Companion Air

07/19/2004

Another summer is upon us and with the increase in embargos, hot weather, and thunderstorms, traveling for those of us of the animal variety hasn’t become any easier. A few of my very small friends can ride under the seats on commercial airliners but most of us still can only dream of the comfort of Companion Air. So here is an update on happenings here at the first pet airline.

In the ‘ 04 Summer Edition.....
• So when will the Airline take off again?
• Group charters for Shows, families or other “packs”?
• I keep hearing about Shuttles, Charters and Airline operations. What’s the difference?
• How about travel by ground for those on a budget (and those ready to travel today)?
• If you’re not flying, what can I do?
• Our most frequent questions – Costs, Coverage, International, and Crates...
• The Companion Air team – Some sad news
• Adventure flights for those visiting South Florida
• Charity thoughts

So when will Companion Air “take off” again?
As many of you know, we have been working on the full-scale launch of Companion Air for sometime and while we originally planned NOT to announce our new airline until we had an inaugural flight date, we were discovered and the word spread by word-of-mouth across the world...yea, across the world. Believe it or not, we receive inquiries from everywhere. But I digress. In response to urgent requests for an alternative to commercial airline service, we decided to run a limited east coast shuttle last year. Our intent was to assist some customers and further test our unique operating model. The Companion Air “test” Shuttle flew from August through December of 2003 and accomplished our objectives. We learned a lot and help a number of animals and their families travel. However, the service could not provide the comfort and reliability that our Companion Air Airline will provide so we “paws’ed” flights and focused on preparing for a more robust re-launch. That is what we have been working on throughout 2004. So where are we now?.... Quite simply, our relaunch still awaits the securing of adequate operating capital to fund our full scale operation. As you can imagine, aviation funding has been lean over the last couple of years due to the economy in general and the poor financial condition of commercial aviation specifically. We have on-going discussions with our potential funding sources and regularly open discussions with new potential investors. We have seen the economy improve and the pace of our discussions improve so we are encouraged and hopeful that we will be able to “lock down” the funds and announce the date for Companion Air’s full scale launch soon. Rest assured that we are tenacious and in spite of limited funds, we have created most of the infrastructure and support necessary so that when we secure the remaining financial backing, we will be able to move briskly (for an aviation business) toward first flight. In the meantime, we still offer limited charter flights in our small company plane for those with urgent needs, an adventuresome spirit, and flexibility in their schedules. The small aircraft only operates in excellent weather so delays are possible and it has limited range and payload. If you need to relocate or travel on the east coast, you can find additional information on our Shuttle and Charter page. And something new...For those large groups that are looking to travel, we now have the ability to find an quality charter air service to match the size of your group and the distance you want to travel.... take a look at the Group Travel program described below.

Group Charters offer options if there are enough going together
So you have a group of pets and their families ready to travel but Companion Air isn’t operating yet ..what to do?? There are services that can transport you and your fellow travelers. Whether you have 4 families or 100, whether you need a small Lear jet or a 727, we can assist you in matching your needs with the appropriate charter service. Please keep in mind that your group is essentially buying the entire plane for the trip and travel will generally be pricey. Of course, the larger your group, the better the deal. So roundtrip, with a few days at your destination, for a 1500 mile trip, you can expect to pay from $5000 per person and pet on a small jet to as low as $1200 for two (one person and their Companion) if you can fill a 727 with 60 people and their companions. If you are interested, please gather your group and give us a call. We ask that you form your group first so we know how many travelers are likely to commit before we try to match an aircraft and secure quotes. Also, with our limited staff, we aren’t able to gather groups or keeps lists so we ask that you organize your travelers.... and remember, even with larger groups, expect to pay a premium over traditional airfares for the comfort, safety and convenience of these dedicated charters. Of course, when Companion Air takes off, you won’t need to work to assemble a group...you can simply book a seat on Companion Air.

