With the rise of the Internet, numerous websites have appeared to coordinate the meeting of private pilots with willing passengers for particular flights.
[1] The sharing of flight operational costs between a pilot and their passengers is permitted on a non-commercial certificate basis in the United States, under the terms of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Also, the pilot must not be "holding out" (i.e. advertising) to the general public the offer to transport passengers, but only a limited and well-defined audience (for example, family/friends, members of a private flying club, or users of an airport facility).
In Summer 2014, the FAA ruled that the flight offerings of two flight-sharing platforms, Flytenow and AirPooler,[4] constituted activity that was regulated under commercial carrier terms, based on the broad audience reached and "holding out" of offers to transport passengers.
In the European Union, flight sharing is authorized for light aircraft by the article 6 § 4 bis a) of the law n° 965/2012 enacted on October, 5th 2012.