Attendees to
The Beat Live may have heard that Short's Travel Management president David LeCompte flew there, himself, with his own plane. This officially made him the coolest travel professional in Cleveland. (And he's from Iowa!) As a travel industry reporter, it's sort of odd to me that I would be impressed by a pilot, but then again there are just not that many travel management types who also fly. Anyway, LeCompte has taken his passion into an investment in an air taxi company, a line of business that not too many TMCs get into.
LeCompte hired a whiz-kid entrepreneur to run the business, and LeCompte doesn't himself fly the planes (not enough hours yet to fly passengers). But he does see some synergies with the TMC. For example, he's in the development queue for BookingBuilder Technologies, potentially enabling agents to make air taxi bookings alongside commercial options. It was the lack of commercial options in the first place that prompted LeCompte's interest in air taxi--a cousin of general aviation, charters and corporate aircraft. "I know what it is like to deal with long layovers, drive four to five hours to get to your destination, or to get up a 3 a.m. to catch a 6 a.m. flight," according to LeCompte, whose air taxi firm is called Midwest Air Taxi. "I wanted to be able to spend more time with my family and less time traveling."
The on-demand, point-to-point service using the Cirrus SR-22 with three passenger seats offers three models: individual use (highest price); individual use open to shares (divides cost); and scheduled ride share with two other passengers (only flies if three passengers buy). LeCompte is developing an improved "ride share" Web site to manage scheduling. Midwest Air Taxi serves more than 230 airports in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Short's Travel Management's David LeCompte in the cockpit.
A personalized ride.