- I've been wanting to fly on this airline
for a very long time.
In fact, this is not an airline, actually,
I think it's a charter operation, quite a special one.
- Alright Sir, we've got you in 4C,
that's going to be a window seat.
And your boarding pass is going to be 205.
And you're all set.
- [Man Behind Camera] So my journey begins here, right?
- Yeah, your journey begins right here.
And we're going to walk this way and we'll take you
right up to our hangar.
- [Man Behind Camera] To the hangar.
- To the hangar, which we consider our lounge out here.
Today is one of our busier days, so we're really busy,
and getting everybody home from the weekend.
And this is where you hang out with coffee, tea, and water.
- [Man Behind Camera] That's a very unusual lounge.
You're not waiting at a terminal,
you're waiting in the hangar.
- [Airport Employee] Yep, so you get to hang out
in the hanger. And then sometimes we have planes in here
that everybody gets to look at and take photos of.
- [Man Behind Camera] Plane spotting.
- Yep.
- [Man Behind Camera] Where are you guys flying to?
- Dallas.
- [Man Behind Camera] Oh, we are on the same flight.
- Oh really?
- [Man Behind Camera] Nice, is it the first time you?
- Yes.
- [Man Behind Camera] Same here.
Here I met my sister P here.
Aloha.
- Aloha.
- Tell me about how this work, it is so unconventional.
I came in, I dropped my bag, and now I'm in a hangar.
- Yeah, super easy, super simple.
All we need is your ID to check in.
We get you checked in less than five minutes.
Get your bags taken care of, and then you can
come out and hang out in our lounge slash hanger.
And then we have you on your way
15 minutes before departure time.
You're on the plane,
and you're off to your final destination.
- [Man Behind Camera] Before my flight,
I came out to see the ram.
I see lots of Embraer here JSX, and I met a lady here,
she's in a polo shirt.
She happened to be the captain on one of the flights here,
not my flight to Texas, but she's flying.
Where are you flying now?
- To San Diego.
It was my dream since I was a little girl.
So I started flying in my early twenties,
in Florida, Flight Safety, Vero Beach.
So after I got my multi and commercial,
I went back to China, and I found this job
in Beijing, and flying the Gulf Trim.
And then after working there for three years, I moved here.
And two days ago I passed my Captain Check Rights,
so I'm now officially a...
- Yay, congratulations. That just says that there's a lot
of hope out there for my flight school students,
and every flight school student.
Looking what you came through,
and that was a huge boost for us.
And then, you know, like how many hours do you have now?
- I got roughly 2220.
- [Man Behind Camera] Well done, well done.
(upbeat music)
- [Man Behind Camera] Hello.
- Hello there, welcome to JSX.
- [Man Behind Camera] This is something quite different.
Oh my Gosh.
I've never seen something like this before.
I got a chance to pre-board before everybody to check out
the beautiful, very unique cabin, 30 seater, very smart.
- Hey, I'm your captain AJ for today's flight to Dallas.
We're looking at increasing altitude, 37,000 feet.
Couple of bumps as we get closer to Texas.
It's going to be pretty bumpy about two hours,
19 minutes in route, should be fun.
- Hi, I'm Ty and I'm the first officer for this flight.
So sit back, relax, enjoy the JSX experience.
- [Man Behind Camera] You guys are so relaxed.
There's polo shirts, there's no stripe, no uniform.
And tell me actually, what do you prefer?
You prefer wearing this to fly?
- Yeah, most of the time it's fine.
That said in the Vegas heat, we're in all black,
it kind of gets a little hot.
- [Man Behind Camera] What's flying the Embraer 145 like?
- [AJ] It's a pilot's aeroplane.
I mean, there's not as much automation,
as say something like a brand new Boeing or Airbus.
So there's a lot more hands-on activity with the planes.
- [Ty] It's the Rim Horn.
- [Man Behind Camera] Rim Horn. Very cool.
- [Ty] That's the Embraer.
(men laugh)
- [Man Behind Camera] Nice socks man.
- [Ty] Thank you.
- The first thing to do really get to this level,
is love what you do.
- So you get up every morning, you look forward to going to
the aeroplane to do, you know, to take care of business.
So you can't beat it.
Once your heart is in it, just keep going on at it.
- [Man Behind Camera] Do what you love for a living,
never fail a day at work.
- Yup.
- [Man Behind Camera] Alright, see you after landing.
Thank you.
- Oh our special passenger, oh oh love my camera.
What's his name?
- [Passenger] His name's Rigatoni.
- [Man Behind Camera] Ah, how old is he?
- [Passenger] He is two years old.
- [Man Behind Camera] Isn't it cool flying,
and bring your dog to fly together?
- [Passenger] It's pretty awesome.
He's got 30,000 followers on TikTok, so.
- [Man Behind Camera] Oh, famous dog here.
Let's make it 3 million.
- Have a wonderful flight.
And ladies and gentlemen, the main cabin door is now closed.
(upbeat music)
This is funny here, I have missing seats are on my left.
It's good that I don't have any neighbour,
but it feels very much on a regional jets, with big seating.
- Here's your ice, here's your Coca- Cola, enjoy.
- [Man Behind Camera] Thank you.
So you can see I'm reading this Checkride preparation,
for my Private Pilot Checkride.
This is a great study guide.
I'm using all my time right now to study hard.
- So I've got Cooper Cheese Straws, BelVita Snack Packs,
new flavours, Moustache Butter Cookies.
(upbeat music)
- So my name's Cody, I'm from Portland, Oregon.
He's the one that referred me to JSX airlines.
Travelling from Las Vegas to Dallas, Texas.
Trying something new.
And it's definitely spacious.
I like this, the way it's got-
- I found out about it from like social media,
saw some advertisements.
