Liftoff! Beacon launches unlimited NYC to Boston flight service

Ask for all-you-can-fly New York to Boston flights, and you shall receive. After announcing its intention to ferry very frequent fliers back and forth from Beantown to the Big Apple on its three members-only jets earlier this summer, non-airline Beacon officially flew its first flight this week.

Co-founder and CEO Wade Eyerly explains the move into an already crowded regional transportation network:

"We're an all you-can-fly subscription service, connecting New York and Boston...With our service, I'm only two hours from the Boston Common and that difference is most meaningful to people who go back and forth all the time. I save four hours on a round trip, or two hours each way; that turns overnight trips into day trips, that turns a day trip into home by dinner or in time for Little League and that really is life-altering change."

Beacon's service is hardly for the casual commuter. A year of Beacon will set passengers back $25,000. The company sees itself as providing memberships comparable to those of a country club, as opposed to operating a traditional airline. Cultivating the right clientele, as opposed to getting butts into seats at any cost, is the name of the game.

Beacon currently flies 12 flights per day on its three jets operated by Dynamic Aviation out of Bridgewater, though they have the capacity to run 18 flights without adding more jets. And much like the Acela route connecting business travelers along the Northeast corridor, the company says extending a leg to Washington D.C. is a logical next step.

Everly also explains that all-you-can-fly doesn't work quite the same as all-you-can-eat:

"What we’ve learned is that we're not really an all-you-can-eat buffet. For the people that fly all the time, flying isn't a privilege, flying isn't a joy. Flying is a chore. The phrase we use around the office is, all-you-can laundry doesn't make you wash more laundry."

Eyeing the future, Beacon has identified 44 additional highly commuted routes that it one day seeks to expand service to. But for now, the company is excited to finally get its wheels and wings off the ground.