Flytenow in full descent as high court declines case

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday said it will not hear a Boston startup’s appeal challenging a Federal Aviation Administration ruling that prevents it from operating its Uber-style flight-sharing service for air travel.

Flytenow sought to make it easier and cheaper to fly by connecting private pilots offering space on flights they intended to take with passengers willing to share fuel and other expenses.

But the FAA effectively shut down the company in 2014, ruling pilots who use such services must have commercial pilot licenses because they were acting as “common carriers” by accepting compensation and advertising their flights.

The Supreme Court decision not to hear the case leaves intact a lower-court ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that sided with the FAA.

“We are disappointed with the court’s decision… and we will be continuing our efforts in Congress to overturn the FAA’s ban on online flightsharing,” Flytenow co-founder Matt Voska said in a statement.

Legally, it’s the end of the road for Flytenow, said Jon Riches, director of national litigation at the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix, Ariz., public policy think tank that represented Flytenow.

“One reason this case was important is that the sharing economy has really changed the way people have lived and traveled,” Riches said.

“And Flyetnow, like many other sharing economy companies, really was just a communications facilitator — they connected service providers with potential passengers. It raises very important First Amendment issues that will apply more broadly to sharing economies likes Uber and Airbnb.