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One airline is offering a private jet experience at business class prices, but it’s making many enemies in the industry.
Dallas-based airline JSX is exploiting a loophole in U.S. Federal Aviation Administration regulations that allows the company to sell single-seat tickets on charter planes at affordable prices and faster security checks. It is said that
“I spent months without sleep going through all the rules and trying to figure out why we couldn’t do it,” co-founder Alex Wilcox told Bloomberg.
Charter planes are not subject to the same stringent safety and security requirements as passenger planes with nine or more seats, but FAA rules prohibit them from specifying flight times or cities or selling single-seat tickets.
To overcome this strict regulation, the entrepreneurs formed two companies to work together. One creates flight schedules and sells tickets, and the other flies planes on specified routes at specified dates and times.
This loophole also allows JSX to sell tickets at much lower prices than its private jet competitors.
“Everyone we talked to said, ‘No, you can’t do that,'” Wilcox recalled.
“So we did it.”
JSX is loved and worshiped by frequent fliers who enjoy the luxury of skipping long lines at Transportation Security Administration bag checks in lieu of baggage swabs and weapons detectors.
Bloomberg reports that the additional free time allows travelers to spend more time in the cities they’re exploring or attend additional meetings during their business trips.
But JSX’s competitors are targeting that loophole, claiming the company’s practices are unsafe.
“If you’re going to be a scheduled airline, whoever you are should follow the rules of a scheduled airline,” Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“We have proven for decades that accidents are significantly reduced and safety is greatly improved. Just follow that standard.”
Doug Parker, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines, said airlines like JSX have tightened anti-terrorism rules, including photo ID scanning, limits on liquids on board, and more. He said they should be required to meet post-9/11 standards, such as taking off and putting on shoes during inspections. .
“It’s a natural disaster waiting to happen,” he said. “We know that terrorists are looking at civil aviation, and we are giving them a golden opportunity.”
Competitor complaints and JSX’s growing success could lead to federal changes that could disrupt the company’s innovative business model.
The FAA reviewed its rules for public charter airlines like JSX “in light of recent high volume operations” that “appear to be offered to the public as essentially indistinguishable” from commercial airlines.
The “size, scope, frequency and complexity” of public charter projects like JSX “have increased significantly over the past decade,” the agency said in an August filing.
Lawmakers and some pilot unions have also called for stronger safety measures, but JSX has hired a Washington lobbyist to defend its position.
“When someone points a gun at you, you tend to hire a bodyguard,” Wilcox said.
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