RIDE SHARE IN THE SKIES
Ubair takes private plane concept to the masses.
The idea of accessible private jets sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but a new app called Ubair — yes, that’s an Uber pun — aims to make the preferred transportation of the ultrawealthy available to anyone with just a few taps on a smartphone.
“The general public tends to think historically of private flight as something that is the domain of the rich and famous and not something they could possibly afford,” David Tait, co-founder and executive director of Ubair, said in an interview. “That has changed quite dramatically.”
The problem is that most of us have no idea how to go about chartering a private aircraft and can’t afford to sign up for the fractional ownership programs offered by companies like Warren Buffett’s Net Jets Inc.
Ubair’s goal is to make chartering a private plane as simple as requesting an Uber car. Like Uber, it even has different levels of service — a recent search of the app for a one-way trip from Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport to New York’s La Guardia offered six choices ranging from Ubair Taxi (a tiny prop plane for $2,900) to Ubair Heavy (a Gulfstream for $21,500). There are no upfront fees or deposits required.
“We want to acquire the high end of the private-jet-flying public, as well as bridge the divide between commercial and private aviation,” said Justin Sullivan, Ubair’s co-founder and CEO.
Ubair, which is available in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, has access to more than 7,000 planes through a variety of aircraft management companies, although it relies on about 100 for the “vast majority” of its flights, according to Sullivan.
The company takes a cut that works out to approximately 10 per cent of each booking, and although the app just launched last week, Sullivan said their intention is to turn it into a profitable business.
The hope is that it will attract both business travellers and families, said Tait, who previously spent 18 years at Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. after helping Richard Branson write the airline’s business plan. He also briefly worked at Air Canada as the executive responsible for customer service.
“The commercial side of (aviation) has been going backwards in terms of its user friendliness,” Tait said.
“At the same time, the private aviation community hasn’t done a particularly good job of promoting itself as something that is often surprisingly more affordable and certainly a lot more convenient.”
To illustrate his point, Tait describes taking his three kids on a ski trip. To get from his home in New York to Stowe, Vt., on a commercial airline, it can take six hours door to door and cost US$500 per head, he said. By comparison, a private jet booked through Ubair can cost as little as US$2,000 and only takes an hour and a half.
“It’s rather like sharing a cab or a limo: if there are four of you, it’s a lot cheaper than taking the subway,” he said.