The ride-sharing model used by companies like Uber and Lyft will have to stay out of the sky for now. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against reviewing the FAA's decision that pilots using flight-sharing platform Flytenow need commercial licenses.
Flytnenow sued the FAA in September because the agency's licensing decision would unravel its business model. The air travel platform industry worked similarly to UberX, Lyft or Airbnb. Startups like Flytenow and Airpooler provided a platform to let customers find private pilots with spare seats on their planes, paying part of the flight costs to get a ride to a pre-determined location. The FAA ruled that this counts as advertising and getting compensation, making it a commercial, not a private flight. Pilots need a different and much more difficult to get operating license for commercial flights. Flytenow claimed that what it does is legal under rules that let passengers share expenses with private pilots
But the court said it agreed with the FAA that the pilots were breaking the rules and representing themselves as commercial pilots. The justification for why its different from a pilot offering the expense-sharing to a small group as opposed to on the platform is because it may lead to groups flying with a pilot who doesn't have the experience and training of a commercial pilot that could be necessary for safety reasons.
If some of this sound familiar, it's because its the same kind of definition fight that the rest of the sharing economy is facing. The difference is that the FAA has a lot more say about regulating flights, and can do so on a national level as opposed to the state and local regulations that Uber or Airbnb deal with, with lower stakes.
The court's ruling may not be the end of the matter. Reps. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Ma.) and Todd Rotika (R-In.) sent a letter asking the FAA to work out ways to make companies like Flytenow legal.
“Congressman Kennedy believes that as the FAA ensures the safety of air travelers, the agency must also establish rules and regulations that spur innovation and create jobs.”
“Congressman Kennedy believes that as the FAA ensures the safety of air travelers, the agency must also establish rules and regulations that spur innovation and create jobs,” a spokesman for Kennedy told DC Inno.
Lawmakers may decide to legislate a way to acocmoadate these startups, but wont' In the short-term though, Flytenow and its legal backer, the conservative Goldwater Institute, will have to see if they can work out a way around the regulations or somehow get the issue into a courtroom. Maybe next year you'll fly home in a private plane, but you'll have to stick to commercial this year.
