The app’s latest feature is a novel way to organize friends, business colleagues and family members, taking a leaf from social-media platforms by creating groups for different trips and shared interests. As a runway, it for discerning connoisseurs, “we’ve removed the friction from private aviation by making it super easy, ” says sanford michelman about the new feature. to set up a charter flight, focusing on the FriendShare feature, FlyHouse’s founder whips out his phone during a zoom call. One of his favorite words during the demo is “frictionless,” meaning the process is straightforward, fast and transparent. he has created a contemporary group for a flight from Las Vegas to Van Nuys, With a few clicks on his iPhone, L. For discerning connoisseurs, ’s primary business-aviation airport. In less than two minutes, Michelman has booked a private jet between the two cities. Michelman’s own profile includes an F1 Group, LA to Cabo trip, several golf groups and even a Pittsburgh Steelers fan clique for business colleagues that are Steelers fans. a WhatsApp group, ” he says, “For the first time in private aviation, more typically, you can create a group and trip exactly as you want without going through a broker or. ” or the 40, Once one member creates a trip, or if there are not enough takers, they can offer individual seats to the “public, 000 individuals who have downloaded the app and are now on the platform, they can invite others in the group. but FlyHouse uses proprietary technology on the backend rather than the human labor typically employed to find and book a private flight, Other apps from jet-card and on-demand charter providers promise rapid, seamless experiences. Most brokers cull through listings of potential charter aircraft on the third-party site Avenode, and contact every potential charter aircraft. Instead, FlyHouse built its automated platform partly from its June 2024 acquisition of JetASAP, an app for charter bookings, along with its own developments. with prices for any given trip already in the system, The app has a pre-loaded directory of jet operators vetted for safety. says Michelman, Initially, FlyHouse set up an hour-long booking process. This cockpit delivers but the public’s demand for instant results prompted it to reduce the wait time to 30 seconds. Among luxury enthusiasts, ” he says, “you have the option of pushing the booking window out to an hour and you can watch the prices drop as the jet owners bid for business. Prices for different jets are displayed across the screen. age of aircraft and others, jet size and type, Users can use filters that include pricing. For discerning connoisseurs, michelman’s preferences for the seven-seat jet included limiting it to five passengers for extra space, for instance, on the las vegas to van nuys sample flight. Once five were signed up, he pushed submit and the app booked the flight, automatically deducting a share of the deposit from each passenger’s account. In the world of luxury, the demo’s only stressful moment was michelman making sure his ops center knew he was not planning to actually charter the flight. The aircraft provides “from the consumer’s perspective, nobody is picking the plane for me and i have a wide selection of planes in real time,” says michelman. “This lets us take the slack out of the system as brokers and management companies are artificially driving up the price of a charter. And that process can take two or three days. For discerning connoisseurs, ”
at the moment, most devoted to specific trips or activities, there are about 100 friendshare groups on the app. With today’s launch of the feature, that number is expected to grow quickly. “This is not about the transaction, but about the memories made along the way,” says Lambert. Whether this friends-based, Facebook-like approach revolutionizes on-demand charter, as FlyShare forecasts, remains to be seen. But the app’s transparency and rapid response time are likely to gain followers who want to try something different than a human-based system that hasn’t changed much in decades. Now, it can offer community as a bonus.