Future Aviation: AirShare aims to make joy flights more affordable

Two Brisbane blokes have the likes of Uber in their sites and hope their plan to take ridesharing into the clouds will take off. Their plan could also pay-off big time for Aussie tourism operators.

Two Brisbane mates hope their plan to take ridesharing into the clouds will take off.

Gauranga Margriplis and Jack Buscombe, both 25, founded local start-up AirShare a year ago with the idea of making joy flights more affordable for tourists.

The pair met at Immanuel Lutheran College on the Sunshine Coast and were housemates through university.

Margriplis studied aviation at Griffith University, while Buscombe undertook commerce and economics at the University of Queensland.

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Margriplis was doing flight training when the idea for AirShare came to him.

“I was watching (business reality show) Shark Tank and it made me want to create something,” he said.

“I’d just got my pilot licence and could see there was an opportunity in the market for something like this.”

AirShare promises to save customers money by working with flight operators to sell off spare seats on helicopter and scenic flights around Australia.

Their website offers everything from “cheap spots on joyflights” over Brisbane from $69, to seaplane flights in Sydney.

Jack Buscombe and Gauranga Magriplis with a Robinson R44 at Archerfield. Pictures: Annette Dew

Margriplis said half their bookings were for flights in Brisbane, while Airlie Beach and Uluru were also popular spots.

“Normally when someone books one of these services they have to pay for an entire aircraft,” Margriplis said.

“We rideshare an aircraft so we can cost-share it also.

“In the scenic (flight) market about 33 per cent of the 250,000 flights every year have latent capacity. Charter flights have about 90 per cent latent capacity, they just take someone from A to B and many of them return empty.

“We’re aiming to build it into a fully automated system with charter operators, with real-time availability.

“And the dream would be to link into an Expedia or Flight Centre so that when tourists arrive they get offered a scenic or chartered flight in Brisbane with a local business operator.

“What this means is that each tourist travelling to Brisbane International Airport will be given the option to book a scenic helicopter flight adventure when booking their airline ticket.”

The AirShare founders are based in Brisbane.

A year into business, Margriplis said the two-man AirShare operation was nearing profitability.

They operate out of Fishburners in the Brisbane CBD, a co-working space for start-ups.

Margriplis said they needed to be turning over just under $10,000 a month, which equates to about 30 cheaper flights a month, to cover costs and for each to earn a wage. It’s a target he says they’ll reach by Christmas.

See airshare.com.au