I bet the snacks and legroom aren’t much better on the commercial options… but this seems pretty wasteful regardless. Let intel staff take commercial and let the commercial airlines improve the service on these routes for everybody else
It flew out of a small airport used only for corporate and private planes:
- register for the flight online on company website
- free parking at airport, about a 5 min walk to the small terminal
- show up 15 min before take off, only showing your employee ID
- no security check for baggage
- walk out a door right onto the plane that was 20 ft away
- not a busy airport, so it was pretty much close door, taxi to runway, take off in 5 min
- way better snacks and drinks; legroom was the same as a commuter aircraft, but you could just sit where ever you wanted, no assigned seats
- stops were about 10 min (the shuttle ran a route of 4 cities with major operations) - taxi plane to terminal, throw the trash bags off, let a few passengers get off, a couple get on, close the door, taxi and take off
It was cheaper for the company to operate this service than play commercial rates because the plane was usually >75% full most flights
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/intel-grounds-employee...