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Pre-takeoff checklist
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From: http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5358018.html
Regional fliers hail 'taxi'
Liz Fedor, Star Tribune April 20, 2005 AIRTAXI0420
OAS_AD('Button20');Steve Burian drove about 30,000 miles last year to meet with clients scattered throughout Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Burian, the CEO of a Grand Forks, N.D., engineering firm, felt he had little choice but to hit the road. The alternative -- such as flying from Grand Forks to Bismarck, N.D. -- would require a 300-mile detour to the Twin Cities, the nearest hub for Northwest Airlines, the only commercial carrier flying out of Grand Forks.
That's why Burian and his company are enthusiastic backers of Point2Point Airways, a new, on-demand charter service designed to appeal to business travelers who are hundreds of miles away from a major hub airport.
Some industry insiders liken Point2Point to an air taxi service, because the trips will begin and end when the passengers want to fly. The Bismarck-based firm will charge businesses about $350 an hour for Midwest flights, and it is asking companies to buy flight time in blocks, which they can use over a 12-month period.
A Cirrus SR22
Glen Stubbe
Star Tribune
"We have pre-sold time aboard the first two aircraft," said John Boehle, who is working full-time on this project as a Grand Forks-based consultant.
Point2Point will operate single-engine planes built by Cirrus Design Corp. in Duluth. The Cirrus SR22-GTS, which seats a pilot and three passengers, sells for $444,000 and has a cruising speed of 210 mph and a range of 800 nautical miles.
Point2Point expects to operate with five Cirrus planes during its first year of operations and expand to 15 planes in year two.
Passenger revenue for the first 12 months is projected to be $646,000 and $22 million by year five, when the company intends to fly 20 Cirrus planes and 15 jets that each seat five passengers.
Chuck Pineo, a former sales manager for Northwest Airlines in the Dakotas and western Minnesota who now works for the University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation in Grand Forks, doesn't expect Point2Point to pose a major threat to Northwest. Point2Point "is going to be competing with the highway and the windshield time" that travelers are accumulating, he said.
If you live in the Twin Cities, you can fly on Northwest to 171 nonstop destinations. But there are not enough people, and hence demand, for big airlines to justify direct flights between smaller cities on the Northern Plains.
"The airlines can't compete on flying between Bismarck and Minot, Bismarck and Grand Forks or Grand Forks to Duluth," said Dale Klapmeier, Cirrus executive vice president.
The paucity of air service prompted the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2002 to award the city of Bismarck a grant of $1.6 million to develop regional air service.
Later this month, North Dakota officials are expected to announce that the $1.25 million that remains of the Transportation Department grant will be used for start-up costs for Point2Point, such as airplane purchases. In addition, the state of North Dakota has contributed $206,000 to the air service project and NASA kicked in $350,000.
James Ray, a venture capitalist, provided a seed capital grant of $50,000 and has made an equity investment in Point2Point Airways, which will operate as a for-profit company, Boehle said.
Boehle, who has been working on the new air service for three years, plans to raise $1.5 million in equity investments that would be used for operating capital for Point2Point.
Companies that have made early commitments to fly on Point2Point Airways are located near airports in Thief River Falls and the Twin Cities in Minnesota and near Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck and Devils Lake in North Dakota. Boehle said Point2Point will begin operations in the third quarter of this year, but a specific date for starting flights hasn't been set.
Cirrus planes drew the attention of private pilots and federal regulators in January 2003 when three people were killed in two crashes of Cirrus planes.
Klapmeier said Cirrus wants to make sure that general aviation pilots are well-qualified to fly the Cirrus. Every pilot who buys a new Cirrus plane gets three days of customized training through the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, home of the large John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. "We pay for it to make sure they actually do it," he said, and that training is available in Duluth.
Last year, Cirrus took a record 733 aircraft orders, up 69 percent over the previous year.
Point2Point Airways will hire its own pilots to fly the Cirrus planes. Boehle said that the Cirrus planes are safe and technologically advanced and that the pilots who fly for Point2Point will exceed minimum standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Burian said his firm, Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, plans to buy about 100 hours of flight time during Point2Point's first year in business. He expects to use the new air service to travel between Grand Forks and Bismarck, normally a four-hour drive -- in good weather.
With Point2Point, business trips that took a day or two will be done in half that time or less. That means better service to his clients and more time to expand his client base.
"I also will have the luxury from time to time to get home to have supper with my family or to go to my daughter's gymnastics performance or my son's soccer game," Burian said.
Liz Fedor is at
lfedor@startribune.com.
