to more people,” he remarked. “We want to arrive at a point where the price becomes more competitive with flying on scheduled regional airlines, but I have to tell you, we have a long way to go to do that.” Most travel in the U.S. is by car and within 300 miles of home, which is reflective of Hopscotch Air’s geographical focus—primar- ily to destinations within New York, as well as the New England states. “Most of our trips are within 200- 300 miles, although we have done some as far west as Chicago and south as far as Charleston, South Carolina,” he added. “We’ve also been flying cross-border trips into Canada, mainly to Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City, since 2010.” At this time, Hopscotch Air’s traffic is heavily weighted to high- end leisure travel which accounts for 70 percent of the business, with a considerable amount of flying to places such as Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Provincetown in Massachusetts; and Burlington, Vermont. The bulk of the business is between May and October, when daily utilization per aircraft could be as much as six to 10 legs per day. “That represents a challenge because those are very seasonal destinations,” Schmertz noted. “To address this, we are working to build up the day trip business trav- eler market, which is more typical of winter travel patterns, when our utilization can be as little as a few legs per week, per plane. The goal is to build volume to the point where we land the aircraft, take on pas- sengers, and go–throughout the day and year-round. That is the gold standard of the air taxi business.” Under current planning, the Cirrus SR 20/22 will remain Hopscotch Air’s workhorse aircraft for a num- ber of reasons, including the fact that, as a licensed private pilot, Schmertz has flown the airplane and is impressed by its performance. “From an operational stand- point, it is excellent, and the right aircraft for our business model,” he stated. “The SR 22/20 is com- fortable to ride in, and is equipped with the whole-plane emergency parachute, which is a major sell- ing point to our customers.” He also cited the aircraft’s mod- ern Garmin G 1000 EFIS flight deck, and its Garmin GFC 700 3-axis autopilot, which permits single pilot operation under the company’s Part 135 certificate. “It is also certified to fly into known icing conditions, and is WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) capable,” Schmertz noted. A ground-based/GPS combina- tion system, WAAS enables the aircraft to perform precision approaches at airports without an installed—or non-operating—ILS. “The aircraft’s operational enve- lope, combined with its comfort and safety levels, fit our customer profile,” he remarked, adding that all are currently equipped with, or are about to be retrofitted, with ADS-B Out equipage. Modifications, as well as all other airframe and powerplant maintenance on the fleet are carried out by Nassau Flyers, a neighboring Cirrus factory- authorized service center at FRG. Going forward, Hopscotch Air may not continue as an exclusive SR 22/20 operation. Not sur- prisingly, consideration is being focused on Cirrus’ latest product, the single-jet-engine Vision SF 50. “We are, in fact, in ongoing conversations with Cirrus about adding the Vision Jet. If we deter- mine it’s the right tool for our air taxi model, we would be very interested,” said Schmertz. Since commencing operations, Hopscotch Air has seen annual double-digit growth. For instance, Continued on page 46 Aviation Business Journal | 2nd Quarter 2018 45
