Patent ID: 8484047

Claim:
A computer implemented method for on-demand private aircraft comprising: a. receiving by a computer based reservation service from the owners or operators of private aircraft availability information including reservation criteria for an empty leg or shared ride flight, said reservation criteria including a departure location, a departure time constraint, a minimum number of passengers, and an agreed upon payment schedule required to reserve the private aircraft; b. posting on a web site, by the computer-based reservation service, at least a portion of the availability information relating to departure location and destination of various private aircraft; c. receiving via its website by the computer based reservation service from prospective passengers preferred flight data for private aircraft, the preferred flight data defining at least one of empty leg flights and shared flights selected by prospective passengers; d. said payment schedule being determined prior to said posting, and said payment schedule including a cost per seat; e. receiving, by the computer-based reservation service, reservation offers from a plurality of independent passengers, each of the reservation offers including an agreement to a specific destination request and a predetermined payment schedule; f. selecting a number of the received reservation requests, wherein the selected requestes collectively are consistent with said reservation criteria for an identified private aircraft; g. communicating received reservation offers from one or more independent passengers to owners or operators of private aircraft; h. receiving any changes in said predetermined reservation criteria and communicating said changes to each of said independent passengers associated with the offers; i. accepting the selected reservation offers consistent with any said changes; j. communicating to each of the independent passengers associated with the selected offers a passenger notification of the acceptance; k. communicating to an owner or operator of the identified private aircraft an owner or operator notification of the acceptance; and l. transmitting to the owner or operator of an identified private aircraft a passenger list corresponding to the selected reservation offers and a flight schedule that is substantially consistent with the departure time constraint, the departure location, and the specific destination request.