Britain’s first Uber-style flight service which will see people order PLANES from their phones is expected to launch this year.
The service, brainchild of an Italian tech-millionaire, will see customers order flights for as little as £55 via an online app and leave within 30 MINUTES of booking.
Waves airline, expected to start commercial flights in July, will be launched on the Channel Islands – but creator Nick Magliocchetti, 38, is hoping it will eventually be used throughout the UK.
“We will run scheduled flights and booked flights as well,” said Mr Magliochetti.
“When you book a flight, we will ask whether you would like other people to share the flight with you. If you do, we will add the flight to our schedule and other people will be able to book onto it. If not, you will need to pay for the cost yourself.”
The £5 million project has been launched following a wave of dissatisfaction with current flights to mainland UK from Jersey and Guernsey.
Three 14-seater aircrafts would be used initially to transport customers and would operate out of private hangars.
Flights will provide inter-island connections – as well as trips to the south of England and France for as little as £55 per leg.
Mr Magliochetti says the project has backing from investors from Jersey and Guernsey.
“We consider it to be an inter-island project,” said Mr Magliochetti.
“We expect the capitalisation for the project to be £5 million this year.”
Waves will also shave hours off journey times due to the use of private hangars, according to Mr Magliochetti.
“The flight times will be a few minutes longer, but when you think that you no longer spend all that time going through airport security and check-in, then it doesn’t matter,” he said.
“You can save yourself up to maybe two hours by avoiding that. We hope to have three planes running by August, September or October.
“And hopefully next year we will be buying bigger planes in the first quarter of 2018 and we will be doing flights to places like Marrakech, Paris or the south of France.”
