Long Island-based Hopscotch Air plans to launch an air taxi "limo" service this summer using two new normally aspirated Cirrus SR22 G3 aircraft.
Company president and co-founder Andrew Schmertz, a pilot and attorney, says he expects to achieve US Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 certification around May. The company has a partnering agreement with an established Albany, New York-based air taxi operator, Quik Flight, for occasions when a larger aircraft might be needed. Quik Flight owns a Piper Cheyenne I turboprop.
Hopscotch, a name Schmertz came up with to describe the ability to help business travellers jump between several locations in a day, plans to charge travellers a fixed rate per distance flown - $275 per 160km for the entire aircraft, with no repositioning fees between airports in the vicinity of New York City, the company's main catchment area. The privately funded company plans to acquire up to 10 SR22s by summer 2009.
Schmertz has assembled a team with experience in air taxi and air transport operations, including Hopscotch's director of operations, Dennis O'Connell, former general manager of flight operations for TWA Airlines in New York.
The company did not buy the latest-generation turbonormalised version of the SR22 because "most flights will be under 10,000ft [3,00m]," says Schmertz. Future aircraft will also be SR22s, he says, because the four-seater "is uniquely qualified to perform this service" at prices that are not cost-prohibitive. "It is really a limo," he adds.
Source: Flight International
