Uber-style island airline makes ‘Waves’ across the globe – before it has even launched

Wednesday 20 September 2017

The Channel Islands are the perfect testbed for new technology, the chief executive of an Uber-style air taxi service has said, after revealing that the idea has now been licensed across the globe.

Speaking at an Institute of Directors lunch event yesterday, Nick Magliochetti of fledgling airline Waves, said that Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney were the perfect place to acquire feedback on models and adjust accordingly.

Aiming to capture the 100,000 inter-island customers lost over the last 10 years, on-demand service Waves will allow customers to book flights using a mobile app. Flights to Guernsey will be fixed at £65 each way, while customers will also be able to charter flights to selected locations with Waves selling off the excess seats to minimise their spend.

Operated through private hangars instead of airport terminals, pre-flight time spent in security and departures could be reduced by up to an hour.

Though disruptive in nature, Mr Magliochetti explained that Waves did not endeavour to be a “competitor” to existing services such as Blue Islands or Aurigny, but to provide “something different.”

Pictured: Nick Magliochetti, Chief Executive of fledgling air taxi service Waves.

“We’re going to those 100,000 people and talking to them and the service we provide we hope is attractive to them. So it’s not about taking from the existing market, we’re actually hoping to expand the market,” he said.

While warmly received by the crowd, who speculated in a Q&A session that the service could assist students with heavy university luggage and sports teams that struggle to attend inter-island games due to rising flight costs, the idea appears to have also gained attention much further afield.

The company already have licensing agreements in the United States – one of which is in Southern Florida – as well as in Asia and Australia.

Despite being what was described as many attendees as an “attractive” offer, Waves is still yet to take flight. It had previously been expected to launch in summer of this year, but prospective passengers and investors – of which there are 17 – are still waiting on an official time for take-off.

Mr Magliochetti made assurances, however, that Waves should be both operative and in profit “quite soon” and that it was “growing at a serious rate.” They’re hoping to have nine pilots and three aircraft on board by Christmas and an additional two in 2018.

Questioned over how Waves would cope with initial demand following the hype over the air taxi service’s tech-first approach, Mr Magliochetti said that he was confident that the way in which the technology is built would “mitigate against flooding the market.”

“It’s a bit like a new restaurant in the high street. In the first week, everyone wants to go to it and we want to get as many people seated at that restaurant as quickly as possible. Ultimately we’re starting with one aircraft, but we’ll have another two by the New Year. Having large demand is a great problem for us to have, but we also think we should be able to take control of that quickly,” he said.