New All-You-Can-Fly Airline Takes Off

What if air travel worked like gym memberships? You pay a flat monthly fee and then you’re welcome to use the facilities—or, in this case, take to the air—as often as you’d like.

Surf Air, a new California-based airline targeting frequent business travelers, promises an all-you-can-fly experience for as little as $790 per month. That price covers unlimited travel on a private plane between Palo Alto, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles. All Founding Members (the first 500 to join) will also receive unlimited complimentary guest passes.

Surf Air co-founder Wade Eyerly told USA Today, “We’re really going to introduce a whole new group of folks to private plane travel, people who have not been able to afford it before. It’s prohibitively expensive for most people. Here we can provide a really similar experience for a fraction of the cost.”

What’s it like to fly private? You’ll hit the sky on a Pilatus PC-12, which holds just eight people. Once you’ve cleared an initial security check, you won’t have to bother with TSA screenings, so you can join the 1 percent and bid adieu to laptop bins and full-body scanners. Oh, and luggage fees are out—as well as flight-change fees. Bring all the bags you want, and if they don’t fit on the plane, you can turn them over to Surf Air’s concierge.

The private-flying element is a surefire perk, but this kind of membership concept isn’t exactly new. JetBlue has sold All-You-Can-Jet passes in the past. And while JetBlue clearly offers a wider range of destination options than California-devoted Surf Air, the latter has big hopes for expansion. According to the Surf Air website, the airline plans to add service to Las Vegas, San Diego, and Lake Tahoe eventually.

Interested? Your private-jet dreams will have to wait, at least for a few months. Surf Air plans to start flying sometime this summer, as soon as it gets approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Would you fly with Surf Air?

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(PHoto: Shutterstock/bikeriderlondon)