The fate of per-seat, on-demand air-taxi firm DayJet is up in the air, and its aircraft are not. According to an FAA spokesman, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company “parked” its entire Eclipse 500 fleet at noon today for “economic reasons.” However, flight-tracking provider FlightAware shows that the DayJet fleet has been moved over the past 18 hours to Gainesville (Fla.) Airport, where 16 of the company’s 28 Eclipse 500s were parked in early May following the revelation that DayJet was unable to secure another $40 million of operating capital to proceed with its aggressive expansion plans. Instead, DayJet was forced to scale back operations at the time and lay off about 100 employees. By press time, AIN was unable to determine if today’s actions mean that DayJet has been shut down for good, or how many employees remain at the company. DayJet’s latest troubles come almost exactly a year after it started very light jet air-taxi service in Florida and then gradually expanded service to cover much of the Southeast. Just last week DayJet said it was expanding the service to allow weekend operations. Several phone numbers for DayJet officials have been disconnected, though AIN was able to contact vice president of strategic operations Traver Gruen-Kennedy via his cellphone. However, he declined to comment on the current situation at DayJet. The company’s public relations department did not return AIN’s calls seeking comment. Eclipse Aviation also couldn’t be reached for comment on the status of DayJet’s remaining orders for approximately 1,400 Eclipse 500s.
Where did they get the idea that they would EVER need 1400 aircraft. Thats some pair of balls. This should come as no surprise to anyone. Some ideas look good on paper, this one never did. What will this do to Eclipse now? More trouble that this firm doesn’t need. Pity.
No kidding. 1400 is a lot. That would mean they would have to have an extensive network throughout the US. Using the word “Parking” raises an eye. I mean, it obviously doesn’t mean they are shutting down. Perhaps it is their temporary solution until they can secure capital. If they can’t then they would have be done for good.
Whether our not funding is doubtful, this clearly a delay until they can try to get some. There is no other reason to ground a fleet, but not be dead. They have to be waiting or begging for money.
I do agree that it is highly unlikely they can get any capital especially in these harsh economics times.
Same was said about the idea of people paying $25 to fly their letters from around the country to a single site and then back again (FedEx), people replacing their IBM mainframe terminals with toy computers (Apple), making billions of dollars with yet another search engine (Google) and a surgical robot (daVinci). Turns out that it is very hard to predict which visionary game changing new ideas will work and which will fail except with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. If you bet that none of them will work, you will be right more often than you are wrong, but you will also miss some of the biggest breakthroughs in the world.
DayJet Fleet of Eclipse 500s Goes on the Block
DayJet, the failed air taxi operator based in Florida, had taken delivery of 28 Eclipse 500 very light jets (VLJs) before ceasing operations last month. The start-up operator had ordered 1,400 of the VLJs. The 28 are now up for sale, with their Albuquerque, New Mexico, manufacturer in the role of broker. Though there has apparently been some interest in acquiring the entire fleet in a bulk purchase, Eclipse Aviation has indicated no interest in offering the bargain prices presumably sought for such an offer. The DayJet Eclipses had accumulated no more than 450 hours each, and are being sold “as is” with the DayJet livery and interior. Eclipse reportedly still has more than 900 of its twinjets on backorder.
