Flapper is a

vehicle for hire A vehicle for hire is a vehicle providing private transport or shared transport for a fee, in which passengers are generally free to choose their points or approximate points of origin and destination, unlike public transport, and which the ...

company headquartered in Belo Horizonte,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Flapper operates a private aviation marketplace which provides per-seat bookings as well as whole aircraft charters.

Company history

Flapper was established in early 2016. The idea of an "Uber of Executive Aviation" was conceived of by Sergey Terentyev (CEO Qiwi), Arthur Vizin, Iago Senefonte, and William Oliveira, all employees of NASDAQ listed fintech Qiwi, who together founded the company with CEO Paul Malicki. Brazilian startup accelerator ACE was the first to inject resources into Flapper, and in the middle of 2018 other investors, including Brazilian fund manager Confrapar, led its seed investment. As of December 2018, the company has accrued million in funding.

Operations

Booking platform

A passenger can book a seat through a smartphone app, which also enables users to charter an entire plane or helicopter on demand. Users select their departure and destination, number of seats, travel time and the best time for flights. Users can also check each aircraft's certificates of airworthiness and maintenance, verify their aeronautical and civil liability insurance, and verify each company's certification by the

National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil The National Civil Aviation Agency (''Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil'' in Portuguese), also known as ANAC, is the Brazilian civil aviation authority, created in 2005. It is headquartered in the Edifício Parque Cidade Corporate in Brasília ...

. In mid-2018, Malicki reported that Flapper’s per-seat booking revenue on shared flights provided about 50 percent of its revenue at that time, with charters providing the rest. Flapper generates about 80 percent of its revenue from its mobile-device app.

Payments

Users can pay via credit card and have the option to break the payment into three installments.

Future plans

In October 2018 it was reported that Flapper is planning on adding electric helicopters to its flight sharing service, predicted to begin in 2021.

References

{{Airlines of Brazil Airlines of Brazil Airlines established in 2016 Charter airlines