What's Your Hourly Rate?

The USA Today mentions that commuter airline/air taxi startup Wings Air will start offering service between Lawrenceville, Georgia's Gwinnett County Briscoe Field and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International flying Piper Navajo Chieftains. Tickets for this 31 nm flight will run $79 one way. At first glance that sounds like a lot, but I assert that it's actually a great bargain.

You may think I'm completely off-base, but before you judge take a look at Wings Air's comparison chart that examines other ways to make this trip. They freely admit that they aren't targeting a family of four headed out on vacation. They're going for business travelers trying to make an early flight out of Hartsfield. They also list Rome, Athens and Macon as regular service destinations and are open to operating to and from other airports in the area on a case-by-case basis.

Atlanta is notorious for bad rush-hour traffic, in spite of 8-lane highways. Even an optimistic traveler has to allow at least an extra hour of driving time on this trip to account for highly variable traffic delays. Add to that the time and expense of parking or paying for a shuttle bus and the pain of waiting in Hartsfield's long security lines and 3+ hours is a very realistic estimate for making this trip by car.

Given that, the question becomes what is an hour of your time worth? Anyone getting business travel paid for probably makes more than the $25/hr or so that would justify a $79 ticket. How about putting a price on time with your family? I know that at the end of a long business trip, I'd gladly pay $25/hr to get to my family a few hours sooner. Add to this the convenience and lack of hassle that Wings Air will be able to offer when they get approval for TSA security screenings with almost no lines at smaller airports and their deal looks even more attractive.

The air taxi concept hasn't completely caught on yet. DayJet didn't make it, but smaller-scale companies like SATS Air are doing well. Though Wings Air's operation takes advantage of/relies on our broken hub-and-spoke air transit system, I like what they're doing. They are showing how much more efficient air travel can become when we use smaller aircraft and operate out of smaller airports. They're showing that by looking realistically at the economics of travel, driving through big-city traffic is even more expensive than flying. As the USA Today mentions, Gwinnett isn't the first feeder airport to get service like this, but I don't think many companies have been willing to use as small and economical a plane as the Navajo yet. Hopefully, Wings Air will help the case for smarter travel and air taxis in general.