Airpooler Wants to Rideshare the Sky

When I first heard about Airpooler, I thought it sounded like Rideshare for airplanes. Airpooler is a service that matches propeller plane pilots with passengers in exchange for flight costs. If you have a pilot’s license and are planning to rent a plane to fly from Northern California to Southern California, Airpooler can help pair you up with someone willing to help pay for the plane's associated costs.

It’s easy to imagine Airpooler turning into a service where a bunch of crust punks go in on a flight and pack into a prop plane for $20 a head. That doesn’t seem to be the goal of Airpooler, but Andy Finke, CTO and co-founder of Airpooler, certainly didn’t tell me it was impossible. There are, however, rules about how many people can fit in one plane. I spoke with Finke about the service.

MOTHERBOARD: Why did you feel a desire to start Airpooler?

We started the company because we have a passion for flying. We’re [the two founders] not pilots ourselves, but we love to fly as passengers. There are a lot of private pilots out there who would fly more if they could, but the cost has become a lot higher in the last few years. Private pilots are allowed to share costs with passengers, so if they can defray the cost of flying by getting people to ride along, then pilots will fly more.

We think that the public would love to get in these planes. It’s easy and affordable to get to places that are sort of regional travel destinations. It’s a lot more convenient than driving. It’s basically as cheap if not cheaper than the gas for driving, so we think there will be a lot of demand from people who want to get out there and also have the experience of flying in these planes.

How do you respond to the claim that private pilots can’t do commercial flights with passengers?

Private pilots cannot get compensated for flying. They can’t go out and say, “Hey, If you want me to fly you around, I’ll do it for $100 an hour.” They’re not allowed to do that by the FAA, but they can share the cost of flying. They have to pay their share of the cost of flying. They can take passengers and share the cost; they just can’t make any kind of profit. They can’t get real compensation for their flying. What pilots can do, if they have a destination, if they’ve already decided, “I’m going to go from Palo Alto to Catalina,” they can take people along. They’re perfectly able and allowed to do that, and they can share the cost.

So, if it costs the pilot, usually to rent the plane, let’s say $200 to do that flight, if they take one passenger, they’re absolutely allowed to take $100 from that passenger. If they take three other passengers, they’re allowed to take $50 each from those passengers. The pilot has to pay his share of the cost, he can’t pay any less. You’re not allowed to advertise. So, he can’t go out there and say “I’ll go here if anyone’s willing.” This has to be a bonafide purpose, a flight that he is doing. But once he’s got this destination, if he finds someone else that has the same desire, then they are able to get together and share the cost of the flight.

Is there any concern that a pilot might claim to be making a flight, because they think it might be a popular route?

We don’t really have that concern. These pilots know the rules. They’re probably more concerned than anyone else about appearing to. The term is called “holding out,” they have no desire to appear as if they’re holding out. They’re only listing flights that they absolutely intend to fly. They’re not listing flights that may or may not happen, depending on if they get passengers.

How do you vet or identify these pilots before you let them list on the site?

We’re working exclusively with pilot clubs around the country, so that’s one of our key principles. We work with the most reputable clubs in the country. These clubs do more vetting and qualifying and safety checking than anyone else. These pilots are vetted by the club, and on Airpooler they’re listing flights with planes from these clubs. The clubs are doing that kind of vetting, and we’re just partnering with the clubs to list their flights.

Are you concerned with any risks that might be involved with a random passenger getting on a flight like that?

One key feature of the business is that we’re trying to build a community of passengers. The pilots are already in a fairly tight-knit community. They know each other, they know the rules of the sky, they know the etiquette, and we’re working with pilots to educate passengers about what the flying is like. I think most people know, but these are small planes, and you’re in close quarters with the pilots, so there are courtesies everyone should follow.

As far as the risk of someone being dangerous, again, these pilots are experienced and know what they’re getting into. Both pilot and passenger can decide whether they fly together. When someone makes a request to ride with a pilot, the pilot views their profile information, they can follow up and get more information if they need, and then they can decide whether or not to fly with them. They have absolutely every right to say, “I don’t want to take this passenger.”

As for pricing, is there any way to confirm that the pricing is accurate on the site?

When a pilot lists a flight, we calculate the costs. Because we’re working with clubs, the clubs have rental rates. If I fly plane X, that plane is going to cost me $150/hour. We have all of those rates in our system, so when a pilot lists a flight from point A to point B, we can tell them that the flight time will be four hours and if the plane is $150/hour, then that flight is $600. That’s the number that will be used to determine each passenger’s share of the cost.

Will these flights only be domestic?

At this point, yeah. These are shorter flights, although there are some in Southern California, flying out of San Diego, some pilots may certainly go to Mexico. For now, that will be our international presence. The origins, where we’re starting from, are all going to be domestic at this point. We have gotten inquiries from people in France, people in France are interested in us and someone in China, but that’s down the road.

How do you see your company coming ahead of companies like Blackjet that haven’t seen great success with this kind of thing?

These are not jets. Jets are a whole different financial model. I think that that’s where Blackjet has had their problems. It just becomes very expensive. They were not able to get enough membership to make that business work. This is completely different. The cost of flying from Palo Alto to Catalina might be $100 per passenger, maybe $50. It’s a different industry altogether than these private jet companies. We may have our own challenges, but they won’t be those.