GSA's on-demand airline enters its second decade

Instead of buying  tickets on a scheduled airline, which can take you to only 16 cities non-stop from here, many Greenville-area companies routinely send their sales teams non-stop to thousands of markets by booking flights with Greenville’s ten-year old on-demand airline.

“And what surprises most people is that on-demand flights can be less expensive than buying last minute, full-fare airline tickets,” says David Knoblauch, President of Venture Aviation Group, LLC.

“Suppose you just found out that three of you need to be in Raleigh tomorrow morning for an important client meeting at nine o'clock,” Knoblauch said “Last minute, full-fare coach seats for three people on the airlines from here to Raleigh would cost $4,886 and those aren’t even non-stop flights. But we could fly everyone from Greenville Downtown Airport non-stop to Raleigh and back for just $1,700 in our Beech Baron. That’s a savings of 65 percent over the airlines.”

While TV, movies, and politicians would have you believe that only the rich and famous fly privately, Knoblauch says that’s just not the case.

“According to the National Business Aviation Association, 74 percent of all general aviation flights are time-critical trips by sales, technical and middle management employees. That’s certainly been our experience,” he said.

According to Knoblauch, the scheduled airlines have abandoned nearly 100 mid-sized cities in just the last year, while business aviation reaches over 5,000 public-use airports in the U.S.

“Flying non-stop from Greenville, we can take clients to about 3,000 of those markets, and back the same day. That’s a lot better than just the 16 non-stop destinations the airlines service from here.”

Venture Aviation, which obtained its FAA Certification as an on-demand air carrier in 1999 operates a diverse fleet including two four-passenger Beech Baron aircraft, typically used as an alternative to spending all day driving to and from a sales presentation. Businesses use Venture’s three King Air turbo-props to close sales in the morning; then stop off once or twice on the way home to visit current customers and to shore up accounts.

“And when you get the call to ‘come at once,’ our Citation V business jet is the answer, offering the most speed and non-stop range in our fleet,” said Knoblauch.

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