The WingTips’ Story.
A back-of-the-napkin concept became the foundation of WingTips.
Over the past several years, the idea for WingTips has been the focus of founder Mike Azzarello. What started as a brain puzzle to discuss over lunch with a friend who is a Ph.D. in Operations Research became the foundation of the business.
Those brainstorming sessions fueled Mike’s single-minded belief that regional air travel could solve multiple challenges encountered with air transportation services available today. His personal and professional experiences shaped his perspective on regional air transportation.
As a private pilot, father, and self-proclaimed technology nerd, Mike’s own experience provided a view into the consumer pain points and the provider’s potential solutions to a problem that seemed like a no-brainer to solve.
The idea for WingTips was sparked by Mike’s regional flying as a private pilot, the hassle he encountered when flying commercial airlines for business, and the number of hours spent driving up and down the California highway to visit his daughter in college. Mike recognized that the 100- to 400-mile trips could be solved by a regional air transportation solution that didn’t exist.
He was living through the same pain points as thousands of others who were spending countless unproductive hours behind the wheel because commercial carriers do not fly many regional routes or hours driving to large airports to wait more hours for flights that were less than an hour long.
Like many start-up stories, once his imagination was sparked, Mike spent the next few years testing and refining his vision toward the solutions to form the current WingTips business model.
Navigating multiple twists and turns.
Mike has navigated the business twists and turns using multiple proofs-of-concept tests to answer challenging questions about aggregating passenger demand and operating aircraft more efficiently.
1. Is there a market for per-seat air charter? WingTips' in-market test proved the viability of this business, followed by a NASA / Georgia Tech study about city pairs, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was indeed a huge market.
2. Do we have a unique proposition where operating expenses can be managed efficiently in a notoriously capital-intensive business? It didn’t exist, so we built it. The proprietary WingTips software solves both the challenge of aggregating customer demand and maintaining operational efficiencies needed to keep seat costs competitive.
3. Is the timing right for this business? Publicly announced plans by the major carriers confirm that the industry is moving toward regional air travel.*
Mastering the pivot.
From a back of the napkin idea sessions to a website and then an app, Mike wrote database programs to test ideas on scaling as the business evolved. A driving force for WingTips has been the availability of Big Data and the tools to use it, along with research on decision support strategies.
With a background in behavioral economics, Mike’s vision was grounded in data analysis, leading him to devise a series of proofs-of-concept tests to refine the business model. WingTips has been investing, researching, and adapting to create its five-pillar business plan that emerged from these efforts.
Accelerated by a new FAA rule allowing operators to sell individual seats on charter flights, the WingTips vision came into focus. Mike determined that the ability to aggregate individual traveler-interest data on a large scale would be the key to making per-seat charter work and set out to test the idea's validity.
The idea was simple, but the execution was complex.
WingTips started with a website and a small amount of marketing, and Mike quickly realized the complexity of the problem was significantly more extensive than initially thought. The primary challenge Mike identified is that the concept is simple, but the execution will be complex because delivering simplicity for consumers will take a lot of work.
“It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions.”
— Steve Jobs
It would require large amounts of data to be processed continually and a flexible aviation operation to adapt and keep costs down. What emerged was the need for custom software as the number one priority for the next stage of the business.
After significant amounts of research and raising seed funding, development began. They needed to build a software platform that allowed passengers to enter their flight requests and indicate if they had flexibility in the day or time of travel.
Aggregating passengers and operating aircraft more efficiently.
The programming that powers the WingTips data engine was designed by Mike and Ryan Bird, a physics student at UT Austin, ruminating over the idea they believed to be the core requirement to developing a regional private per-seat flying option for the masses. Along with this, a physics and Big Data subject matter expert, Mike, and the team used historical charter data to model many operations assumptions for aggregating passengers and operating aircraft more efficiently.
The WingTips team and the algorithm were enhanced by tapping into industry pioneers who served as mentors. Laurie Garrow was introduced to Mike through Bruce Holmes. Bruce was a NASA strategist on the Small Aircraft Transport project and a co-founder of DayJet. Then he started a firm for Regional Air demand forecasting. He engaged Laurie for her expertise in air travel demand forecasting at the airport level, down to airport pairs by day.
