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Comment by tschwimmer | Hacker News Reader

Not sure the target market is for this since it's between airports. The Palo Alto to SFO one doesn't really help you get into the city because much of the traffic you'd have to drive through is between SFO and downtown. I guess they couldn't get rights to land somewhere downtown (after a bit of research it actually looks like there are no active heliports in SF except one at UCSF in the Dogpatch. Color me unsurprised.) Maybe this is useful if you are really really rich and want to skip some traffic between South Bay and the airport, but doesn't make much sense to me.

The only thing that is moderately interesting to someone that's not a billionaire are the flights to Napa. At first I thought it was competing with some of the wine tasting buses that drive up and back but they only do 2 flights a week (Friday-Monday). That implies a weekend trip. I guess that make sense.

Overall, seems not super useful. I guess I am not the target demographic.

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Off topic but you may find this interesting: https://www.jsx.com/destinations

I hope we see more of this type of alternative options...opt-out of TSA (until its so big it gets attention), P2P, nimble, small-scale.

Need to fly the in-laws who are old up to the Bay Area for Xmas. Just checked the schedule for this. No flights flying on the 23rd. Alaska air it is.

>> Now book flights through December 18, 2019

> The Palo Alto to SFO one doesn't really help you get into the city because much of the traffic you'd have to drive through is between SFO and downtown

I don't think they target PA<->SF traffic. This looks more like a last mile connection for people who want to get to Palo Alto, from outside of bay area. Given how many VCs are there, there's some potential market for it.

Still, PAO is not close to Stanford nor Sand Hill offices if you have to drive through congestion to get there. It would be faster to Uber from SFO to Palo Alto via 280 once you factor in getting on/off your shared helicopter ride.

I met a guy who commuted daily from Hollister to PAO with a plane he flew. With offices a bit further north, I could see SFO being the best option for him.

Checking Google Maps:

1) SFO to Downtown PA: 30 mins 2) Palo Alto Airport to Downtown PA: 15 minutes

for $250 one way? Better be some pretty good VCs/Lawyers to pay an extra ~$400 round trip.

I've flown a Cessna 182 into KPAO from Livermore for a couple of VC meetings. It takes about 20 minutes (mostly taxiing time). At rush hour getting between downtown and the airport (and waiting for the Lyft to get to the airport) usually took longer than the flight. Still better than a 2 hour drive though.

30min outside of rush hours. More like 1h in rush hours. If they can also cut down time needed to walk around SFO, it could be probably 1h+ win.

I'm not saying that this is a good business and they'll have lots of clients. But there's some possibility of it.

Building a heliport or just using a yacht with a helipad in the bay just off of SF would be cool. They could use a speed boat to ferry to shore, plus less concern about noise.

SFO or SJC to PA are useful is your office is in PA/Menlo.

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