The Flapper team expects the air taxi sector in Brazil to double in size over the next three years: Guilherme Soares and Flavio Carvalho with co-founders Iago Senefonte, Paul Malicki, William Oliveira and Arthur Virzin

Flapper receives seed investment

Brazil-based private aviation online marketplace Flapper is to expand its domestic pay-per-seat market and invest heavily in technology thanks to a US$1 million seed investment. The investment complements a previous round and constitutes one of two rounds of funding to be announced in 2018.

CEO Paul Malicki says: "Our plan includes building a network of shared routes between airports unavailable to commercial aviation, with a slant towards premium destinations. This requires integration with the entire travel market, from corporate travel agencies to meta-search engines and our own distribution systems. Once we reach a critical mass we'll launch a membership plan in the south east of Brazil, enabling an all- you-can-fly option for our clients."

Flapper came into being in 2016 as a response to the lack of first class services in Brazil's commercial sector. At the time Malicki was CMO and partner of Brazil-based Easy Taxi while co-founders Arthur Virzin, Iago Senefonte and William Oliveira were coding at Russian financial technology company Qiwi. Being frequent flyers themselves, the co-founders saw an unexplored market niche in executive aviation and developed an app offering on-demand flights as well as seat-sharing on over 100 Part 135 registered King Air 200/250s, Pilatus PC-12s, Grand Caravans and Sikorsky S76s.

Malicki continues: "Today Brazil has 2,457 airports of which only 121 are connected through commercial aviation. The country is considered to be the second largest private aviation market in the world after the US, but air taxi companies commercialise only 22 per cent of all flights. Flapper's own research demonstrates that Brazil has more than 400,000 potential clients for charters and 2.7 million future pay-per-seat buyers."

The company intends to launch flights to Belo Horizonte, Brazil's third largest city, at the end of 2018 alongside its Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and premium leisure routes. The average price is around $200 between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and $100-200 for shorter flights to the coast.