April 19, 2024
Imperium Jets is partnering with Flying Zebra to offer by-the-seat flights between Westchester County Airport, north of New York City, and Miami International Airport.
The first flight of 11 planned flights is scheduled for Dec. 23, 2022.
The flights will be aboard Pilatus PC-12s configured for eight passengers.
The price is $1,997 per seat, and a spokesperson says the schedule is guaranteed regardless of sales.
“Our partnership with Flying Zebra is indicative of a revolution within the aviation industry, which has been fueled by innovative technology and expansion of public access,” Lidor Revah, CEO of Imperium Jets, said in a press release.
He continues, “The dream we had for our company was to ensure that everyone can fly in a private plane, and this is an important step towards that goal.”
The start-up is one of many promising it will revolutionize private aviation.
“Imperium is the Airbnb of private jets, turning unutilized flights into profit by allowing by the seat sales,” according to a profile in Crunchbase.
Revah previously told us, “Our goal is to help operators to sell by the seat via Kayak, TripActions, Expedia.”
In the past, he said Imperium was starting similar by-the-seat flights in California, although it is unsure if they ever got off the ground.
Imperium will be going up against JSX, which in December is increasing its flights on the route to daily service.
JSX uses reconfigured Embraer regional jets with 30 seats and extra legroom, also saving time using private terminals.
JSX fares on the route range from $649 to $1,279 per seat.
After we asked the Imperium PR company spokesperson for a schedule, how Imperium expected to compete with a smaller, slower airplane, charging, in some cases, triple the price, and also about its past service promises, we didn’t receive a response.
We later found some of the schedules on Imperium’s ByTheSeat.com website, although it’s not clear they are correct.
It shows the southbound leg leaving HPN at 9 am and arriving at noon, inferring a total of three hours, aggressive for the PC-12.
The northbound leg is scheduled to depart MIA at 2:30 pm and land at 7:30 pm.
