YourJet Team,

For this entry I thought that I would link an article that I recently read in USA Today on 12/30/2007. On the surface the issue it raises, in this case federal government subsidies to incentivize airlines to continue to provide service to rural communities, has been around since airline deregulation in the late 1970’s.

The subsidy program enacted by congress is administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) as the Essential Air Service program. But, as Andrew Steinberg, the DOT’s assistant secretary of aviation and international affairs, stated in the article, the subsidies were supposed to be temporary until “sustainable solutions” were realized.

Incredibly, 30 years later the program not only still exists but is expanding as the legacy airlines retreat to lucrative coast to coast and international routes and, in so doing, sever the critical air connectivity link on which rural communities depend for economic viability. And, capacity, fuel and carbon are squandered at an ever-increasing cost to American taxpayers.

The good news is that YourJet per-seat and on-demand air taxi is the private enterprise solution that can solve the problem and eliminate the need for these horribly expensive and grossly wasteful subsidies.

You can read the USA Today article can be found by clicking this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-12-30-cheap-flights_N.htm

My response, a letter to the USA Today editor, follows.

Editor USA Today:

As the founder of a on-demand air taxi startup in Louisville, Kentucky, I was interested to read Thomas Frank’s article, “Subsidies keep small-airport flights in the air”, USA Today 12/30/2007, regarding the increasing cost and futility of the DOT’s Essential Air Service Program which neither adequately serves rural communities or matches supply to demand.

Air taxi service is an emerging new paradigm in regional air travel that will serve smaller communities currently lacking reliable or regularly scheduled air service. This business will efficiently serve the air travel needs of rural America using 3-4 passenger Very Light Jets (VLJs). Since it is pay-by-the-seat, it costs 23% what private charter does. And, like car taxis, small efficient jets operate only when and where a passenger wants.

This is possible for the first time because of the convergence of three key technologies: VLJ’s, advanced cockpits with GPS-guided navigation and sophisticated computer optimization and logistics solutions. These, coupled with the current state of commercial air travel in the US, make safe, affordable and easy to use per-seat and on-demand jet air taxi a viable business model.

The DOT can return the subsidies to the taxpayers since private enterprise, such as mine, can now provide “sustainable solutions” to market demand as Andrew Steinberg cogently asserts it should. But, most importantly, smaller communities can join the regional, indeed, global economy, while lifting their hopes of revitalization and prosperity.

Best regards,

Todd House
Chief Executive Officer
YourJet, LLC
Chime in with your opinion; I’ll look forward to it.

Let’s keep pushing…

Todd House