City Hook plans to reel in partners for stress-free airport transfer app

Airport transfers specialist City Hook is poised to seek growth through an enterprise solution working with trade partners to roll out its model.

Airport transfers specialist City Hook is poised to seek growth through an enterprise solution working with trade partners to roll out its model.

The start-up is on a mission to make the task of leaving an airport more easy and stress-free, targeting what it says is a €7 billion sector in Europe no one is tapping into.

It estimates 775 million people leave an airport in Europe each year, spending an average €15 to get to their final destination, but most have not planned how they will do that until they get to the airport exit.

Founder Kevin O’Shaughnessy, speaking at Monday’s Small Fish Big Ocean WTM Pitch Night, said the firm has researched the transfer options to get away from airports ranging from public buses to private taxis. He said the app-based service uses rich data to give travellers the true picture of all their transfer options including timings, pricing and exact drop off locations.

City Hook has developed an API to enable it to work with third parties and O’Shaugnessy said it would do all the hard work of integrating its offering with its enterprise partners.

“We want a better transport experience,” he said. “It’s more about making the travel experience not airport to airport, we think we can make it door to door, we think we’re can fill the gap. We show extra detail about where it [the transfer] will leave you in the city and how long it will take.”

City Hook works offline, and so incurs no roaming charges, and it will soon add ticketing capability. It will not mark up transfers but makes its money out of the margin.

“Everybody that lands at an airport need to get out of there and you want to do that as quickly as possible. We have researched twice as many options for every airport than any competitor. We want to be the passenger experience company, the positive passenger experience company.

“This is a huge market. When you land and you are stepping out of those sliding doors eventually you are going to make your way to where you want to go. This is a business model waiting for us to capture it.”