What’s happening at Surf Air? A press release after midnight raises more questions than it answers (Updated) – Private Jet Card Comparisons – Know Before You Buy
Just over a year ago aviation industry veteran Jeff Potter was CEO of Surf Air, which at the time was seemingly shedding its training wheels and showing it could be a sustainable enterprise following a period of tumult when its founders left and then filed a $125 million lawsuit in 2015. Then came the acquisition of RISE, which was operating a similar concept in Texas. That is, you pay a monthly fee and somewhat like Netflix indulge as much as you would like, however, instead of movies, with Surf Air and RISE it is flights (see below), mainly short hops where you can save a lot of time by using private aviation terminals instead of the commercial ones. [1][2]
Around the same time Potter left, Sudhin Shahani, the chairman, an investor, and tech entrepreneur, took the role of chief executive. Last summer, there was the seemingly ham-fisted launch of flights in Europe[3] with its own Embraer Phenom 300 neatly painted with a shiny black exterior and former senior British Airways executive Simon Talling-Smith at the helm. According to LinkedIn, Talling-Smith still holds that position, although he is now seemingly leading VOY[4], a blockchain based loyalty program Surf Air said it was launching last month.
Back to flying: Following the launch of summer routes from London to Ibiza and Cannes in 2017, there were plans for more of the Phenom 300 light jets and a fleet of Pilatus PC-12 turboprops. There was a map of Surf Air’s network in Europe (below) with a half-dozen current cities and nine future destinations, none of which has been realized, at least in the way it was presented.
Surf Air’s model, which originally entailed operating at least some of its flights, has changed too. Aviation International News last November reported Encompass Aviation had “quietly” leased Surf Air’s 12 Pilatus PC-12NG turboprops and had been flying its 70[5] or so daily flights in California since May 2017. It came out earlier this year that Surf Air had contracted Tradewind Aviation[6] to handle the former RISE flights in Texas. Then in the early hours of this Saturday morning just after midnight, we received a press release reading, “Surf Air transitions operations to Advanced Air for California routes.”