Business has been good for a relatively young all-you-can-fly private airline operating out of the Santa Barbara Airport, which will soon add more flights and destinations from which to choose.
After nearly two years of offering the membership-based charter service in Santa Barbara, Surf Air will add more flights to popular locations in the Bay Area and elsewhere — for business and for pleasure.
Chief among expansion plans for the Santa Monica-based airline is adding a trip from the Santa Barbara Airport to McClellan Airport near Sacramento beginning Aug. 3 and scheduling more flights in its first-class Pilatus eight-seat aircraft to San Carlos and Oakland airports in the Bay Area.
Surf Air added a new weekend service to Napa County Airport last month.
With 11 California cities and counting, Surf Air is taking stock of what works, and CEO Jeff Potter told Noozhawk the numbers show Santa Barbara is the air service’s top market, tied with San Carlos.
“From our perspective, Santa Barbara is kind of the ideal type of market,” Potter said. “We’ve had such great reception. We’ve seen constant membership growth.”
Surf Air has more than 300 Santa Barbara-based members, making up nearly 20 percent of the company’s total 1,600 members, according to company data.
More than 10,000 passengers have flown out of Santa Barbara Airport since August 2013, and Surf Air has seen a 35 percent increase in that number since then.
Unlimited flight memberships start at $1,750 per month with a $1,000 initiation fee, with plans including monthly, annual with guest privileges and group plans for families or companies.
A majority of local members fly Monday through Friday for business, but Potter said the company is also looking to extend into the leisure market — i.e., Napa and Monterey.
Right now, Surf Air offers up to 10 daily flights from Santa Barbara to San Carlos, Oakland, Hawthorne in the LA metro area, Carlsbad and Napa.
The air service added a third daily weekday flight to Oakland this month, and San Carlos service will expand from four to six flights beginning June 29.
Surf Air has found a niche in Santa Barbara, said Aaron Mueller, general manager of Atlantic Aviation, the hangar where Surf Air operates.
“It seems to be going very well,” Mueller said. “It’s good for the business folks. We’re happy to have them in our location.”
Santa Barbara Airport serves more destinations than any other Surf Air market, Potter said, noting most choose the service for convenience and reliability.
Since its launch in summer 2013, Surf Air has tweaked its pricing model and now allows flights at 60 percent capacity instead of holding out for more than 80 percent, said Potter, a former Frontier Airlines CEO who took the same job at Surf Air in early 2014.
“We’re fulfilling a need,” Potter said. “If it’s full all the time, you start to lose a little bit of that experience that we’re trying to provide for consumers.”
He said Surf Air expects to boast a fleet of 65 aircrafts over the next five years — there are six so far — with plans to expand to Santa Ana, San Diego, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Mammoth Lakes and Bakersfield.
— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.