Before launching commercial operations in May 2022, KinectAir offered a preview app to allow people to understand local airport accessibility and price point for on-demand journeys. The app received tens of thousands of organic entries cementing demand and signalling desired route patterns across the US. The sheer volume of search is attributed to changing business and leisure travel needs and a lack of options due to commercial route cancellations. Since launching services in May and developing KinectAir’s live app, the company has generated over 1,000 quotes, and been used to book over 800 flight hours for over 200 flights. To address this clear consumer demand for point-to-point air travel, KinectAir added a second aircraft to its inaugural regional node in June 2022, and a third this November. The business now has two Diamond DA62s and a Pilatus PC12 with a fourth aircraft planned to come on the network imminently.
“We are rapidly approaching an inflection point whereby the benefits of sub-regional private air travel are converging with the decreasing cost of operating those flights. For businesses, KinectAir is increasingly able to beat commercial air travel when you consider cost and billable hours spent traveling inefficiently. By offering businesses bonus value on their pre-payments and access to our network of aircraft, we’re improving their outcomes and enabling our own growth,” said Jonathan Evans, CEO, KinectAir. “Travelers need to trust their transportation partners and at KinectAir we’re leveraging our software to provide a guaranteed service and consistent private air travel experience at an accessible price point that is lacking today. Our passengers get to their destination faster and more reliably than with any other form of travel and we’re excited to see so many repeat customers.”
By networking together the supply, demand, and operational needs of aviation, KinectAir is able to grow sustainably while providing flights an order of magnitude cheaper than those served by larger jet aircraft. Routes to date have been booked throughout the West Coast, including Napa, Bend, Seattle, Sun Valley, and other destinations throughout Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, and California. The average route length in a four seat aircraft ranges from 300-450 miles and in an 8 seat aircraft is around 650-850 miles. KinectAir is seeing an average time from inquiry to flight of 48 hours at an average cost of $1.50 per passenger seat mile. Business customers can purchase flights in $20,000-$100,000 increments and receive bonus value of 5-15% of their total commitment to use towards future flights. In some cases that can account for up to five free flights.