A St. Augustine company is launching a new airline with service between Jacksonville, Atlanta and Charlotte.
It’s called My Sky and it’s a based on a monthly subscription instead of each flight. Think of it as all-you-can-watch Netflix or an all-you-can eat buffet geared to the passenger who flies often.
Elliot Mintzer, the company’s founder, said it will work like this:
The airline will start off flying three times a day, Monday through Friday, from each city. An individual subscription starts at $1,750 month. For that, you can fly as often as you want, but you can only have two reservations on the books at a time.
If you have a round trip to Atlanta booked, once you’ve flown up there, you’ve used one of the two reservations and can make a new one.
Four reservations at a time will cost $2,250 a month and six will be $3,000 a month.
The corporate rate is $3,750 a month for six reservations at time but can be used by various employees. Additional reservations are $1,250 a month.
Mintzer said the airline will use Pilatus PC-12 turboprops, which seat eight passengers.
My Sky will use Jacksonville Executive Airport at Craig Field, DeKalb Peachtree Airport northeast of Atlanta and Concord Regional Airport northeast of Charlotte.
Mintzer said he’s planning to begin service once the company gets 90 individual and 10 corporate memberships in each city. He expects that by summer at the latest.
The business is not unique. Several similar airlines launched last year: Beacon in the Northeast, Surf Air in California and Rise in Texas.
“Think about the business travel going from Jacksonville to Atlanta once a week,” Mintzer said. “He’s going to spend $2,200 to $2,400 a month on Delta, especially if he’s booking seven days or less.”
Checking on Delta’s website Wednesday, the lowest price for a roundtrip flight to Atlanta on Thursday and back on Friday was $628.
On My Sky, Mintzer said, a passenger can book as late as two hours before the flight.
My Sky was founded in 2009 as a marketing, management and consulting aviation firm. But Minzter is also the main pilot for Boomerang Air Charter. Both are based at Northeast Florida Regional Airport in St. Augustine.