikely type: the Cirrus Vision Jet.
In the mid-2000s, the very-light-jet phenomenon saw a spate of start-ups – led by Florida’s DayJet – announce plans for regional air taxi networks using new types such as the Eclipse 500 and Cessna Mustang. These had lower operating costs than the larger jets traditionally used in the charter market, but were faster and more capable than pistons or turboprops.
Manufacturers from Diamond to Piper jumped on the VLJ-wagon with their own hastily designed concepts. And with air taxi firms – often led by swaggering industry newcomers – employing innovative marketing and pricing strategies to pitch their offerings to the wider public, it looked for a time as if US Part 135 aviation was set to be seriously disrupted.
Two decades on, DayJet and the others have long gone, along with most of the VLJs, as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) and advanced air mobility (AAM) platforms have supplanted them as aviation’s Next Big Thing. Of at least half a dozen VLJ launches, only the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet and Embraer Phenom 100EX survive in production.
However, one would-be disruptor still believes in the high-frequency, on-demand, small-jet, ultra-short-haul charter model, basing its ambitious expansion strategy around the SF50 – the market’s sole certificated single-engine jet and a type less associated with Part 135 operators than owner-flyers seeking a safe and affordable aircraft to transport their families.
Marc Sellouk, founder and chief executive of New York City-headquartered Flyte, insists that he will avoid the mistakes that saw the highly-leveraged DayJet and others collapse barely before they began flying passengers. For a start, he will not be placing hundreds of orders and instead will grow “smartly and profitably” from Flyte’s current fleet of five Vision Jets.
“You can’t have a ‘build it and they will come’ approach. You have to treat it like any normal business,” says Sellouk, who has had “a passion for aviation my entire life”. He began as a telecoms entrepreneur while at college, selling his business Transbeam in 2017 after 22 years, before buying his own aircraft, and launching the forerunner of Flyte.
Likewise, he does not sell space on his aircraft on a ride-share basis – a model pioneered by DayJet and others in an attempt to make private jet ticket prices affordable. “There is no way a per-seat basis works,” he says. “We sell the whole aircraft and charge for both legs. The economics of the [Vision Jet] makes it affordable.”
While Flyte itself does not have its own air operator’s certificate, services are carried out by Ponderosa Air, an AOC-holder and Part 135 carrier that Sellouk acquired to launch the business. The aircraft themselves – acquired secondhand but with low hours – are owned by another sister company and leased back to Flyte.
Four of the Vision Jets are based in the Northeast USA, with one in south Florida. Sellouk says demand splits roughly half between business and leisure, with the Hamptons, Nantucket and other upscale destinations popular routes, as well as between Florida and the Caribbean. Around 400nm (741km) is a typical duration – well within the Vision Jet’s range.
To date, Flyte – which since April has been owned by Catheter Precision, a New York Stock Exchange-listed medical equipment manufacturer – has focused on the wholesale market, selling its capacity to other operators and through brokers. However, Sellouk is keen to “build a retail brand”, marketing flights directly to individuals and businesses through its web site.
Since launching its consumer booking platform in June, Flyte claims to have acquired 2,700 new users, although Sellouk admits that “building awareness in this way takes time”. As part of its expansion strategy, he hopes to establish partnerships with casinos and upmarket resorts, which would offer air connections as part of wider incentive packages.
He is pleased with the economics of the Vision Jet, and says customers love it, with many aware of its safety features, such as its parachute recovery system and Garmin emergency landing capability, activated if a pilot is incapacitated. “It’s a remarkable aircraft,” he says. “One of the safest ever built. From a customer confidence point of view, it really works.”
It was the publicity around AAM in the late 2010s that convinced Sellouk there was a latent market for short-haul regional connectivity in the USA. “I started reading about eVTOLs and thought we could use a suitable conventional aircraft as a precursor to an eVTOL. That is the market we are targeting,” he says.
He makes the point that there are “thousands” of under-used airports throughout the US “crying out” for connectivity and the establishment of “short-haul corridors”. “That’s what we are trying to open up,” he says, “By densifying a network that allows people to get closer to where they want to go.”
While the need to “grow smartly” and not rush things is his constant refrain, Sellouk believes he can replicate the Northeast and Florida model in several major conurbations, such as Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle – referring to their locations on a map of the USA as a “star-shaped opportunity”.
He hopes to double Flyte’s fleet to 10 aircraft next year, although this will depend on the availability of Vision Jets on the market. In five years, he believes Flyte has the potential to be “a leader in regional mobility” with a brand “that is synonymous with a natural way of getting around”.
Sellouk: Looking to double Flyte’s fleet to 10 aircraft. Source: Flyte
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