The “Uber of the Sky” Grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration

Zenon Evans
wrote back in April about a really cool, helpful new service
called Airpooler. As he wrote:

AirPooler allows private pilots to post listings about upcoming
trips, requiring them to input important information about their
own credentials and experience and their plane’s weight limits.
“Most pilots listing flights on AirPooler fly small single-engine
piston airplanes that carry from 2 to 4 passengers,” explains AirPooler.
For passengers, requesting a ride is no harder than ordering a
ticket on a commercial flight, and one can even send questions to
the pilot beforehand….

the service regulates itself, notes BetaBoston,
by “only working with pilots who are members of flying clubs like
East Coast or Associated Pilots,” which “have processes in place
for vetting pilots, and ensuring the airworthiness of the
planes.”

Right now, the service lists a round-trip flight from Palo Alto,
California to Sacramento this weekend for under $180. A comparable
economy ticket from United Airlines with such short notice
is over
$800.

But the Federal Aviation Administration has never allowed
private pilates to get paid to carry passengers like that; they can
only theoretically be recompensed for costs. So last week,
Endgaget sadly reports, the FAA put the kibosh on the
service:

Thanks to a 1963 decision, such sharing is legal if done by word
of mouth or a notice board, provided the pilot only asks for a fair
share of the expenses. However, in a rather
confusing letter, the regulator told Airpooler that its
service violates the spirit of that ruling. Instead of offering a
bonafide “joint venture with a common purpose,” participating
pilots are “holding out to transport passengers for compensation.”
That means unless you have a commercial ATP or CPL license, using
those services is DOA.

The
FAA’s party-pooping letter.