ImagineAir was an

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

service headquartered in metro

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. With a service area that covered a majority of the southeastern US, the company operated an average of 5000 flights annually. ImagineAir was often noted for its young management; as founders Aaron Sohacki and Benjamin Hamilton were 19 and 21 respectively when the company was founded, as well as its innovative online aircraft booking system, providing the familiarity of buying an

airline seat An airline seat is a seat on an airliner in which passengers are accommodated for the duration of the journey. Such seats are usually arranged in rows running across the airplane's fuselage. A diagram of such seats in an aircraft is called an ...

on a charter. ImagineAir's business model was based on an industry study of the

Small Aircraft Transportation System {{No footnotes, date=December 2012 The Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) is a joint research project between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), along with local airports ...

(SATS), developed by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

. Implementing a uniform fleet of aircraft and utilizing technology enabled strategies. ImagineAir was a founding member of the Air Taxi Association (ATXA). In 2008, the company reported revenues of US$800,000. In 2015, it had grown to $2.8 million, securing a spot on that year's

Inc. 500 ''Inc.'' is an American business media company founded in 1979 and based in New York City. ''Inc.'' publishes several print magazine issues per year, and is anchored by journalistic content online and on social media, focused on entrepreneurship a ...

History

ImagineAir was founded in November 2005 as ImagineAir Jet Services LLC by Paul Fischer, Aaron Sohacki and Benjamin Hamilton and headquartered at the Gwinnett County Airport near

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. From the beginning it was the intention of the company's founders to fly a network of the Eclipse 500 VLJs; however, delivery delays led ImagineAir to begin operating with Cirrus SR22s. From 2007 through 2012 the company has reported steady quarter over quarter growth, tripling its number of Cirrus aircraft and establishing bases in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, and

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

. In March 2014, ImagineAir announced a merger with the Danbury, Connecticut-based operator Kavoo in an effort to become the first nationwide air taxi carrier. The merger widened ImagineAir's service area to include the entire east coast of the United States and created the largest part 135 air carrier by flight volume. In May 2018, ImagineAir suspended operations as the company’s leadership and advisors were unable to secure the necessary short-term funding to continue operations, nor the long-term funding to scale the company to profitable scale.

Fleet

ImagineAir operated a uniform fleet of

Cirrus SR22 The Cirrus SR22 is a single-engine four- or five-seat composite aircraft built since 2001 by Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It is a development of the Cirrus SR20, with a larger wing, higher fuel capacity and more powerfu ...

aircraft. The Cirrus SR22 is a single-engine, originally four and later five-seat, composite aircraft, built by

Cirrus Aircraft The Cirrus Design Corporation, doing business as Cirrus Aircraft (formally Cirrus Design), is an aircraft design, manufacturing, maintenance and management company, as well as a provider of flight training services, that was founded in 1984 by ...

. The aircraft is perhaps best known for being equipped with the

Cirrus Airframe Parachute System The Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) is a whole-plane ballistic parachute recovery system designed specifically for Cirrus Aircraft's line of general aviation light aircraft including the SR20, SR22 and SF50. The design became the fi ...

(CAPS), an emergency parachute capable of lowering the entire aircraft (and occupants) to the ground in an emergency. * Cirrus SR-22-GTS

References

External links

*
ImagineAir on CNN
{{Airlines of the United States Defunct airlines of the United States Defunct companies based in Georgia (U.S. state) Companies based in Atlanta Airlines established in 2005 Airlines disestablished in 2018 2005 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2018 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)