Wingly: Europe’s ride-sharing platform

Wingly is a co-piloting platform connecting passengers with passionate private pilots. It is a French start-up founded in Paris, in 2015, which offers a new way of discovering light aviation for thousands of passengers. Wingly offers private pilots and passengers a highly innovative concept in the history of light aviation. The idea is to transpose the car-sharing model to light aviation. This is what we call co-piloting. In this article, we tell you more about Wingly and the original services offered by this collaborative platform.

Introduction to the co-piloting platform

Wingly is the leader in co-pooling in Europe, with its headquarters in Paris. It was founded in 2015 by three aviation enthusiasts with the ambition of democratising private aviation. On the one hand, the latter is often subject to many preconceived ideas, with many people wrongly thinking that it is expensive and that private aircraft are reserved for an elite. On the other hand, for pilots it represents an expensive passion. So they came up with the idea of creating a shared-plane platform, based on the car-sharing model. The founders of this start-up had to face difficult beginnings and develop their idea abroad, particularly in England and Germany, while waiting for clarification of the more restrictive French legislation. Since 2017, the activity of shared aircraft flights has been authorised in France and today, the company has around thirty employees and a community of more than 20,000 private pilots and nearly 85,000 passengers.

Wingly does not have its own aircraft. It works closely with numerous flying clubs, rental structures and owners who have their own light aircraft, enabling it to offer a highly diversified range of services on a European scale. 15% of the pilots registered on Wingly own a plane and 85% rent a plane from a club and share the rental costs to be able to practise their passion for aeronautics.

What is car sharing?

We are all familiar with carpooling, which involves several drivers using a single car to make the same journey. Wingly offers the same concept for light aircraft. This solution enables private pilots to offer vacant seats on flights departing from local aerodromes for a shared flight. This model is based on the principle of the collaborative economy, an innovative mode of consumption that favours transactions between private individuals. This principle is made possible by the development of digital technology, which offers new opportunities, such as the possibility of booking flights online.

Co-piloting should not be confused withaviation-taxi, which consists of using an airline specialising in business aviation to move around and make the flight you want. The flights offered by Wingly are geared towards leisure and tourism and are not designed for mobility. They are often aviation enthusiasts who have their private pilot’s licence but no public transport.

The types of flights offered by Wingly

• Aerial tours: these are circular flights, i.e. departing from an airfield A and returning to the same airfield. These flights last on average 1 hour and allow you to discover the region from the air. For example, Wingly pilots offer flights over the Arcachon basin, the châteaux of the Loire or the bay of Mont Saint Michel.
• Excursions: these are flights departing from field A to field B and then returning to field A. These flights are an original way of discovering a town or destination over a day or even a weekend. For example, Wingly pilots can fly from Paris to Deauville for the day, or from Cannes to Corsica for the weekend.
• A to B: these are much rarer flights on Wingly, but some pilots offer to accompany them on flights between two destinations. Note that these flights account for less than 3% of the flights offered by pilots.

Co-piloting has its advantages, both for the passenger and the pilot: it allows the costs of a flight to be shared and makes private flights more accessible.

On average, an hour’s flight in a light aircraft costs a pilot around €180; if he takes two passengers with him, the flight costs around €60 per person, for the pleasure of both parties. On Wingly, prices range from €50 to €200 per seat. Pilots don’t make any profit, they just share the costs, which means they can fly twice as much on average during the year for half the price, so they can enjoy their passion at a lower cost.

Co-piloting is governed by Article 6(4a)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 of 5 October 2012. This authorises the operation of non-complex motor-powered aircraft in the form of shared-cost flights by private individuals, provided that the direct cost is shared between all occupants of the aircraft, including the pilot, and that the number of persons bearing the direct cost does not exceed six.

However, co-piloting flights are not covered by public transport certification. This is a matter of compliance with the Civil Aviation Code. Be careful, too, in terms of insurance. In the event of an accident, what about liability?

Private pilots can carry out shared-cost flights on Wingly in accordance with the privileges of their pilot training, their licence and the qualifications they have obtained. Pilots with an instrument rating (IR) can therefore carry out IFR flights. The same applies to night flying, mountain flying, aerobatics, twin-engine and single-turbine aircraft, etc.

When registering with Wingly, pilots must provide their licence with an up-to-date rating, as well as their medical certificate. This is to ensure that they fly in complete safety.

The services offered by the Wingly platform

Wingly is not an aircraft manufacturer or an airline, but it does offer its users a low-cost way of discovering flying in a private aircraft.

As mentioned above, the platform’s core business is to put private pilots and passengers in touch with each other to share the costs associated with a leisure flight. However, at the end of 2020 and in the summer of 2021, the platform decided to diversify and opened two new segments: Wingly Pro and Wingly Jet.

The first, Wingly Pro, aims to open up the platform to commercial leisure flights operated by professional companies in the sector. In this case, Wingly acts as a reseller of commercial leisure flights. With its expertise in digital technology and targeted marketing to aerocurists, Wingly is emerging as a powerful new sales channel for professional companies. Since the end of 2020, you can also book panoramic helicopter flights, introductory flights, first flights and thrill flights by professional companies.

The second, Wingly Jet, allows the platform to focus on commercial transport. As we have seen, the co-piloting model is not based on mobility, and this new segment is a response to passengers’ needs. In addition to the air brokerage function that the platform can perform on request, it has decided to forge privileged partnerships with companies holding public air carrier certificates in order to offer, mainly during the summer period, routes that are currently non-existent and considered strategic. For example, the platform has been able to offer Geneva – Deauville flights in the summer of 2021 in a Cessna Citation for €800 per passenger, or Geneva – Toulon flights in the summer of 2022 in a Saab 340 for €150 per passenger.

The Wingly platform works in two stages

Stage 1: choosing your flight

On the one hand, private pilots register and, once their profile has been validated by the company, can propose the flights they wish to share. Prices are checked by Wingly to ensure they comply with regulations. On the other hand, passengers choose their experience by indicating the place of departure (take-off) and arrival (landing), the date and the number of passengers. Once this information has been entered, they can choose the one that best suits their criteria from a list of suggestions. They can then refine their search using new criteria such as :

• price
• departure airport
• destination
• type of aircraft (plane or helicopter).

The website also works on smartphones and has a messaging system so that users and pilots can talk to each other before the flight.

Stage 2: booking

Once you have chosen your flight, all you have to do is make your booking request. Passengers pay the fees directly on Wingly. A booking confirmation is sent by the pilot within 48 hours.

The flight can be cancelled and refunded up to 24 hours before take-off. For safety reasons, the pilot may also postpone or cancel the flight, particularly in the event of bad weather.

Before booking, future passengers have access to the pilot’s profile, which includes his or her licence and flight time, reviews left by previous passengers and a photo of the aircraft.

Wingly is paid on a commission system entirely supported by passengers. The platform is entirely free for pilots.

For private flights where costs are shared between the pilot and passengers, Wingly offers a unique, tailor-made supplementary insurance policy taken out with Allianz GC&S by the SAAM broker Verspieren Group. This insurance policy is taken out automatically and free of charge for all co-piloted flights anywhere in Europe (Drom Com and Pom Français) and countries bordering the Mediterranean.

Wingly is revitalising the aviation sector by bringing it into the digital world and enabling a large number of people to experience an unforgettable moment by democratising access to light aviation.

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Charter a certified public transport aircraft with AEROAFFAIRES.

Now that you know a little more about the Wingly platform, you should know that AEROAFFAIRES is available 24/7, including weekends and public holidays. We respond quickly to your request for a quote online or by telephone on +33 (0)1 44 09 91 82. We can book all types of aircraft to best meet your requirements.