New service reimagines travel for regional trips, offering an alternative to long drives or the hassle of commercial air travel
Chicago, IL (September 14, 2016) –OpenAirplane announces today the launch of its online and mobile service, FlyOtto. This new platform makes it easy for travelers to find, book, fly, and pay for regional trips on privately chartered aircraft.
While there are only about 300 commercial airport hubs within the U.S., there are over 5,000 destinations travelers can fly to on-demand via FlyOtto. The very simple and seamless FlyOtto user experience saves otherwise wasted time spent traveling to the nearest commercial hub to endure the exhausting commercial airline process, or driving on a three- to six-hour road trip in a car. Filling the wide gap between commercial airline service and private air travel, the online marketplace not only helps travelers get to where they want to go more efficiently, but also drives incremental revenue for operators with underutilized aircraft.
“The booking process to charter an airplane has been a long, complex process that has lacked transparency for both travelers and operators alike,” said Rod Rakic, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenAirplane. “Before FlyOtto, travelers spent hours contacting multiple operators, or dealing with a broker. In just a few seconds, we can have a professional pilot and a certified airplane standing by at the airport.”
Founded by the team that built OpenAirplane.com, an online service that enables pilots to rent airplanes across the country, FlyOtto leverages the same technology and business model. With FlyOtto, travelers seamlessly configure the trip they want, while on the operators’ side, the clumsy charter quoting process is eliminated, with fully vetted, committed trips and pricing set in advance. The process begins with travelers simply choosing their origin and destination via the online platform. Several aircraft options, including a variety of piston and turboprop powered aircraft, which are optimized by an algorithm, include range and proximity to their requested origin. Travelers then choose the level of service based on the aircraft requested. Finally, the traveler meets the pilot at the departure airport and they fly to the destination.
FlyOtto is free to join and has no membership fees. Pets can also ride alongside their owners in the cabin, instead of being tucked away in an uncomfortable cargo hold. Amenities available on many of the aircraft in the FlyOtto network include WiFi and catering as well.
All charter flights booked via FlyOtto are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Administration Federal Air Regulations, which means only professional commercial pilots and charter certified airplanes are utilized. All of FlyOtto’s charter operators meet strict standards which are similar to those of the scheduled airline industry.
FlyOtto is available now, with nothing to download, on any device, at FlyOtto.com.
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About FlyOtto
FlyOtto is a new service, launching this week to connect travelers to general aviation, on-demand. Established in May 2012 and based in Chicago, Illinois, OpenAirplane, Inc. makes renting an airplane as easy as renting a car.
Spelling FlyOtto
FlyOtto is spelled as one contiguous string of characters. The "F" and the first “O” are capitalized. Every other character should be lower-cased.
312.436.1018
Press Contacts:
FlyOtto
Scott Murphy
312.399.9776