Shuttles, Charters and the Airline explained
I receive a lot of emails inquiring about our service and sometimes; the various operations can be confusing. So what are these three “services”...Shuttle, Charter, and Airline... you hear me talk about?
• Charters (on Companion Air’s Interim Aircraft) – A Charter is the renting of an entire aircraft and its crew to fly you where you want to go. You typically pay a fee per hour or per mile for your trip and often there are additional fees for repositioning the aircraft to your origin and back from your destination. Here at Companion Air we offer charters on our FAA certified company plane for those with urgent needs. Our aircraft is a small, single engine, four seat aircraft and while it has traveled coast to coast dozens of times, it is really best suited for travel around the east coast. Also, since it flies only in excellent weather, it works best for those with flexible schedules such as relocations or seasonal travelers. On the positive side, our small aircraft charter is dramatically lower in price than other charter operations due to the aircraft size and capabilities. This charter service is interim and will not be offered when our regular Shuttle or Airline service is launched.
• Charters (on commercial charter operator’s aircraft) – To assist the numerous travel groups who have contacted us, we our now assisting with traditional charters. Again, you will be renting an entire plane for your trip and the cost will be substantial depending on the size of your group and distance. We can assist in finding service from a small Lear jet to a Boeing 727 depending on what is most appropriate. So once you determine how many folks are truly willing to pay from a couple of thousand dollars or more, drop us an email and we’ll find a quality service for your group.
• Shuttles – Shuttle service describes an on going, per seat operation serving a region of the country with aircraft smaller than our Airline. Last year we operated an Interim Shuttle with our small company plane. While is worked well, it had significant limitations in terms of distances, weather and payload. At the end of December, we stopped our small aircraft Shuttle. When we relaunch our Shuttle, it will operate with slightly larger, 6 seat aircraft with improved capabilities in terms of loads, speeds, and weather. The Companion Air Shuttle will offer the ability to purchase seats (instead of expensive charters) and will be best suited for trips of 1200 miles or less. Shuttle fares will be more costly than commercial airlines but will offer the safety and convenience of in-cabin travel, local airport departures and arrivals, and a service focused on the comfort of pets and their families. These larger aircraft will also allow us to offer travel to larger Companions. Fares, service areas, and other details will be announced once the funding is in-place and launch date finalized.
• Companion Air’s Airline service – The luxurious service you see described on our site is Companion Air’s Airline service. Operating new generation Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, our Airline will offer a level of safety and comfort to the animal traveling community not found on any other Airline. Our Airline will launch then expand to serve the continental US and Canada. Service will be available from virtually every city with an airport, even a small municipal airport, once we serve a region. A short drive, a fifteen-minute loading and you’re on your way. Your Companion need never leave your sight... and if you can’t travel along, don’t worry. We’ll have on-board attendants to care for your Companions. Once our service has covered our original regions, we will work on expanding overwater and internationally. Quite an undertaking but we all know that there are millions beyond the continent looking for a service like Companion Air...you should just see my email box every morning.
I hope I’ve shed some light on the different services. If you have questions, drop me a line (murphy@companionair.com) and we’ll fill you in.. and if a charter sounds like something that would fit your fancy, drop us a line at charters@companionair.com and we’ll answer any questions or provide an exact quote.

Ground Travel for those on a budget or with needs today, over short distances
We have received a lot of requests for a discount travel option for those on a budget that need to travel but find Companion Air fares more than they care to spend. As many of you know, there are ground transporters currently available who will transport your Companions for a reasonable fee. For cross-country travel, trips are long and of course, your Companions travel without their families. We have considered offering a ground-based service (kinda like FEDEX offers Ground service) to complement our Airline. If we do, it won’t be a coast-to-coast relocation service but rather would focus on regional transportation where ground travel could be completed in a 24-30 hour window. And of course as with all Companion Air services, it will focus on safe, comfortable pet travel and you can always travel along. Prices would likely be 30-50% less than Companion Air (depending on many factors). So drop me a line (murphy@companionair.com) and let me know what you think. If we take this on, we will likely begin operating the New England to Florida corridor first.

If you aren’t flying the route, what can I do?
We still continue to receive a lot of inquiries asking for our opinion on various pet travel alternatives especially now that embargos are in full force. My best advice is drive if you can, charter an aircraft (we can help) if you can afford the costs, or wait for another time to travel. I know those aren’t always the best options but until Companion Air takes off, there just aren’t too many choices. I’m sorry I can’t recommend a particular commercial airline. Of course, for those tiny friends that can travel in-cabin, that’s still almost like traveling Companion Air.

