Airlyft: "Uber for planes" coming soon

[spuwho]

Per the Tampa Biz Journal:

Tampa Bay's latest in the sharing economy: 'Uber for planes'

Everyone's favorite controversial car-hailing company is the latest brand name to stand in for the concept bringing it business.

Like what Dumpster did for trash containers and Kleenex for tissues, Uber has become the poster child of what some call the sharing economy, a business model where a business is merely the mobile marketplace for customers renting their own goods.

Uber for deliveries. Uber for flowers. One company markets itself as an Uber for creating "Uber for" businesses.

Another derivative will enter Tampa Bay in late January. That is, as long as a local Uber for airplanes has found a way past early scrutiny from regulators and problems from previous attempts to create flight-sharing.

That marketplace is Airlyft, a name bringing to mind two other giants in the sharing economy: Airbnb, an Uber for room rentals, and Lyft, an Uber for, well, Uber, seeing as it's the San Francisco company's closest rival.

The challenge for Airlyft was ensuring it didn't fall into flight-sharing practices outlawed in a letter from the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this year, Airlyft's marketing head Alice Jablonski said.

The brains behind Airlyft is Dr. Daniel Albert Balda, the 41-year-old CEO and chairman at Melbourne-based Medicomp Inc.

Balda's move from heart-monitoring manufacturing to private aviation marketplace isn't surprising when hearing him talk about his love for flying. He earned his pilot's license in 2008, flying instead of driving to cut a regular commute between Melbourne and Ormond Beach by an hour.

He believes flight-sharing will work because pilots want to fill empty space on 4-6-seater airplanes and saving time appeals to his core demographic — 30-somethings on their third pay raise. An eight-hour drive to Atlanta is about two hours by private airplane, Balda said.

Though Airlyft is based in Indian Harbour Beach, Tampa Bay is Balda's test market. For now, users can arrange flights among six airports in Tampa Bay:

    Tampa International in Tampa
    Albert Whitted in St. Petersburg
    Peter O. Knight in Tampa
    Tampa Executive near Temple Terrace
    St. Petersburg-Clearwater International in Feather Sound
    Clearwater Air Park in Clearwater

With Uber criticized by governments worldwide as unsafe, Balda said a close knit community of available pilots recommending who joins the marketplace will ensure his users aren't put in danger.

"It's easy to hide behind safety with new things," Balda said. "The world is changing very fast, and government is set up to go slower than that."