By David F. Rooney
Jump On, a company that wants to hire idle aircraft from charter airlines at deeply discounted rates so it can fly visitors to Revelstoke is seeking crowd funding from interested investors, says promoter Jean Marc LaFlamme.
He told Council that there are several charter airlines in Alberta, ranging from corporate jets to Boeing 737s, that move oilfield workers from Calgary and Edmonton to Fort McMurray and back from Monday to Thursday; however, many of these aircrafts sit idle on the weekends, a time when consumer airfares are at their highest.
Jump On wants to take advantage of those aircraft that are idle on weekends and use them to fly skiers and other visitors here.
Flights would only depart when a minimum number of seats are sold. That’s the Jumping Point. To help make the flight a go, customers are encouraged to get their friends to sign onto the flight, too, LaFlamme said.
“We’re looking for $50,000 to $100,000 from accredited investors in British Columbia and from anyone in Alberta,” he told City Council during its regular meeting on Tuesday, July 22. (Please click here to learn more about investing in Jump On.)
Jump On was started last year and hasn’t yet managed to send a flight to Revelstoke but LaFlamme maintains that flights here from Vancouver or Calgary “will bolster the economy.”
A document he provided Council claimed Revelstoke was comparable to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a major resort city in the United States that has a population of 10,000 people — almost double Revelstoke’s population — that sees 540,000 people arriving and departing though its airport.
That may well be but Jackson Hole is not in a narrow mountain valley but on a plain. Nor is it located beside a marsh that is along a major flyway for migratory birds.
It is also not a working-class town like Revelstoke but a playground for the ultra-rich. Teton County, where Jackson Hole is located, is the second wealthiest county in the United States with a per capita income of $129,956 US.
Please click here to read LaFlamme’s document, Air Travel Community Economic Impact.
Please click here to visit the Jump On website.