The resulting custom WingTips software debuted with an updated website in 2021 to prove the existence of the market. Even with this modest implementation of the technology, the in-market test proved that the custom technology would capture and aggregate consumer demand and support flexible operations decisions to manage costs.
A targeted digital marketing effort simultaneously focused on travelers attending the Coachella Music Festival. That marketing test proved the consumer price point threshold. Unlocking the proven customer price point of $2 per mile makes per-seat private flying affordable for more than 50% of the population.** It is game-changing for regional air mobility.
“The right way, not the easy way” has been a theme throughout every pivot we’ve made on the WingTips journey. We never shy away from solutions that seem hard if they are the right solution; that is the direction we go. We break problems down, simplify, gather knowledge from various sources, and find solutions every time.”
— Mike Azzarello
The need to take this approach was evident when the team ran our very first Minimally Viable Product. The obstacles to a scalable system were immense. They tried the simple solutions at first, and they all failed. They used business savvy and problem-solving skills to tackle challenges one at a time, starting with becoming an air charter broker, gaining experience, and learning from the mistakes of other operators in the private charter space.
The 5 pillars of the WingTips’ business model.
The insights gained from proofs-of-concept tests have evolved into the pillars of the WingTips business plan.
Provide service to regional airports currently not offered by commercial airlines
Manage and match up flight demand
Flexibly deploy air carrier solutions to meet demand
Deliver concierge-level service for guests
Provide travelers with a frictionless and affordable solution to regional travel
Mike’s vision was to offer individual seat sales on charter flights, with top-notch concierge-level service that gets travelers where they need to be 4x faster than driving or flying a commercial airline.
Tapping into expertise.
One of the unique parts of the WingTips story is that Mike tapped into the air mobility business community to share his vision and seek insight and advice from other leaders in the space. There were multiple ah-ha moments along the way, natural progression, and some things we couldn’t predict.
Ampaire is a pioneer in hybrid-electric aircraft space. In 2019 Mike met Ampaire’s co-founder Cory Combs. Cory was enthusiastic and intrigued by Mike’s plans for WingTips, and together, they recognized the synergy in their business vision.
“You are building exactly what is needed to make regional air mobility work.”
– Cory Combs
Ampaire is building aircraft designed for regional travel for a fraction of standard jet aircraft's fuel and maintenance costs. Using Ampaire’s affordable aircraft, WingTips can deploy regional air mobility at a fraction of the operating cost. Through this relationship, Mike found answers to one of the business's most pressing issues — managing the capital-intensive aviation operation at the lowest possible cost.
All innovation needs financial fuel.
The initial WingTips seed funding propelled rigorous testing. This proved the existence of the market opportunity and the effectiveness of Wingtips’ proprietary software in its most basic form.
Concluding the multiple in-market tests, WingTips’ analytical insights helped define the next set of business strategies and growth objectives.
The second round of funding received in January 2021 was used to significantly enhance the WingTips software, build out the website, add an app, and set up test market actions.
In-market testing showed that the upgraded website and app technology could aggregate consumer demand and support flexible decisions based on large volumes of data – on the fly. A digital marketing effort simultaneously proved consumer acceptance of both per-seat price points and WingTips’ unique brand proposition.
WingTips’ methodical approach of using data-driven insights to inform our business roadmap has clearly proven there is huge demand to support Mike’s vision. With Wingtips' business objective clearly lined up, it’s time to move from research, testing, and proofs-of-concept to the real world. Mike and the team are working with Fundable and other private investment firms to generate an additional $3.5m earmarked to expand the team, launch their strategic go-to-market strategy, purchase aircraft, and expand the cities they serve.
Travelers are ready for WingTips, Mike just needs the capital to deliver it to them.
WingTips is onto something big.
And you can be a part of it. Contact Mike to learn more about WingTips’ investment opportunities, or click here.
Mike Azzarello, CEO & Founder
mike.azarello@flywingtips.com
877-230-8189 or 805-907-9430 (c)
For more information, contact us at 888-890-1063 or submit a flight request now.
Footnotes
*United Airlines Details Initial Electric Aircraft Deployment Plans https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/airlines-lessors/united-airlines-details-initial-electric-aircraft-deployment-plans
**The Surprising Market Demand for Regional Air Mobility https://www.aviationtoday.com/2023/01/30/the-surprising-market-demand-for-regional-air-mobility/