Travel bookings for November and December are up nearly 70 percent compared to the same period last year for Sentient Jet, the company announced recently. The change reflects “the continued resurgence in private aviation,” according to the company news release. The Sentient Jet fleet accumulated more hours over the summer than it has in the last five summers, the company said. Also, Wheels Up, a new company selling membership-based travel in a fleet of King Air turboprops, said this week it has a new “Uber-like” mobile app in the works that will launch next month. The app will make it easy for travelers to book flights and to share rides, the company said.
Wheels Up is on track to raise nearly $58 million by the end of the year, according to the Boston Business Journal. The new app will allow members to reserve a flight, hitch rides to destinations with other members, partner with other members to share flight costs, and access member-only “shuttle” flights to sports and entertainment events. “Nobody’s ever really married private aviation and technology in a way that’s going to be sticky, long-term and built to last,” Wheels Up founder and CEO Kenny Dichter told the Journal. “That’s what we are going to be able to do.”
