No need to buy a private jet now

COEUR d'ALENE — A members-only flight service for residents and visitors of remote destinations in the Rocky Mountain West expanded to include flights in and out of Coeur d'Alene.

Ascent Private Air Club, based in Denver, announced on-demand flights for members will officially be available starting next week at the Coeur d'Alene Airport in Hayden.

Ascent coordinates with local flight operators and uses local planes and crews to provide the air service. Members can fly on a wide range of planes from turboprops to light and mid-sized jets.

"The need for safe, innovative and cost-effective air travel services to destinations like Coeur d'Alene is growing as commercial airlines continue to reduce flights and increase prices," said Tom Filippini, Ascent's CEO. "Many iconic western destinations have lost commercial air service entirely."

Filippini said members can book flights on a whim and arrive to private terminals minutes before takeoff and avoid security lines, baggage checking, layovers and delays.

Ascent members can access more than 5,000 domestic airports.

The primary bases are Driggs, Idaho; Bozeman, Mont.; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; and Aspen, Telluride, Steamboat and Vail, Colo. The club’s members also regularly fly in and out of destinations in Utah and New Mexico.

"Nobody is really focused on these remote resort locations," Filippini told The Press. "Coeur d'Alene is really a perfect application for what we're trying to do."

He pointed to the flow of seasonal leisure travel in and out of Coeur d'Alene.

Additionally, he said, "The demographics are right in (the Coeur d'Alene area)."

Ascent is structured like a golf or country club. Individuals, couples, families and companies apply for membership. If accepted, they join the club by paying an initiation fee and then annual dues beginning in the second year of the membership.

The initiation fee is $9,500 for those who join before Nov. 30. After that it's $14,500.

Annual dues are $7,500 — for years two and three — for those who join before the end of this month. It's $9,500 annually for the first two years for those who join after this month.

Ascent's booking fee is $750 per reservation. The members also pay for the flight time they consume. According to Ascent's website, its flights are typically 10 percent to 60 percent less than charter or national jet programs.

Local pilots and member "flight ambassadors" serve as the members' "personal flight department," he said.