Charter membership clubs have been going strong this year, with all-you-can-fly companies such as Rise and Wheels Up making their presence known. North-east based Beacon Air is the latest to begin services starting on September 15th, 2015 with nine round-trips a day between New York and Boston. Members pay an initial $1,000 to join and pay monthly dues of $2,000 a month.
Beacon Air’s flights utilize the King Air 200 turboprop, which seats six people. Two private aviation terminals with provide departure locations: Landmark Aviation at Westchester and Signature at Boston Logan. In time, the company is looking to add flights to Washington and seasonal locals such as Nantucket and the Hamptons during vacation seasons.
The CEO and founder of Beacon is Wade Eyerly, who also founded the West Coast charter member service Surf Air. Eyerly noted that the densely populated Northeast Corridor was the perfect place to transport the model. Shuttles from New York to Boston and Washington are very high; and Beacon Air’s lower cost option has been met with a positive reception. Eyerly says the company is already close to reaching their membership goal of 400 to 500 members.
Eyerly notes that Beacon will feel like an airline and more like a private club.
“When you have 500 people who fly regularly on the same route, they really get to know each other,” he said, “It’s some of the best networking in the world.”
We reported back in July that Beacon had teamed with aircraft solutions Dynamic Aviation in a $400 million strategic partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, Dynamic Aviation will deliver 27 mid-sized executive turbo-props manufactured by Beechcraft over the next three years. Dynamic will operate and maintain the fleet of pre-owned Beechcraft King Air B200s on behalf of Beacon for a 10-year period. They will provide commuter services on an exclusive basis to Beacon.