Air Shuttle To Take Commuters Across SoCal Without A Freeway

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – The dream of commuting to work without traffic every day is becoming a reality thanks to one company that's taking a fresh, new look at rush hour – from above.

Now there's a way to skip the congestion and float through rush-hour traffic.

"We're trying to get them off the freeways and get them to fly to work," said FLOAT co-founder Rob McKinney.

McKinney, who's also a pilot, said the service is designed to give Southern Californians an air shuttle option over and around the country's worst traffic.

"FLOAT basically stands for Fly Over All Traffic. The idea is to real short haul to get people where they're sitting in traffic two to three hours a day, put 'em on a flight that takes 15 to 25 minutes," he said.

The service will operate out of general aviation airports like Van Nuys, Fullerton and Corona. KCAL9's Suzanne Marques' flight was from Brackett Field in La Verne to Santa Monica Airport. Wheels up to touch down: Just over 15 minutes.

"The lost productivity for people to sitting in traffic on a daily basis is just almost incalculable," McKinney said. "The time savings and just the stress, your productivity once you get to work is just going to be phenomenal."

McKinney said they also hope to add a boost to smaller under-utilized airports across the Southland.

The cost: About $30 each way.

"The baseline subscription starts at $1,250 per month, and that gets you five days per week coming and going to work for four weeks," McKinney said.

FLOAT is looking to take off sometime in the next six months.

"There's really no limit on what two cities we can serve. Really, the sky's the limit," McKinney said.

So far, FLOAT has had around 1,000 people sign up for the service.

The route people listed that they're most interested in is the short jump from Van Nuys to Santa Monica.