The company started with three planes and in two years has expanded to 18. VeriJet has also built a crew of 40 skilled pilots in that time period. To be hired, the aviators need 1,500 hours of flight time and an airline-transport-pilot certificate.
Taylor Rains/Insider
VeriJet’s founder and CEO, Richard Kane, told Insider his company chose the Vision Jet because of the single-engine business plane’s safety and high efficiency.
Taylor Rains/Insider
With a list price of $3-$3.5 million, depending on the model, the Vision Jet is the cheapest private plane on the market; but it doesn’t skimp on comfort and performance.
Taylor Rains/Insider
According to Kane, the Vision Jet can fly at Mach 0.53 and has a range of 1,277 nautical miles, or 1,470 miles. This means it can easily connect small cities in the US that commercial airlines don’t.
Taylor Rains/Insider
Major airlines typically fly through a central hub before heading to smaller markets such as Huntsville, Alabama, or Cody, Wyoming. Kane told Insider one of his customers lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which has an airport that isn’t served by any airlines.
Taylor Rains/Insider
Instead of driving an hour northeast to Birmingham and flying out via a hub, customers use VeriJet to travel directly from Tuscaloosa to their destination. Moreover, the client can fly out to a meeting and back on the same day.
Tuscaloosa Airport
Kane told Insider that VeriJet charters cost $3,000 an hour with no repositioning fee within 700 miles of their Santa Monica, California, base.
Taylor Rains/Insider
That drops to $2,750 with the company’s jet card when the buyer commits to 100 hours.
Taylor Rains/Insider
While VeriJet may be more expensive than flying commercial, Kane says those who can afford it find the convenience and time saved worth the money.
Taylor Rains/Insider
Insider took a demo flight on one of VeriJet’s Vision Jets with Kane as the pilot to see what passengers could expect. Take a look.
Taylor Rains/Insider
I met up with the CEO at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on a Friday for the demo.
Taylor Rains/Insider
We departed out of Three Wing Aviation, which is one of the airport’s fixed-based operators that provide things like fuel and maintenance to general aviation planes.
Taylor Rains/Insider
Kane emphasized that the single-engine was safe and said the system emailed status information to the pilot after every flight, indicating whether the engine needed maintenance.
Taylor Rains/Insider