Commuting in the clouds

WATERLOO, Nov 09, 2008 (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- NWA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- A couple of local entrepreneurs are trying to get travelers to reach for the sky.

Travel options out of Waterloo Regional Airport have been, as a rule, limited to four daily Northwest Airlines flights to Minneapolis.

Livingston Aviation, based at the airport, offers an air charter service to about 5,000 destinations.

Now, David LeCompte and Ben Frein are offering travelers another choice, with their new Midwest Air Taxi service.

Midwest Air Taxi offers direct connections between Waterloo and more than 450 airports as far as 400 miles away.

Frein and LeCompte said their service -- which carried its first passenger last month on LeCompte's Cirrus SR-22 single-engine plane and has transported "a handful" in about two flights per week since -- is selling convenience.

"Most people aren't used to the concept of air taxi-type service," said LeCompte, who also owns Short's Travel Management in Waterloo. "Unlike commercial air, there's no security line. You pretty much get right on the plane. The pilot briefs you on a few safety tips and you go."

Passengers can bypass security and the long lines that go with it because the company uses airports' general aviation ramps instead of the usual passenger terminals.

The little single-engine airplanes typically ascend to altitudes of 4,000-10,000 feet, cruising at speeds of up to 200 mph.

Time savings can be dramatic, LeCompte said.

"By the time you actually get physically onboard a (a commercial) plane, usually our passengers have already reached their destination," he said. "I can be at a meeting in Indianapolis by 9 or 10 in the morning and spend the whole day there and be home in time for dinner."

Air taxis' point-to-point assets may be their biggest advantage, Frein said.

"From Waterloo, Northwest only flies to Minneapolis, and you have to connect from there," he said. "You want to go to St. Louis and you have to go north to Minneapolis before you go south. That, obviously, creates great potential for us."

There's also an advantage of no checked luggage or bag-handling fees, LeCompte said.

He added that, for business travelers, the plane takes off on their schedule and waits for them to take a return flight home at day's end.

"There are probably six or seven air taxi operators throughout the U.S. that use this same type of equipment, mostly in the East, but no one had brought this concept to the Midwest," LeCompte said. "

As many as three passengers can book the same flight with a month's notice or a day ahead, for the same price, he added.

The company's RideShare program helps deal with the cost issue, because the concept is designed to split the cost of the flight among three passengers. That way, Frein said, a $1,350 flight to Chicago's Midway or O'Hare airports can be $450 per rider, compared to $850 on a commercial flight.

"We show costs right up front, so you can go to our Web site (www.mwairtaxi.com) and book it right there," he said.

Both company owners point out that their flights, while likely a bit costlier than driving, are time-friendlier and can allow the traveler to save a night in a hotel and meals.

For business travel, air-taxi service makes a lot of sense, said Steve Dust, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance.

"Scheduled charter/air taxi services seem to be an important component of future air service growth for airports our size and even those in somewhat larger markets," he said. "As the commercial carriers continue to restructure operations and fares to remain profitable, it will be very challenging to secure flights to new destinations. Air taxi/scheduled charters fill an immediate demand for those Cedar Valley travelers currently using scheduled flights in other distant, regional airports."

The company will expand as passenger demand dictates, LeCompte said.

"Our goal is to be operating five to six flights a week, and we'll put on additional aircraft as needed," he said. "We have another Cirrus aircraft that's not currently on our certificate, but we'll add it if we need it."

Contact Jim Offner at (319) 291-1598 or jim.offner@wcfcourier.com.

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