On January 9 the Supreme Court declined to hear a Flytenow case against the FAA, effectively shutting down the legal appeal for their flight sharing business. This is just the latest development in a long legal battle by Flytenow since they were shut down by the FAA in 2015.
The concept of flight sharing is similar to ridesharing: airplane pilots list flights they are taking and people can pay to ride along in the empty seats. That payment, in theory, is just covering the cost of gas and equipment, a critical element in Flytenow’s legal argument.
Flytenow is persistent: they’ve shifted to a legislative strategy and are working to introduce legislation to the house of representatives authorizing online flight sharing.