Linear Air (Bedford, MA) became one of the first air taxi companies to start distribution via a GDS after going online on the Amadeus platform on November 15, AIN Online has reported.
The air taxi company has previously made its fares available via meta travel search service Kayak, but now hopes to increase its customer base through sites such as Expedia, which use the Amadeus platform. According to the company, since going online with Amadeus Linear Air has already seen first bookings from Europe for corporate clients.
"We figured out how to crack the code of how to sell an unscheduled whole plane,” Linear Air CEO William Herp said during the US Corporate Aviation Summit.
Linear Air is predominantly a virtual carrier selling flights operated by roughly 700 other carriers. The vendor list includes Linear Air's own small Part 135 operation, using one Embraer Eclipse 500 jet. The company allows its customers to select around 5,000 regional US airports as departure and arrival point. While it allows only a whole plane charter, the cost is broken per seat. Herp targets sales at around USD400 per person.
Herp sees a potential USD12 billion market for the airline, AIN Online reported. The virtual carrier has been ranked 244th in the 2017 Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in the United States.
