The FAA has made a significant ruling pertaining to Uber-like aviation startups such as Airpooler, stating that private pilots who don’t hold a special government-issued certificate are banned from publicly offering seats on their planes for a fee/payment from passengers.
Essentially, this new ruling damages business opportunities for planesharing companies who were looking to follow in the footsteps of Uber and Lyft, but in the skies.
Before the ruling, pilots seeking out passengers for trips was viewed as a “joint venture with a common purpose”, but now the “Uber-idea”, so-to-speak as it relates to pilots, is seen as pilots working for hire.
As far as the FAA is concerned, if private pilots do not comply and obtain the special government-issues license/certificate, using a planesharing service is illegal.