Our most frequent questions
• Cost - We receive a lot of questions about our sample prices on the site. First let me say that the prices on the site are intended to illustrate what it might cost to fly on Companion Air in the future. Actual prices will be posted when we take flight. A couple things are true.... our prices will be higher than discount airfares and we will offer reduced rates for some type of “standby” travel where travelers can adjust to our aircraft routes. With the samples, and I suspect with our actual prices when we launch, some will think our prices are too high. To help understand why our prices are what they are, let me repeat some of last newsletters explanation. First our plan is to create a unique kind of air transportation company to provide safe, comfortable travel for pets and their families, operating nationwide, with a team that loves animals and is engaged in being in service to their communities. To deliver on those objectives, we chose to fly smaller aircraft. The smaller aircraft allow us to adjust our routes to local airports near our customers, to fly different routes each day, to operate without dedicated ground crews at each airport (since the number of travelers is small enough to be handled by the crew), and to deliver a pleasant on-board experience. Now we recognize that those decisions result in per passenger operating costs that are greater than an airline flying 200 passengers at a time and the result is that our service is premium priced compared with discount carriers. In fact, our fares are probably 4 times as expensive as discount airline fares. In return, we offer simple stress-free boarding through GA terminals, the ability to offer nationwide service with frequent schedules through each region of the country, and safe travel both during the limited time on the ground (and during ground handling) and on-board. And the experience?? Well, while being an animal I admire Noah, I can’t imagine being on the ark or on a 737 filled with all of my friends. Chaos is the only word that comes to mind and the team to handle us on the ground would be pretty large at each stop. So we decided to launch with safe, comfortable small aircraft travel, in big comfortable seats, with wide service coverage. Hopefully we will spawn (I promised to talk about fish in this episode) other airlines who will offer alternative travel approaches .. some cheaper and some more expensive. I hope that all helps explain our market position.
• Coverage – Since major airlines only operate to a small percentage of the airports in the US and Canada and folks still think of commercial airline routes, we receive a lot of questions about service locations. With our flex-scheduling and small aircraft, we can operate from most cities to most cities and our scheduling makes it so you the customer can book flights everywhere. So once again, we will cover almost the entire continental U.S. and Canada so you won’t have to drive hours to reach a Companion Air flight. Really...I mean it.... honest...
• International & Overwater – International and Overwater travelers face the same problems as our domestic customers, in fact even more since driving from Europe to the US is difficult. We would love to fly Companion Air over the “pond” and provide service to Europe, the Caribbean, Hawaii and Asia. That service will require that we operate different, “overwater” aircraft and of course, comply with additional international regulations in many cases. We think there is a great market for overwater and international pet travel so once we have Companion Air operating well, we will look to take on the World. When, you ask....probably 2 years or so after we launch domestically. We’ll hurry....
• Crates – Many pet lovers want to hold their Companions when they fly on Companion Air and question our crate policy. While we understand the desire to comfort your Companions, the safety of our pets and aircraft are our first concern. With unfamiliar pets aboard and a policy of having customers secured as much as possible in case of unexpected turbulence, we do require our pet travelers to fly in crates in the rear of our cabins. They are never out of earshot or sight so you can comfort them and see they are safe but we want to be sure we don’t have a “skirmish” in the cabin or have one of our Pet travelers injured by an unexpected bumps so we keep them secure in their travel homes. Both the FAA and our Insurance providers insist as well. For those of you who have flown Commercially recently, you know that the airlines are working to keep passengers in their seats and “belted” even enroute also. We think that is a great, safe idea and would want nothing less for our Companion travelers. As you comfort your Companions in their crates, please remember that it’s for their safety and the safety of our flights and is certainly better than wondering about how they are doing in the cargo hold.

The Companion Air team
This Spring we lost one of the key members of the Companion Air team. Andy Casanas, one of our Directors and key consultants, was one of the leading experts on flight crew scheduling in the world and was instrumental in refining our “flex-scheduling” model. Andy was also a close friend and unique person who touched everyone around him. Andy died suddenly on March 2nd and leaves a hole in our world. He is missed here at Companion Air but mostly; he is missed by the hundreds of friends around the world that he impacted over the years. I am glad I was fortunate to spend many days and nights with Andy over the years and across the country. Andy came to the US from Cuba just before the revolution and from a humble beginning “on the ramp”, he created the immigrant’s dream that we hear so much about.... a life of great success, friends and freedom. His company provided software and systems to most of the worlds major airlines. He loved aviation and aviation’s people loved him. When Companion Air “takes off”, we will be honoring Andy in a way that is both fitting and meaningful. Till then, we’ll keep a seat in the office and a special place in our hearts for him....

Adventure Flights
If you live in South Florida or have plans to visit, you can enjoy the trip of a lifetime aboard an “Adventure Flight” by Companion Air. Using our small company Piper, we are now offering scenic trips throughout Florida including the Florida Keys, Miami, Naples, Tampa Bay and other Florida destinations. Flights usually depart from South Florida airports but are available across the state. Adventure Flights operate at low altitudes and fly slowly so the views are spectacular. So if you have never experience the beauty of seeing our world through the windshield of a small general aviation aircraft, you have indeed missed something. Adventure Flights make great romantic trips for that special occasion. For more information, see the Adventure Flight page on our web site at http://www.companionair.com/adventure.php.

Charity Support
As many of your know, we have dedicated our Company to providing charity airlift for pets and people in need when our Airline takes off. While we receive a lot of requests for assistance, we don’t yet have the operating or financial capacity to transport the many in need and we hope those of you doing the wonderful rescue work will be patient and understanding. In the meantime, we also support the efforts of Angel Flight and other charitable organizations and encourage others to make a difference in their own communities.

That’s the news from Companion Air!! Hope everyone is having a great, safe summer and enjoying that special bond with your Companions. We’ll talk again soon and until then, remember that while you are in charge of food and baths, we know best what else we need!!

…………Murphy Dog, CAO (Chief Animal Officer), Companion Air Corporation

www.companionair.com