While the airline industry contracts, consolidates and generally struggles to find a way to survive, niche aviation businesses are thriving as they nimbly fill the gaps, says aviation attorney and pilot David Norton of Shackelford, Melton & McKinley in Dallas. Most recently, Miwok Airways began an air-taxi service in California, shuttling

Harking back to the early days of aviation when pilots in biplanes picked up passengers on farm fields, the flights on Miwok Airways are not scheduled. They fly on demand and can take off from any of the more than three dozen airstrips in the region. Passengers can set their own flight time and then be flown in four-seat Cirrus propeller planes with fares as low as $82 one way. The fare will depend on the distance between airports and on how many people are sharing the plane, rising to more than $300 if no other passengers are on the plane. The plane can seat three paying passengers. By comparison, chartering a plane can cost more than $600 an hour.

These kinds of services will no doubt only become more common as large carriers cut costs by abandoning or drastically reducing service to mid-sized and less-profitable airports. "We're seeing the evolution of the air travel business," says Norton, who helps clients navigate laws and regulations involved in leasing corporate jet aircraft, also sat on the panel advising the FAA regarding on-demand air travel rules. "The airlines are never going away, but very soon this kind of air taxi service is going to be more and more common."