- The use of Air Taxis and the risk that comes with using them
- The regulation of Air Taxis in North America (United States; Canada)
- How Air Taxis have evolved into personal drones as technology advances
An Air Taxi is a small commercial aircraft such as a DHC-6 Twin Otter which makes short flights automatically when needed. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System and the rise of light-jet aircraft manufacturing. Air taxis have started to reemerge as part of the burgeoning field of personal air vehicles, such as passenger drones.
The Canadian defined air taxi includes all commercial single engine aircraft, multi-engine helicopters and all multi-engine, non-turbo-jet aircraft. These air taxis have a weight limit of 18,999 pounds or less and can hold up to nine passengers at max. In the United States, air taxis operations are regulated much more closely than in Canada. Some common and more well known air taxi companies include ImagineAir, Propair, and Skymax.
Air taxis are now flown less and less because they have the highest commercial airline accident rate out of any size jet, private or commercial. Due to these statistics, people try to stay away from Air Taxis as much as they can unless in dire need of emergency transportation over a short distance.
