None URF Destinations 11 CEO Jeff Potter (Feb 2014–) Date of operation 13 June 2013 | URF SURFAIR Website surfair.com Founded 2013 Fleet size 12 | |
 | ||
Commenced operations June 13, 2013 (2013-06-13) Key people Jeff Potter (CEO)
Sudhin Shahani (executive chairman)
Jim Sullivan (senior VP of operations)
Wade Eyerly (Founder)
David Eyerly (Founder)
Reed Farnsworth (Founder)
Scott Porter (Founder)
Peter Bi (Founder)
Cory Cozzens (Founder) Headquarters Santa Monica, California, United States Focus cities Bob Hope Airport, Hawthorne Municipal Airport Founders Wade Eyerly, David Eyerly, Reed Farnsworth, Cory Cozzens, Peter Bi, Scott Craig Porter Profiles | ||
Surf Air is a California-based airline that offers unlimited flights (billed as "all-you-can-fly") for a fixed monthly fee. It charges $1,950 per month plus a $1,000 signup fee. The company uses single-engine turboprop Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. Jeff Potter is the CEO.
Contents
The airline's inaugural service in early 2013 offered West Coast flights between Silicon Valley (San Carlos Airport) and the Los Angeles area (Burbank Airport). It added Los Angeles area service to Santa Barbara Airport in July 2013 and Hawthorne Municipal Airport in December 2013. Truckee Airport, near Lake Tahoe, was added as a destination in May 2014 and flights to Carlsbad and Oakland, California began in late 2014. Service to San Jose International Airport was added in April 2016.
According to its website, as of January 2017, the company services the California cities of Burbank, Carlsbad, Hawthorne, Monterey, Oakland, Napa, Palm Springs, San Carlos, San Jose, Santa Barbara, and Truckee. Surf Air does not operate outside California, but arranges flights to Las Vegas (McCarran International Airport) from Hawthorne Municipal Airport through a FAA/DOT certificated air carrier.
Surf Air is exploring service into the following California destinations: San Diego and Mammoth Lakes
Surf air s success story
History
The company was founded by David Eyerly, Wade Eyerly, Peter Bi, Scott Porter, Cory Cozzens and Reed Farnsworth. Surf Air emerged in 2012 from MuckerLab, a Los Angeles-based business incubator. Angel investors included Paige Craig, Aviv Grill and Bill Woodward. A Series A round of venture capital was completed in June 2013 with investment from Anthem Venture Partners, NEA, TriplePoint Capital, Siemer Ventures, Baroda Ventures, Gilad Elbaz, Eytan Elbaz, Rick Caruso, Jeffrey Stibel, Mike Walsh, and actor Jared Leto. The company has raised at least $9 million from investors, including $500,000 from VegasTechFund (a venture capital fund launched by Tony Hsieh), Velos Partners, and Base Ventures.
In August 2014, Surf Air raised $8 million in new equity funding and secured a $65 million loan to place a five-year order for 15 new Pilatus PC-12 planes, with an option to buy 50 more over that timespan.
In February 2014, Wade Eyerly stepped down as CEO and was replaced by former Frontier Airlines CEO Jeff Potter. At the time, the company had about 430 members. Wade Eyerly, Cory Cozzens and Reed Farnsworth formed Beacon Air in 2015 but shut it down in 2016.
The city of Atherton, California, has complained to the Federal Aviation Administration about noise from the planes flying at low altitude near San Carlos Airport. Pending regulatory approval, Surf Air has reportedly agreed to a different flight path at higher altitude over populated areas near Atherton, Menlo Park, and North Fair Oaks, and has agreed to deploy landing gear closer to the airport.
Surf Air announced the sale of its 2,000th membership in September 2015, 2,500th in December 2015 and 3,000th in June 2016.
In May 2016, Surf Air received 2 additional aircraft phasing out their older legacy PC-12s.
Fleet
As of June 2016, the Surf Air fleet consists of the following aircraft: