RivCo Commuters Can Fly Over Rush-Hour Traffic Thanks To Start-Up

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Have you ever sat in rush-hour traffic, daydreaming about how nice it would be if your car could transform into a plane and fly you straight home? A new start-up called FLOAT, which stands for Fly Over All Traffic, will give you the next best thing by attempting to solve California's gridlock problem by introducing planes as a tool of mass transit. For $1,250 a month, you can fly to and from work instead.

FLOAT, co-founded by a UC San Diego graduate, is a commuter air service that has agreements to operate a fleet of nine-passenger planes at 40 small airports throughout Southern California — everywhere from the Corona airport in Riverside County, to the Hollywood Burbank Airport in L.A., to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, to San Diego and even Big Bear, KTLA reported.

Like van pools, routes will be determined by customer demand, San Diego news station KGTV reported. According to the company, there is already interest in service out of McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, and other San Diego airports like Montgomery-Gibbs in Kearny Mesa and Brown Field in South Bay could be added, co-founder and CEO Arnel Guiang told the news station.

"FLOAT is shattering the myth that sitting in hours of traffic every day is a necessary and unavoidable way of life in Southern California,” Guiang told KTLA.

A base membership will cost $1,250 per month for flights during the work week, which means each leg of the commute will cost just over $30.

The start-up is targeting "super commuters," or those with commutes of 90 minutes or more each way, KGTV said. Customers will be able to walk onto a plane using an app, and like their planes, the company says the idea is taking off — more than 700 people have signed up for FLOAT so far.

For more information, visit FLOAT.