Nonstop flight to Bay Area draws praise

The way Nicholas Holland sees it, a nonstop flight to Oakland, Calif., from Nashville will allow him to knock out several hours of work while en route to the San Francisco Bay area, a path he has traveled as many as 10 times a year as he builds his startup company.

Holland won't even have to worry about running out of power for his laptop, and it is far better than burning a day in the Denver airport.

As Nashville seeks to further assert itself as a hub for entrepreneurship and as a growing base for technology companies, this new accessibility to the West Coast is a big step forward. The nonstop Southwest flight announced last week will ease plenty of headaches prompted by lengthy layovers and is likely to spur more interaction between the two areas.

It takes only one trip for people traveling back and forth to realize existing options are "pretty much terrible," Holland said. "... Anybody who has to go out there, their lives are infinitely better served by a direct flight."

Holland has been passionate about a Bay Area flight for some time. A year ago, he created a site called bna2bay.com to build support for a Nashville flight to Oakland and surveyed 1,200 people on their interest in the flight. Now that the flight is scheduled to begin June 7, he is among those celebrating.

Oakland is no San Francisco or San Jose, but it is a 25-minute drive across the water to San Francisco and an hour from Silicon Valley, potentially an easier route, if traffic is kind, than connecting the dots through other airports.

The new flight could spur local business growth as California companies exploring the city for expansion and investors interested in Nashville companies will be able to travel to the area more easily. San Francisco-based Eventbrite opened a Nashville office earlier this year, and several local businesses have offices there.

"It establishes a beautiful connectivity point between Nashville, which probably has more industry knowledge on how to run a health care business in the world, and Silicon Valley, which has so much tech talent and investment," said Michael Burcham, CEO of the Entrepreneur Center. "This route is going to create a beautiful traffic flow between the Bay Area and Nashville."

The flight is good news for local startups seeking expertise or funding from West Coast investors, allowing them to more easily contribute to Nashville's economy rather than having to move to California themselves. It could also benefit software developers attending conferences or working remotely for California companies, as well as those traveling to Nashville for similar reasons. San Francisco-based tech publication PandoDaily and Launch Tennessee are hosting startup events in Nashville in June, hoping to attract speakers, investors and attendees from the Bay Area.

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee.