I don't want a self-driving car either. I enjoy driving. I like to be in control.
But for commercial purposes, self-driving cars are inevitable, of course.
But for commercial purposes, self-driving cars are inevitable, of course.
When I poke around Google flights at my common trips, it's hard to estimate tightly the cost of a first class ticket, but it seems around $1/mi for most of my routes (some Carribean routes are much cheaper than that). There's no way to operate a jet for that amount. Even if you take a family of four (where the personal airplane cost doesn't go up much, but the first class tickets obviously do), you can't quite cover even the variable costs of the Cirrus SF50 (the cheapest variable cost jet). That doesn't leave anything for maintenance, positioning flights (which require crew), capital costs, insurance, hangaring while not rented, training, or profit for the rental outfit.
I'd love to be proven wrong, because I'm absolutely in the target market for even a $2/mi all-in rental jet (and already have the pilot quals/hours to qualify, except for the type-specific type-rating). I doubt it can be done for under $8/mi to the end user.