By CHRISTOPHER LANCETTE
Gwinnett Business Journal
Published on: 02/05/07

Ahhh, that new plane smell.

The founders of a personal airline preparing to launch from the county airport in Lawrenceville hope its passengers love that scent - and a new way of traveling. Set to take flight as soon as it receives a final bit of paperwork from the FAA, Imagine Air and its fleet of shiny planes with BMW-crafted leather interiors will begin providing what it deems a different kind of charter service.

Its goal?

"We want to get people to their destinations very quickly and efficiently, and at a lower cost than typical private flights," says Aaron Sohacki, who created the company with partner Ben Hamilton.

The two pilots and recent Georgia Tech graduates jumped on the business opportunity after a NASA-lead study identified the Atlanta area as a great candidate for air taxi service. With financial support from a private investor and personnel additions including veteran financial officers and Delta pilots, the duo seeks to carve out its own niche in the charter flight industry. They will be targeting the top 10 percent of income earners, rather than the top 1 percent they say charter services typically appeal to. (A large chunk of that demographic works for mid-sized companies, which will be the target of much of their initial marketing efforts.) The entrepreneurs explain that the lower costs are a result of buying new aircraft that are smaller and less expensive but technically superior to those of many charter air carriers.

And unlike many of their competitors who only provide flight estimates by phone based on the expected duration a plane will be in use, Imagine Air passengers will be able to book flights online in seconds - with exact prices. The airline designed the necessary software itself.

Economics, though, are just one of the hurdles Imagine Air has to clear. It also has to compete against established charter airlines including Arrive Air Service, Georgia Jet, and Players Air. The other major obstacles involve convincing executives to give charter service a try, and making them realize that flying in small propeller-driven and jet planes is safe and enjoyable.

"People are conditioned to driving," Hamilton says. "They will spend a lot of time driving. If they live in Lawrenceville and they have a meeting in Americus, they're going to drive. Our technology makes it affordable for people to travel point to point. They can drive to Briscoe Field (or one of metro Atlanta's other small airports), park 20 feet from the plane, and go straight to their destination."

Sohacki adds that such a flight beats the option of "driving to the Atlanta airport, standing in line, taking your shoes off" and the other hassles of flying commercial.

The costs involved are off-set by several factors, he notes. For example, a one-way flight to Destin, Fla., sells for $1,019 at press time. But that's the fee for the plane, not individual passengers. If two colleagues are on the flight, the per-person cost obviously drops. (The airline's current planes carry a maximum of three passengers. Jets arriving in about a year will have room for up to five.) Consider the value of the time spent in the car each way plus hotel stays and meals, Sohacki says, and charter flights become an even better value ... and one that multiplies when travelers need to visit several cities on one trip.

Still, it's not necessarily the efficiency of such a trip that is its biggest selling point.

"It's what you can do with the time you're not traveling," Sohacki says. "You can go somewhere, conduct your business, and be home in time for dinner. You don't have to miss your kid's soccer game because you didn't make it back in time."

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Imagine Air Jet Services's proposed service and any statements made in connection therewith are subject to the receipt of operating authority from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation under Title 49 of United States Code.

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