From: http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5358018.html
Regional fliers hail 'taxi'
Liz Fedor, Star Tribune April 20, 2005 AIRTAXI0420
OAS_AD('Button20');Steve Burian drove about 30,000 miles last year to meet with clients scattered throughout Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Burian, the CEO of a Grand Forks, N.D., engineering firm, felt he had little choice but to hit the road. The alternative -- such as flying from Grand Forks to Bismarck, N.D. -- would require a 300-mile detour to the Twin Cities, the nearest hub for Northwest Airlines, the only commercial carrier flying out of Grand Forks.
That's why Burian and his company are enthusiastic backers of Point2Point Airways, a new, on-demand charter service designed to appeal to business travelers who are hundreds of miles away from a major hub airport.
Some industry insiders liken Point2Point to an air taxi service, because the trips will begin and end when the passengers want to fly. The Bismarck-based firm will charge businesses about $350 an hour for Midwest flights, and it is asking companies to buy flight time in blocks, which they can use over a 12-month period.
A Cirrus SR22Glen Stubbe
Star Tribune
"We have pre-sold time aboard the first two aircraft," said John Boehle, who is working full-time on this project as a Grand Forks-based consultant.
Point2Point will operate single-engine planes built by Cirrus Design Corp. in Duluth. The Cirrus SR22-GTS, which seats a pilot and three passengers, sells for $444,000 and has a cruising speed of 210 mph and a range of 800 nautical miles.
Point2Point expects to operate with five Cirrus planes during its first year of operations and expand to 15 planes in year two.
Passenger revenue for the first 12 months is projected to be $646,000 and $22 million by year five, when the company intends to fly 20 Cirrus planes and 15 jets that each seat five passengers.
Chuck Pineo, a former sales manager for Northwest Airlines in the Dakotas and western Minnesota who now works for the University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation in Grand Forks, doesn't expect Point2Point to pose a major threat to Northwest. Point2Point "is going to be competing with the highway and the windshield time" that travelers are accumulating, he said.
If you live in the Twin Cities, you can fly on Northwest to 171 nonstop destinations. But there are not enough people, and hence demand, for big airlines to justify direct flights between smaller cities on the Northern Plains.
"The airlines can't compete on flying between Bismarck and Minot, Bismarck and Grand Forks or Grand Forks to Duluth," said Dale Klapmeier, Cirrus executive vice president.
The paucity of air service prompted the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2002 to award the city of Bismarck a grant of $1.6 million to develop regional air service.
Later this month, North Dakota officials are expected to announce that the $1.25 million that remains of the Transportation Department grant will be used for start-up costs for Point2Point, such as airplane purchases. In addition, the state of North Dakota has contributed $206,000 to the air service project and NASA kicked in $350,000.
James Ray, a venture capitalist, provided a seed capital grant of $50,000 and has made an equity investment in Point2Point Airways, which will operate as a for-profit company, Boehle said.
Boehle, who has been working on the new air service for three years, plans to raise $1.5 million in equity investments that would be used for operating capital for Point2Point.
Companies that have made early commitments to fly on Point2Point Airways are located near airports in Thief River Falls and the Twin Cities in Minnesota and near Fargo, Grand Forks, Bismarck and Devils Lake in North Dakota. Boehle said Point2Point will begin operations in the third quarter of this year, but a specific date for starting flights hasn't been set.
Cirrus planes drew the attention of private pilots and federal regulators in January 2003 when three people were killed in two crashes of Cirrus planes.
Klapmeier said Cirrus wants to make sure that general aviation pilots are well-qualified to fly the Cirrus. Every pilot who buys a new Cirrus plane gets three days of customized training through the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, home of the large John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. "We pay for it to make sure they actually do it," he said, and that training is available in Duluth.
Last year, Cirrus took a record 733 aircraft orders, up 69 percent over the previous year.
Point2Point Airways will hire its own pilots to fly the Cirrus planes. Boehle said that the Cirrus planes are safe and technologically advanced and that the pilots who fly for Point2Point will exceed minimum standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Burian said his firm, Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, plans to buy about 100 hours of flight time during Point2Point's first year in business. He expects to use the new air service to travel between Grand Forks and Bismarck, normally a four-hour drive -- in good weather.
With Point2Point, business trips that took a day or two will be done in half that time or less. That means better service to his clients and more time to expand his client base.
"I also will have the luxury from time to time to get home to have supper with my family or to go to my daughter's gymnastics performance or my son's soccer game," Burian said.
Liz Fedor is at
lfedor@startribune.com.
