Pizza delivery by plane in Alaska?

[FrantzJ]

I've heard that in parts of Alaska you can get pizza delivered by plane. Is this true? Is this really costly?

[Stark Raven Mad]

It's free, actually. A quick google shows plenty of blogs and news sites' reports on this - I'd wager that it's legit.

[Xema]

Originally Posted by Stark Raven Mad

It's free, actually.

TANSTAFAPD. Methinks the cost of the delivery is built into the price of the pizza.

[Pushkin]

According to the Times today, an Indian restaurant here in Belfast is delivering to New York

[FormerMarineGuy]

Originally Posted by Stark Raven Mad

It's free, actually. A quick google shows plenty of blogs and news sites' reports on this - I'd wager that it's legit.

Are we sure the name of this place just doesn't happen to be Airport Pizza and their slogan just isn't "You buy-We fly"? I am sure there have to be places that do deliver things via airplane. But I see the price of pizzas as low as $7. How could this be cost effective? How much does it cost to fly a plane for 15 miles? The gas has to be high, the time costly, maintaining the plane.

[Chefguy]

Yes, it's true. The business is doing very well despite the cost of the pizza. The Alaska bush is rather unique in that there are a myriad of small airlines that ferry cargo and passengers to the tiny remote airstrips via small plane. Tossing some pizzas onto a regularly-scheduled mail or supply plane would not cost much at all.

[Xema]

Originally Posted by FormerMarineGuy

But I see the price of pizzas as low as $7.

I think that's the price of breadsticks.

[groman]

The key thing here is that even if they were using their own airplane for Pizza the cost of owning and operating that airplane is most likely already there, Pizzas or not. A huge number of people use airplanes as personal means of transport in Alaska. On my trip around I, without exaggerating, can say that I've seen at least two times more landing strips than I did individual people in the entire state. Distances are so big, and road conditions rather uncertain that driving is not practical.

If you already need a plane to get home from work, the hours you put on it and the gas you spend delivering some pizzas in the area might not be significant enough to make pizza prices astronomical. Besides, if you fly my pizza to me, I'm going to tip you at least 50%.

[gotpasswords]

I notice they don't say "Delivered in 30 minutes or it's free" and suspect it's more of a "Hmmm... Pizza sounds good for dinner tomorrow"

[Chefguy]

I suspect they're giving free advertising to Frontier Air, and the publicity for the airline is good for them, since they're the little guy up here. Alaska Airlines would never do this.

[Broomstick]

Originally Posted by FormerMarineGuy

But I see the price of pizzas as low as $7. How could this be cost effective? How much does it cost to fly a plane for 15 miles? The gas has to be high, the time costly, maintaining the plane.

It depends on the airplane.

Assuming a small GA or "bush" plane this may not be terribly expensive.

Assuming $3.00/gallon for 100LL avgas (the standard fuel for those airplanes - the price this summer around here has been higher, but Alaska doesn't have the highest fuel prices) and a fuel burn of 10 gallons/hour, 1 minute of operation costs you $0.50 in gas. And it will take you between 9 and 12 minutes to go 15 miles. That's $4.50-6.00 in gas (gotta add a bit for start-up and runway time, too), but if you're delivering more than one pizza the per unit cost goes down. In reality, you might do slightly better because I was generous on the fuel burn.

Now, with various lightplanes/ultralights burn half that amount of gas per hour, dropping fuel costs to $2.25-3.00 per 15 mile delivery. Those airplanes don't have a huge payload, but they would be capable of pizza deliveries.

If your airplane can run on autogas fuel costs go down even more. Quite a few of them can.

Please also note that pizzas start at $16 for a basic cheese pizza with free delivery. It's the breadsticks that are $7, and a "single order" is not eligible for free delivery.

Assuming $16 for a pizza, break the costs down to $6 for gas and $1.29 minimum wage for the pilot for every 15 minutes of flight time (not 15 miles - that would be more like 20-25 miles) then... well $7.29 for delivery, leaving a more or less $7-8 for the actual pizza. Use the business model where the delivery driver is responsible for maintaining his own vehicle (not outlandish in Alaska, which has the higher number of airplanes per capita). Very much off-the-cuff, back of a cocktail napkin, rought estimate, of course, but it seems plausible to me. Does that work for everybody?

