The concept of chartering a flight is familiar to most travelers at this point; after all, the ability to charter a flight and skip the commercial hubbub has been around for almost as long as we’ve had planes to fly.
However, the ability to purchase a flight card is a relatively new development. The flight card concept debuted in 1997 as a response to the popularity of fractional ownership. Instead of facing the intricacies and possible complications of owning a jet or being hit with the price fluctuations of charter flights, customers could opt to purchase a flight card that would provide hourly blocks of air time in an aircraft of their choice. Flight cards grant the “card holder” a specified number of hours (typically 25,50,75,100+ hour increments) on a specific aircraft or a certain category or size of aircraft. These hours are redeemable at the flight card member’s discretion.
The main draw of flight cards or private flight memberships today is that the traveller can maximize time, have control and yet flexibility in their schedule, to/from destinations and their overall experience. The membership provider will typically streamline the process, the cost of travel, crew, catering and other aspects into a single touchpoint. Research shows that more than half of the aircraft owners also use membership programs to supplement their travel when their aircraft simply isn’t fit for the specific mission or is down due to the scheduled maintenance.
Whoosh offers the most affordable memberships due to our innovative way to utilize single engine planes. These planes are very economic for shorter ranges.