Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Surf Air Expands To Santa Barbara

In what could help Santa Barbara further increase its influence in the high tech world, Surf Air, the subscription-membership based, all-you-can-fly airline headed by Wade Eyerly, said today that it has added Santa Barbara to its daily schedule. SurfAir said it will connect Santa Barbara with nonstop service to Silicon Valley, with the first flight leaving this morning at 8:15 a.m.

The new flights make Santa Barbara as close to San Francisco as it is to Los Angeles, and could help bolster the area's high tech companies. There are already a significant number of high tech companies--particularly, in online advertising--in the Santa Barbara region. Surf Air launched its service between Burbank and San Francisco in June. Surf Air lets members pay a monthly fee for all-you-can fly access via executive aircraft, from private air terminals in the cities it serves. The company said that Santa Barbara is part of a planned expansion of routes throughout California.

Venture backed Surf Air has received funding from Velos Partners, Base Ventures, Anthem Venture Partners, NEA, Structure Capital, actor Jared Leto, TriplePoint Capital, Siemer Ventures, Baroda Ventures, Gilad and Eytan Elbaz, Rick Caruso, Jeffrey Stibel and Jonathan Schreiber.

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