Idea: Uber for Planes

The Background

Hear me out.

Everyone knows that planes are a super efficient form of travel. If you need to be across the country ASAP, you're going to take a plane.

But there are a few problems.

1. You need to book tickets in advance

2. Timetables are set

3. Chartering a plane is astronomically expensive

4. You need to jump through all the airport hoops

5. Often if you're only going a few states away, there isn't a direct flight to where you want to go.

The Idea

The idea is to mobilize the 10s of thousands of general aviation planes in the US.

Let's say you need to immediately get from Portland, Maine to Danbury, Connecticut.

To drive would take you a little over 4 hours.

To book a commercial flight you'd be looking at a minimum of 8 hours.

But you need to be there now.

Well, theoretically, in a moderately equipped Cessna 172, it's only a 2 hour flight.

So, the idea is to create an Uber alternative for flights that need to happen right now. 

If you have a plane and a commercial pilots license, you sign up and operate just like you would on Uber.

Someone books your plane, you take them to where they want to go, and then either head back or book someone new. 

Now, obviously, this would be expensive. But average cost for renting a plane like that is around $150/hr, so with the pilot you'd probably still end up spending less than $1,000.

And if there's an emergency that requires you to be there as soon as possible, that's probably worth it.

Plus, if you could figure out setting this up similar to Uber pool, where similar routes are condensed, you could probably reduce the per-passenger cost even further.