So I checked it out and you know, it was pretty good
pricing is like, probably better than first-class.
- Like pre-boarding, going through TSA and all that,
easy checkout.
Disable the walkout on the tarmac and on the plane.
Very easy boarding, very good experience.
(upbeat music)
- Most airlines have stopped allowing you to bring
emotional support companion animals on the airlines.
I think this is one of the few airlines
that still lets you fly with a pet.
If you have an emotional support companion certificate,
which she does.
So we were able to fly
without an extra fee, which is amazing.
And it's unfortunate that with most airlines right now,
you can't even fly with your pen in the cargo hold
on the plane.
Just because of the restrictions with the pandemic.
If you're trying to get your pet cross country right now,
it's like so difficult.
And we were going to actually do a rental car,
but there is a rental car shortage,
because most rental car companies eliminated
all of their fleets.
So this was actually cheaper,
to fly him on this airline,
than it was to actually take a rental car.
I think in terms of the best seats,
I would actually recommend the middle,
or further towards the back,
it's actually quieter towards the back,
than actually at the very front.
Which it was noisier, you're closer to the bulkhead here.
You just feel more room here.
(upbeat music)
- We just landed Dallas.
Flight attendant was saying everyone wait
until the bags out, so you can get your bags.
Cause there is no storage on this aeroplane.
There's no overhead bins.
It's a very small aeroplane, but it's unique that
one one sitting, no one's sitting next to me.
So that's quite an experience.
I wouldn't mind to try again if the price is right,
if schedule is right as well.
Thank you.
- Oh thank you so much, we appreciate your business.
Have a wonderful day.
- [Man Behind Camera] Thank you.
How was the flight? Thank you, see you, bye bye.
Found my bag.
That was awesome.
Got my bag before, I don't have to go to the baggage car.
So that's really fast.
Okay, thank you.
This is the best car, within a minute out of the plane.
Now my bags are out there, now we're ready to drive away
from the airport.
There's no scheduled airlines can beat that
from an airport terminal.
The next day I got to interview the CEO of JSX, Alex Wilcox.
Let's hear his aviation story.
- I grew up, you know, sort of internationally.
My mother is Swiss.
My dad's from New York, and I was born in London.
And so, you know, I was on a plane,
apparently within the first three months of my life.
And I love to travel, and I loved aeroplanes , you know,
so it was a match made in heaven,
and there was really no other industry for me, you know.
I liked computers a lot too,
probably would be a lot more money in that,
but I chose aviation and travel.
I got my pilot's licence when I turned 17,
in Burlington, Vermont in a little Cessna 152.
I've added, you know,
a sea plane rating, and a glider rating to that as well.
So I, you know, I keep current as I can as a pilot.
Although when I have the time, I haven't got the money,
when I have the money, I haven't got the time.
I'm sure a lot of your viewers can relate to that.
Subsequent to that, I worked for a commuter carrier.
We flew South 340s and Beech 1900s
in Burlington, Vermont.
You know, the harder I worked, kind of the luckier I got,
and I got to meet people, and I got some lucky breaks.
I interned here at Southwest airlines in Dallas,
back in the 1900s as well.
And then I worked for Virgin Atlantic,
and I got to present a couple ideas to Richard Branson.
I worked for the head of North America at the time.
When I was at Virgin,
I met a crazy guy named David Neeleman.
And David of course is the founder of Jet Blue.
And then when I left Jet Blue,
I was recruited to go to India.
So I lived in Mumbai for two years.
And then I came back and I needed a job,
and I didn't want to work for anyone else,
so I met a banker who bought some Peanut 100s,
and he wanted me to operate them.
So that turned into the Jet Suite.
And then five years ago, we had this idea, that you know,
people would be willing to pay a small premium
above commercial, for the private jet experience.
So we had people paying us $10,000 to fly
in a Phenom, you know, for a couple of hours.
Surely they would pay us $300 to fly on a number 135,
but they could access it the same way.
And that's how JSX was born.
So in a nutshell Sam,
JSX stands for a joyful, simple, experience.
- This is a brilliant idea.
One and one seating on an Embraer.
Now tell me, is this idea
came before the pandemic, or it came during the pandemic?
- This was a pandemic inspired idea.
You know, we said
we need to give people space on the aeroplane.
How can we do that with what we have?
We had most of our aeroplanes ,
first aeroplanes were Embraer 135s,
were a little bit shorter, one, two configuration.
But because we had an extra 12 feet in the 145s,
we actually spread the seats out like this.
So we lost one or two inches in leg room, versus the 135.
But we created all this personal space all around you.
We got this thing
from concept into production in under two months.
I think one thing that happened
during the pandemic that made things better for JSX,
was people were willing to look at different options,
different ways of doing things, you know,
different ways of travelling.
JSX saves people time.
You know, so the whole crowd free experience
is what people are paying for.
The ability to go to a private terminal, get on and go,
go to airports that no one else can go to,
and have distance and space inside the cabin.
As a Part 135 operator,
we can operate to airports that no one else can go to.
For example, you know, Concord in the East Bay,
likely Heatus in West Texas, during Coachella
we can go straight to the Thermal Airport.
So no Part 121 air carrier
is allowed to land at these airports.
But since we only have 30 seats, we fly in a Part 135,
and that gives us access to like 10 times more airports,
thousands of airports, that the major airlines cannot serve.
- And do you have plans to add more of this kind of
one one congregation to your fleet?
- We're 23 aeroplanes today.
We have some big announcements coming up
in the next few weeks, and we'll be significantly adding
to our fleet, and adding to our route map.
And I would say next year we'll be
on the East coast as well.
A place that really, really, you know,
is demanding for our service.
So there's going to be a huge leap frogs and growth in the
coming two to three years.