A California based start-up called Airship Ventures is chartering flights on a 12-passenger Zeppelin airship for "daily sightseeing flights, advertising operations, corporate and event occasions, and scientific missions" in the San Francisco area. Founders and married couple Alex (short for Alexandra) and Brian Hall say they want to make money while making people smile too. The idea for Airship Ventures took flight when Brian, a software entrepreneur, discovered on a business trip to
Germany that not only did the Zeppelin company still exist, but it also had designed an impressive new airship. On a subsequent trip to Germany, he went up in the Zeppelin for the first time, and was instantly enamored.
So last year, the couple bought the Zeppelin from the German manufacturer for $15 million. The Halls are raising money from investors, including venture capitalist Esther Dyson, to finance the airship. Dubbed "Eureka," the airship arrived in the U.S. right as the economy was tanking, but the Halls still managed to launch their service last October. "Clearly, the airship arriving right at the time that the world economy imploded is not the best time to start a luxury tourism business," Alex says. "We didn't have any choice. It was coming, and we were going to have to make the absolute best of it that we could."
At first, bookings on Airship Ventures flights were lower than anticipated, but the company says it's now flying several full flights a day. To rent the Zeppelin, which comes staffed with a pilot and steward, it will cost you about $5,000 an hour. To turn the airship into a flying billboard, it costs about $100,000 a month. And for $750,000 a month, you can brand and charter the whole thing. Airship Ventures declined to discuss the revenues it's generated so far but says it plans to be cash positive before the end of the year.
Airship Ventures, which has 35 employees, has three principal revenue streams: passenger transit, advertising and special missions, such as flights where scientists take samples of air to test
air quality.
Disney/Pixar realized the upsides to advertising on a Zeppelin early on, and eventually called on Airship Ventures to play a role in Up, which features a widower who decides to pursue the spirit of adventure and launches his house with a cloud of helium balloons. Hall says she and her crew helped Skywalker Sound record various Zeppelin maneuvers that eventually became the basis of some of the sound effects for the film.
Up won't debut in theaters until May 29, but Airship Venture's "Eureka" is already floating around the
Bay Area with branding that promotes the film. "We're becoming part of the scenery around here," Alex says.
