Retired Air Force Col. Katie Buss and tech entrepreneur Ben Howard have taken the helm as co-CEOs of Vancouver, Wash.-based KinectAir, which provides a digital platform for booking on-demand private air travel.
Buss previously served as KinectAir’s chief operating officer. Howard, who co-founded the privately held company in 2019, was chief technology officer before his promotion. Fellow co-founder Jonathan Evans is leaving the CEO post but continues to serve as KinectAir’s board chair.
The new management arrangement aims to facilitate scaled-up operations at KinectAir. As co-CEO for aviation, Buss will focus on the aviation sector and industry relationships as well as safety and regulatory issues. As co-CEO for technology, Howard will advance the company’s AI-powered app and operating system to connect vetted flight operators and passengers nationwide.
Buss said she was excited to begin her new role. “KinectAir is opening a world of air travel to a much larger demographic,” she said in a news release. “Our mobile platform is ideal for business travelers, but also makes it easy for friends and families to come together for wine adventures, skiing, golfing trips and music festivals.”
Howard said KinectAir’s software platform is designed to make on-demand flight more accessible to the public. “In many instances, we’re able to leverage the untapped potential of repositioning flights or ’empty legs’ to reduce prices dramatically, down to a fraction of traditional charter costs,” he said.
Before joining KinectAir, Buss served as a pilot, flight instructor and diplomat — most recently as a defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia. She has also been an ROTC commander and department chair at the University of Kentucky, an international affairs strategist at the Pentagon, and a C-17 special operations pilot with more than 500 combat hours of experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Howard’s resume includes experience at Intel, where he developed artificial intelligence algorithms; at HoneyComb, an agricultural mapping company where he was co-founder and chief technology officer; and at Resson, where he led the SaaS, AI and machine learning teams as vice president of engineering.
KinectAir adds an AI-centric, app-centric twist to the business model for private air travel. Previous Pacific Northwest entrants in the market range from Erin Air, which was founded in Seattle in 1980 and is still in business, to Arrow and Emerald Mobility, two startups founded by tech entrepreneur Russell Belden.