[scr4]

It's still not clear to me - do they fly a plane just for your pizza, or does "delivery" in this case mean "we'll put it on the next plane heading to your village, so make sure you come to the airstrip to get it"?

[Beware of Doug]

Why couldnt' the delivery guy just jump out of the plane over your house?Pizzatroopers!

[Wnabtokio]

Originally Posted by Pushkin

According to the Times today, an Indian restaurant here in Belfast is delivering to New York

Don't laugh. If they would come as far as Texas, I'd be saving my pennies up for it myself.

I'm going to go start a thread asking for places in Dallas that have good Indian food. B/c otherwise, I'm going to have to start calling restaurants near airports to see if it would only be a few thou, and then I'd be maxing out the credit card.

I miss good Indian food. Pizza is plentiful here, but if it wasn't, I don't think a little airplane fee would stand in my way.

[Broomstick]

Originally Posted by scr4

It's still not clear to me - do they fly a plane just for your pizza, or does "delivery" in this case mean "we'll put it on the next plane heading to your village, so make sure you come to the airstrip to get it"?

They DO have a toll-free number... who wants to get brave and call and ask?

[Chefguy]

Many bush villages have daily mail flights. Others are less frequent. I would suspect that pizza delivery time depends on the mail flight schedule. I can find out, but it will have to wait until next week.

[partlycloudy]

I just ordered a pizza, thanks to you guys.

[Bear_Nenno]

Originally Posted by LoganDear

I just ordered a pizza, thanks to you guys.

They fly to Tampa????

[Caractacus Pott]

Originally Posted by Broomstick

They DO have a toll-free number... who wants to get brave and call and ask?

Broom,
I may be calling them this afternoon. Selection and flavor here is, well, lacking. Santa must be staying fat on Christmas cookies and salmon because it sure ain't the pizza.

Nome to North Pole; thank Og I like cold pizza!

[Fear Itself]

Originally Posted by Caractacus Pott

Broom,
I may be calling them this afternoon. Selection and flavor here is, well, lacking. Santa must be staying fat on Christmas cookies and salmon because it sure ain't the pizza.

Nome to North Pole; thank Og I like cold pizza!

535 miles, as the crow flies.

[Caractacus Pott]

Originally Posted by Fear Itself

535 miles, as the crow flies.

Do crows deliver pizza, too? I hope it's not road pizza.

Thanks, Fear for the distance calculator link. I'd been looking for one since arriving in Alaska.

[Lamar Mundane]

There is a couple in Denver who are Royalty of a SE Asian country (Indonesia?) who have a chef prepare their meals every day according to the dietary laws of their religion, and then fly the food to their two children in California. Every day.

[Fear Itself]

Originally Posted by Lamar Mundane

There is a couple in Denver who are Royalty of a SE Asian country (Indonesia?) who have a chef prepare their meals every day according to the dietary laws of their religion, and then fly the food to their two children in California. Every day.

Reminds me of a long distance version of the dabbawalas of Mumbai:

Instead of going home for lunch or paying for a meal in a café, many office workers have a cooked meal sent from home or by a caterer. The meal is delivered in lunch boxes which are later collected and re-sent the next day. This is usually done for a monthly fee. The meal is cooked in the morning and sent in lunch boxes carried by dabbawalas, who have a complex association and hierarchy across the city.

A collecting dabbawala, usually on a bicycle, collects dabbas from homes or, more often, from the dabba makers (who actually cook the food). The dabbas have some sort of distinguishing mark on them, such as a colour or symbol.

The dabbawala then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalas sort (and sometimes bundle) the lunch boxes into groups. The grouped boxes are put in the coaches of trains, with markings to identify the destination of the box (usually there is a designated car for the boxes). The markings include the rail station to unload the boxes and the building address where the box has to be delivered.

At each station, boxes are handed over to a local dabbawala, who delivers them. The empty boxes, after lunch, are again collected and sent back to the respective houses.

Apparently they have never heard of brown-bagging.

[Johnny L.A.]

You learn something new. I'd only known of them as tiffin-wallas. I like the idea of them, only with so many places offering delivery (similar idea, but a little different) I don't think they'd work here.

[Caractacus Pott]

but they don't deliver to North Pole. What a bummer. I wonder if Mike's Palace in Valdez delivers this far up the Richardson Highway?