An Australian start-up is offering unlimited flights between Melbourne and Sydney.
Airly is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Luke Hampshire and Alexander Robinson. They developed the idea after the likes of the subscription model of services, such as America’s Surf Air.
Basically, the service costs $1000 to join and then $2500 per month to maintain. Far from cheap, Airly, in return for the sky-high prices, lets members fly between Melbourne and Sydney as much as they want. However, this is capped at 54 flights per week.
Additional bonuses for splashing that much cash will include the convenience of skipping queues and sitting in leather seats aboard a Beechcraft King Air 350. Claiming to save customers an average of two hours per round trip, Airly’s service is clearly not for your average Australian, but rather, is targeted to those who have to fly a lot for business or, perhaps, high rollers who don’t wish to invest in their own private jet.
While Airly hasn’t officially launched yet – as it’s waiting until it reaches a break-even membership number to do so – the founders are hoping the initiative will be off the ground by mid 2016. If all goes to plan, flights will depart and arrive at Bankstown airport in Sydney and Essendon Airport in Melbourne, with plans to expand to Brisbane and Adelaide further down the track.
However, the most interesting part of the entire concept, is, perhaps, the idea that the way we book flights in the future could be very different to how we do so now. Could it be that at some point we purchase flights in bulk for use over a certain period? Only time will tell. Until then, we’ll be waiting with high hopes.
What do you think of the idea of booking flights in bulk or package deals? Would you consider an airline subscription if you thought it would ultimately save you money?
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