Flight sharing


Flight sharing is the sharing of the costs of non-commercial general aviation aircraft flights between a licensed pilot and their passengers.

Websites

With the rise of the Internet, numerous websites have appeared to coordinate the meeting of private pilots with willing passengers for particular flights.

Legal issues

United States

Flight sharing is legal in the United States, under the terms of the Federal Aviation Regulations prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration. However, the FARs include a few caveats. Per regulation 61.113, a private pilot is prevented from making a profit off such a flight:
The rules also state that the pilot and passengers must share a "common purpose" in the flight.
In Summer 2014, the FAA shut down two flight-sharing platforms, Flytenow and AirPooler. Flytenow appealed to a federal court. On December 18, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia "denied request to overturn the Federal Aviation Administration’s ban on Flytenow and other online flight-sharing websites." The court ruled that these flight-sharing services were "common carriers," in part, due to the fact that these services were offered to the general public.

European Union

In the European Union, flight sharing is authorized for light aircraft by the article 6 § 4 bis a) of the law n° 965/2012 enacted on October, 5th 2012. Several flight sharing startups were created in Europe, and especially in France, including Wingly.