From “California Love” To The California Skies: Fly Air, Inc. And The Future Of Private Aviation

Back in 2018, Fly Air, Inc. Chairman Stuart Bullard saw an opportunity. After a career in the music industry working with rap legends like Dr. Dre, 2Pac, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg, creating hip-hop hits such as “California Love,” “Murder Was The Case,” and “Still DRE.” Bullard began developing a blockchain-based system to book private flights on demand using the application. The app would also go on to query private jets on demand and pay for them with either traditional payments or crypto. He incorporated voice and Artificial Intelligence into the app with the goal of bringing a very traditional aviation industry into the future. 

Fast forward five years, and Fly Air, Inc. is already changing the way travelers interact with the private aviation industry, a $30 billion market. Most people—even the rich—cannot own their own private jet, and legacy charter companies can be slow, unresponsive, and lacking in modern technology solutions. 

Fly Air changes this, in particular, with the use of blockchain technology, which makes numerous services possible. For instance, the ability to allow individuals to split flights with friends and colleagues. Also, many carriers have limited aircraft availability, which leads to a lack of choice. Fly is easy to use. Press the voice-activated button, and request your flight. It’s a welcomed addition to the modern travel technology industry. 

“Show me flights from Miami to New York.” That’s all it takes. 

The app immediately returns flights, prices, and routes, including high-end Learjet options. Once booked, you can see flight entails in the app, including updates. 

Fly Air solves limited aircraft availability by connecting members to top private jet carriers in their region, aggregating data for potential routes, and providing them with the most optimal flights. It solves a lack of a rewards program by bringing the industry into the present through a blockchain-based rewards program. Fly Air makes money by taking a percentage of the reservations made via the platform, as well as by acting as a flight concierge, giving members a unique and personal travel experience. 

“We are faster with more intelligent querying functions than our competition, ” explains Fly Air Chief Operating Officer Brian Santos. “It is cheaper, too, thanks to AI and blockchain integration. The company has three classes of airline available globally, instead of just one, like most operators. It also offers helicopters.”

Santos, an early Bitcoin investor who has worked in the blockchain industry for more than a decade, is also the founder of social news engine UpTweet and Bitcoin Business Alliance, the oldest trade organization in the crypto industry.

The company’s rewards program is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. Earn Fly’s ERC-20 token by frequently flying on the platform. Fly members are available to reserve pay for travel on demand with the flight token. Fly tokens are a progressive rewards program that discounts flights based on members’ total usage of the company’s service rewards. Members level up whenever they surpass Fly’s designated thresholds. The more you fly with Fly Air, the more tokens you earn. The company received a Bermuda monetary authority issuance license for Fly’s air miles program. Fly tokens can be purchased and redeemed for flights and also get listed on the exchange. 

Rewards are distributed to members who use the app frequently. Members who use Fly rewards will have added benefits like discounted flights, priority access to all inventory, and hand-in-glove customer service. 

“The rewards are progressive, with a model similar to HotelTonight, where the more you fly, the more Fly tokens you earn through the app,” explains Santos. “The miles never expire, unlike traditional air miles.” Moreover, the tokens cannot be inflated, as the limited supply of one billion Fly tokens creates natural scarcity.

How Does It Work? 

When you log into the Fly app, you’re greeted with seven buttons. The first button is the trending routes button, an algorithm that picks up all the top flights on the Fly system. Members can immediately book those flights. There is also an option for group flights. 

Fly already has revenue. “It validates the need for our app,” said Santos. “We’re raising more capital because we want to expand and develop a peer-to-peer ecosystem so people can source flights from other people within the community.” 

Thanks to a business development deal with Stripe, Fly Air can do up to a million-dollar credit card transactions. Moreover, voice-integrated artificial intelligence connects users to more than 3,600 planes around the world with a powerful algorithm. 

“This is a moving rotating fleet,” said Santos. “That means that a plane could be in Texas one day and Paris the next.”

With the Fly App, Fly Air is introducing many back-office innovations to a traditional industry. For instance, streamlining the process of booking dependable charter flights. “We’ve simplified the process of communicating with fixed base operators by incorporating modern technology,” explains Santos. “We’re typically much cheaper than anything else that’s available out there.” 

Blockchain in the Aviation Industry 

Furthermore, Fly has done millions of dollars in the crypto business. “When somebody sends you $100,000, in Bitcoin, you have to figure out a way to pay the operator in dollars. We’ve developed solutions for that.” 

The company has two legal opinion letters regarding its Fly rewards program. “They’re both positive,” said Santos. “We also have a license from the Bermuda monetary authority, including an opinion letter from Walker’s, the top law firm in Bermuda. Bermuda is one of the first countries in the world with their own blockchain legislation.”

He adds: “They are welcoming companies into their island nation. But, they have extremely high standards. They don’t just give licenses out to anybody. And then, after we became fully licensed, we went into the exchange listing process. US exchanges were really impressed with what we had built in Bermuda, but they wanted to make sure that it passed muster in the US, as well.” 

Fly Air, therefore, retained another top law firm in the US. “The US opinion letter, coupled with the fact that we’re an international company out of Bermuda with a monetary license, and the fact that we’ve only been raising so far from accredited investors, goes to show how serious we are taking everything,” said Santos. 

Fly Air Today

The company maintains relationships with data aggregators, as well as forged a million-dollar processing deal with Stripe. The company also appeared at major events, including Sundance, ArtBasel, private celebrity parties, and elite crypto conferences. The company currently serves numerous VIP celebrity clients. 

While we talk, Santos shows me how the app works. He searches for a flight from New York to Miami. He finds a seven-passenger Learjet 35 for $15,000. Once the order has been submitted, he receives an email from Fly Air with the flight information. 

“This is a product that’s in production in the real world,” said Santos, pointing to the Apple app store on his phone. “The Fly App essentially allows you to book private jet travel instantly, anywhere in the world. The rewards associated with travel are given to people on a flight by flight basis. So every time you travel, you earn fly tokens. This is a first of its kind, and something much needed in private aviation.”