Flying the Semi-Private Skies: Volato (SOAR)
Photo via Wallpapercave.com
A decrepit Air-Travel Network Opens The door to New mid-level Luxury Airlines.
Dearest fellow world-weary air travelers, has it really been 10 years since the mapping of our discontent? Starting back in 2013, airline data-aggregator FlightAware began visualizing in-flight misery by mapping the delays and flight cancellations across North America. Ever since, it’s dark – yet aptly named – MiseryMap has been the indispensable tool of quantifying just how bad we have it, when slogging through this decrepit air-travel infrastructure of ours.
Earlier this week, during one 24 hour period were 18,964 delays with 1,753 of them being international flights, 763 of which were canceled outright, and that includes 70 overseas trips that never made it off the tarmac. And that’s not even a particularly bad day! When a line of thunderstorms dumped 4 inches of rain east coast later in the week, a full 75% of the flights were delayed in a line from New York to Florida and inland to Atlanta.
The geography of these delays indicate that East Coast cities face something like 2 out of every 10 flights that don’t fly to a reasonable schedule. Published data indicate roughly 1% of all flights from these major eastern airports never fly at all.
FlightAware’s MiseryMap makes our air travel discontent all to plain.
As we tarmac-worn air travelers know, nothing is going to change any time soon. During the dark days of the pandemic, travel revenues were down 20%, so panicked airlines mothballed equipment, drove off older, pricier pilots, mechanics, and support staff. Goofy vaccine mandates drove off yet more. Routes were slashed. Weather became more violent and unpredictable. Regulators investigated unrealistic scheduling by the airlines.
It’s all become so bad, that a group of new aviation innovators are betting on sorting out the mess soaring above our heads.
Dallas-based JSX is flying a so-called Hop On/Hop Off airline with direct destination to roughly a dozen smaller cities, with no need for traditional security. Boutique airlines like Aero, BLADEone, XO, Surfair, and Tradewinds also offer hybrid semi-private options that pull high-end travel out of the stratosphere. Each is worth checking out, depending on one’s plans.
But last week, one of the most intriguing new air travel bets, quietly took itself into the public market.
Volato, an Atlanta-based startup, engineered a SPAC offering, with a blank-check shell called PROOF Acquisitions. Trading will begin later in 2023 on the NYSE under the ticker SOAR.
Volato is betting it can bring the cost of semi-private flights down to within reach of first class commercial travel. Let’s hope they are right.
By all means, the story Volato tells is worth listening to. The airline was started by Matt Liotta, a serial entrepreneur with a reasonable track record. It will offer a mix of fractional ownership, jet-card services, pre-payment plans, and some limited fixed-price routes.
If current pricing is any indication, Mr. Liotta might be ready for takeoff. For example, one of Volato’s fleet HondaJet 4-seaters costs $12,000 to privately book from Teterboro to Miami. That’s $3,000 per seat. Compare that to first-class fares, on a straight-up commercial airline for in-demand weekend flights, like United’s 2295. Those seats can touch $1,500 and in roughly 2 dozen flights, from mid-July to mid-August, United 2295 was diverted once and rerouted a second time. It can be 3-plus hours late.
Volato’s value equation becomes clear: For an extra $1,500, there’s no waiting in the terminal, no strip search at security and nothing but the best chance to actually get to Miami. For travel to a critical meeting, Volato is no-brainer. And even when traveling with a family, think of how much less misery is involved in getting you and yours there and back.
With some luck, Volato’s success could spawn some competition. And then at last, there’s hope!