Saturday, May 27, 2006
Airport executives hail arrival of air taxi
SATSair's service can fly Blacksburg passengers to their destination and get them back in a day.
The latest from The Ticker blog
BLACKSBURG -- Most people who land at the Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport know they can get a taxi to their final destination. But a new kind of taxi service is now available.
With a few hours' notice, SATSair of South Carolina can pick up passengers in Blacksburg and take them to most places in the southeastern U.S. and back in a day, without the hassles of commercial airports or the cost of charter planes.
In fact, SATSair will pick up passengers at any of hundreds of general aviation and commercial airports across the southeastern U.S., including Roanoke Regional Airport, and fly anywhere in the country, vice president of operations Phil Quist said Friday.
The typical SATSair flight lasts about an hour and costs about $140 per passenger, however, and is basically "a substitute for driving," Quist said.
It works exactly like a traditional taxi. The meter starts when the passengers step on the plane and clicks off when they exit. Each plane holds three passengers and a pilot and has a unique safety system -- a whole aircraft parachute.
If the pilot strokes out, any passenger can press a red knob to deploy the parachute and, theoretically, safely land the single-engine plane, Quist said.
That's quite different from traditional aircraft charter companies such as Landmark Aviation, formerly Piedmont Hawthorne, in Roanoke.
Landmark generally flies larger planes and two pilots work on every flight, General Manager Karen Roberts said.
But along with those amenities come higher costs, including fees for wait times at the airport and travel time to and from the pickup.
Landmark competes nationwide with all other charter and air taxi services for business, so one more is not a big hardship, Roberts said.
In fact, SATSair could help Landmark's business by allowing smaller companies to try the service, Roberts said.
When those companies grow, they might eventually move to charter service.
For Tech airport director Michael St. Jean, the service could help make the airport financially self-sufficient.
SATSair service in Blacksburg means St. Jean can offer the community more flexibility and more economic development opportunities.
"It shortens ... the travel time across the state dramatically" for businesses and families looking for a fast, easy way to get to a vacation destination, St. Jean said.
If the service really catches on, it could mean more revenue for the airport in fuel sales and perhaps even hangar rental, if SATSair rents hangar space.
Quist called Blacksburg a "critical" strategic link in his company's transportation network and said he expects a lot of growth in coming years.
He said there are already plans to station pilots nearby.
SATSair currently employs just over 30 pilots and flies 14 airplanes, and hopes to soon grow to 100 pilots and 50 planes.
SATSair: www.satsair.com
Virginia Tech Montgomery Airport: www.vtbcb.com
Landmark Aviation: www.landmarkaviation.com
