Story ID: 103Jan19
Surf Air Pulls Out of Europe
By: Ian Sheppard
Caption: Innovative operator pulls out of Europe after only 18 months as it focuses on U.S. growth.
Word Count: 351
Santa Monica, California-based Surf Air has closed its European operation that was offering an Embraer Phenom 300 operated under Gama Aviation's AOC, with scheduled services from London City Airport. Surf Air’s core model is an all-you-can-fly membership with access to scheduled, "semi-private” flights.

“We shut down the European company last week and have decided to focus on our core markets in the U.S.,” Surf Air chairman and CEO Sudhin Shahani told Doug Gollan of Private Jet Card Comparisons. Surf Air Europe commenced operations in early 2017 from London Luton Airport using a single Embraer Phenom 300, which was operated by FlairJet. Its first routes were to Ibiza and Cannes in the summer, and it added a Zurich connection and wanted to add cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels, and Geneva.

Before starting flights to Zurich it moved its base to London City Airport citing member demand for the decision. The company talked about adding more aircraft, such as Pilatus PC-12NGs, which have formed the core of its U.S. West Coast operation.

Simon Talling-Smith, who joined the company to run its European arm having previously run British Airways’ transatlantic alliance with American Airlines, has also left Surf Air.

Surf Air was started in California in 2013 and has grown steadily linking cities in California and Texas using Pilatus PC-12NGs. The company is “now serving 11 destinations in California and Nevada with many more to come,” according to its website.

Its European operations have not been all plain sailing, however, and early on it decided to contract with third-party operators rather than having its own aircraft. In late October, the company launched a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo ahead of a planned launch of Surf Air Express. It announced this move saying it wanted to “bring semi-private air travel to everyone,” offering “an affordable ‘per-seat’ membership with seat prices comparable to business and last-minute economy fares.”

Surf Air Express flights will begin at the conclusion of the Indiegogo campaign and require an annual membership fee of $2,500. One way flights start at $445.