November 14, 2024
The early launch to third-party beta customers accelerates the timeline of Surf Air’s software initiatives in its transformation plan.
Surf Air Mobility has signed six air operator beta customers to use SurfOS.
SurfOS is an AI-enabled software platform for the advanced air mobility industry.
The early launch to third-party beta customers accelerates the timeline of Surf Air’s software initiatives in its transformation plan.
Surf Air said it intends to form Surf Air Technologies, a new venture to develop, market, and sell SurfOS to the advanced air mobility industry.
The segment includes thousands of Part 135 regional air operators.
That is specifically small aircraft limited to under 30 seats with a 7,500-pound maximum payload.
Its subsidiary, Southern Airways, is one of the U.S.’s largest Part 135 commuter operators by scheduled departures.
The company also said it is considering bringing in external investors to capitalize on the Surf Air Technologies venture.
Palantir Technologies power SurfOS.
It is designed to increase efficiency, decrease costs, and drive productivity for stakeholders across the advanced air mobility industry.
According to the announcement, “Launch customers will have access to customized tools built to improve charter flight distribution, manage customer relationships, and improve flight pricing while unlocking direct-to-consumer flight distribution for air operators. As functionality and features are added, these customers will have access to further enhancements that will enable them to become vertically integrated mobility companies.”
Launch customer Direct2 CEO Toby Woods said, “SurfOS is building an end-to-end solution that will allow us to seamlessly sell our charter flights directly to consumers and integrates the operational complexities we face daily with an intuitive interface that our entire team—from dispatchers to pilots—has embraced.”
“We believe that SurfOS will be the category-defining technology platform for the advanced air mobility industry. We are creating an operating system that is addressing the needs of aircraft operators, brokers, and owners, all of whom have a real need for modern aviation software enhanced with AI and big data,” said Surf Air Co-founder Sudhin Shahani.
He added, “Individually, those industry participants could not affordably develop this broad suite of customized applications or organize their data onto a single platform. Given that we work with over 400 air operators through our on-demand (private jet charter) platform, we are well positioned to bring SurfOS to market at scale.”
Surf Air Mobility began by selling subscription by-the-seat private aviation access in 2011.
In 2017, it bought Rise, a similar service in Texas.
At the time, the pair offered 445 weekly by-the-seat flights to 17 destinations.
Plans to expand to Las Vegas, Bentonville, Midland, New Orleans, Scottsdale, and Taos never occurred.
It still offers limited routes in California.
The big plan is to focus on regional mobility operations, services, and on-demand charters.
A recent presentation by Surf Air shows the regional mobility market growing to at least $75 billion by 2035.
The same presentation values the current on-demand charter market at $30 billion worldwide.
In 2023, Surf Air sold $26.3 million in on-demand charter flights.
Surf Air is publicly traded via a 2023 direct IPO.
Last November, it said it had raised $50 million.
DOWNLOAD: Surf-Air-Mobility-Overview-Transformation-Plan-Presentation
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