[Marie Antoinette]

Not absurd. Imagine how much time an employee or executive is spending driving to the airport, waiting in line, packing into the sardine cans, flying from one hub to another hub, driving from the airport to where he is going....

The time wasted is valuable to a company. In a small business jet, these same folks can fly from a much smaller airport closer to where they are to a much smaller airport closer to where they are going. These Eclipse jets are going to cost about the same to take as an airline, but close to half the time wasted. For example, if I want to go somewhere halfway across the country, I have to drive at least two hours to get to the nearest hub. But I live five minutes from IRK that has a big enough runway to handle a business jet. And if my destination is NOT a 'hub' city, I waste more time driving from the hub, I could literally save four hours from a cross country trip. That's more than the actual flight time!

The only problem I see is how long it's going to take to get these air taxi services equipped with Eclipses. And to hire me to fly one!

Mr.M

[StolarStorm]

They won't pay you very much. Express jets and the like typically pay about 20,000 a year. I also think that the cost won't be anywhere near a dollar a mile. Right now, I think the investors are being yanked a bit with fake estimates.

[sawsalimb]

You just got me to thinking about another possible market-the college kid market. Think about it:

A lot of pretty big schools are in pretty out of the way places. A good example would be Texas A&M University,in College Station,or Baylor,in Waco. Both towns are pretty good sized,but not big enough to have a full blown airport,so as the situation stands right now,someone attending college from out of state can't fly home without jumping through some hoops.

Given an aircraft that's cheap enough to operate,flying home for Christmas break and spring break might be a viable option. Or,just start a charter service to popular college kid destinations-Padre Island comes to mind,and maybe even a few of the state parks.