From AvWeb


DAYJET ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS
Start-up air taxi operator Dayjet has announced it will "scale back" its
immediate growth plans and lay off employees in all areas of its
operations. In an email release today, company founder and CEO Ed
Iacobucci did not detail the numbers of people let go. Iacobucci blamed
weak capital markets and not the company's early performance for the
decision. He said expanding the company to the point of profitability
would require a $40 million capital infusion and he apparently couldn't
find that money. "I won't dwell on this point, but suffice it to say
that given the current state of the U.S. capital markets, the timing of
our planned financing could not have been worse," he said.
Iacobucci said the "proof-of-concept phase" the company is now in has
proved the market is there for the small-jet people mover system he
envisioned but it has to grow from its current fleet of 28 aircraft
serving 11 "Dayports" to as many as 50 aircraft branching out from up to
30 hubs to be profitable and that's why it needed the $40 million. While
DayJet seems confident that it will eventually find the money and
markets it needs, the larger question might be what the delay in doing
so will do to Eclipse Aviation. DayJet is reported to be Eclipse's
largest customer with orders for 1,400 of the estimated 2,500 aircraft
on Eclipse's order book. Calls requesting comment from Eclipse were not
immediately returned.

On 2008-05-07, Darkwing <> wrote:
> "Gig 601Xl Builder" > wrote in message
> m...
>> Start-up air taxi operator Dayjet has announced it will "scale back" its
>> immediate growth plans and lay off employees in all areas of its
>> operations.
> Another failed aviation business, shocker.

That they're cutting back their growth plans does not mean they've failed,
by a long shot. If they can find more capital investment, they'll pick back
up.

It's been said many times that the way to make a small fortune in aviation
is to start with a large one...and that's been borne out many times - bu
it's premature to call this another example.
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (ordered 17 March, delivery 2 June)

"Gig 601Xl Builder" > wrote in message
m...
> From AvWeb
>
>
> DAYJET ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS
> Start-up air taxi operator Dayjet has announced it will "scale back" its
> immediate growth plans and lay off employees in all areas of its
> operations. In an email release today, company founder and CEO Ed
> Iacobucci did not detail the numbers of people let go. Iacobucci blamed
> weak capital markets and not the company's early performance for the
> decision. He said expanding the company to the point of profitability
> would require a $40 million capital infusion and he apparently couldn't
> find that money. "I won't dwell on this point, but suffice it to say that
> given the current state of the U.S. capital markets, the timing of our
> planned financing could not have been worse," he said.
> Iacobucci said the "proof-of-concept phase" the company is now in has
> proved the market is there for the small-jet people mover system he
> envisioned but it has to grow from its current fleet of 28 aircraft
> serving 11 "Dayports" to as many as 50 aircraft branching out from up to
> 30 hubs to be profitable and that's why it needed the $40 million. While
> DayJet seems confident that it will eventually find the money and markets
> it needs, the larger question might be what the delay in doing so will do
> to Eclipse Aviation. DayJet is reported to be Eclipse's largest customer
> with orders for 1,400 of the estimated 2,500 aircraft on Eclipse's order
> book. Calls requesting comment from Eclipse were not immediately returned.


Another failed aviation business, shocker.

Jay Maynard wrote:
> On 2008-05-07, Darkwing <> wrote:
>> "Gig 601Xl Builder" > wrote in message
>> m...
>>> Start-up air taxi operator Dayjet has announced it will "scale back" its
>>> immediate growth plans and lay off employees in all areas of its
>>> operations.
>> Another failed aviation business, shocker.
>
> That they're cutting back their growth plans does not mean they've failed,
> by a long shot. If they can find more capital investment, they'll pick back
> up.
>
> It's been said many times that the way to make a small fortune in aviation
> is to start with a large one...and that's been borne out many times - bu
> it's premature to call this another example.

Well, this was mainly posted the way it was because the other day Larry
said DayJet was making a profit. It was a silly statement at the time
and I called him on it but he never replied.

As far as DayJet having a chance. Yes the money market is tight but if
you walk in there with a plan that is already working on a small scale
there is money out there.

What I have never understood is how DayJet is any different than the old
air taxi services other than DayJet will only take you where they want
to go. Yes, this saves you on some repositioning costs but I just don't
see the difference and neither do the venture capitalists either obviously.

"Gig 601Xl Builder" > wrote in message
...
> Jay Maynard wrote:
>> On 2008-05-07, Darkwing <> wrote:
>>> "Gig 601Xl Builder" > wrote in message
>>> m...
>>>> Start-up air taxi operator Dayjet has announced it will "scale back"
>>>> its immediate growth plans and lay off employees in all areas of its
>>>> operations.
>>> Another failed aviation business, shocker.
>>
>> That they're cutting back their growth plans does not mean they've
>> failed,
>> by a long shot. If they can find more capital investment, they'll pick
>> back
>> up.
>>
>> It's been said many times that the way to make a small fortune in
>> aviation
>> is to start with a large one...and that's been borne out many times - bu
>> it's premature to call this another example.
>
> Well, this was mainly posted the way it was because the other day Larry
> said DayJet was making a profit. It was a silly statement at the time and
> I called him on it but he never replied.
>
> As far as DayJet having a chance. Yes the money market is tight but if you
> walk in there with a plan that is already working on a small scale there
> is money out there.
>
> What I have never understood is how DayJet is any different than the old
> air taxi services other than DayJet will only take you where they want to
> go. Yes, this saves you on some repositioning costs but I just don't see
> the difference and neither do the venture capitalists either obviously.

I just want my flying car that I have been promised since the 1950's. Where
is my flying car??!

On Wed, 07 May 2008 16:35:18 -0500, Gig 601Xl Builder
> wrote in
>:

>Well, this was mainly posted the way it was because the other day Larry
>said DayJet was making a profit. It was a silly statement at the time
>and I called him on it but he never replied.

Bob Fry > was good enough to post an Atlantic
Monthly article that appeared in the May 2008 issue titled Taxis in
the Sky by James Fallows in Message-ID: >
on Sat, 03 May 2008 20:23:48 -0700 under the subject of SATS Success!
(very long).

It was this statement in that article that lead me to believe that
profit was being made:

In the few seconds it takes DayJet to price your trip, a system
called RTR (for "real-time routing") is figuring out how your
request will affect the placement of planes, pilots, and
passengers for all other flights that day, and exactly how much
the company must charge to make a profit on your flight.

Larry Dighera wrote:
> On Wed, 07 May 2008 16:35:18 -0500, Gig 601Xl Builder
> > wrote in
> >:
>
>> Well, this was mainly posted the way it was because the other day Larry
>> said DayJet was making a profit. It was a silly statement at the time
>> and I called him on it but he never replied.
>
> Bob Fry > was good enough to post an Atlantic
> Monthly article that appeared in the May 2008 issue titled Taxis in
> the Sky by James Fallows in Message-ID: >
> on Sat, 03 May 2008 20:23:48 -0700 under the subject of SATS Success!
> (very long).
>
> It was this statement in that article that lead me to believe that
> profit was being made:
>
> In the few seconds it takes DayJet to price your trip, a system
> called RTR (for "real-time routing") is figuring out how your
> request will affect the placement of planes, pilots, and
> passengers for all other flights that day, and exactly how much
> the company must charge to make a profit on your flight.
>


I can understand why that might lead you to thing that the company was
in the black. But you should think about this. If their booking computer
was designed to put them into the black on each flight. The first
booking would have charged the first customer for all start-up costs of
the company. The difference here is gross profit vs. net profit.

And just because they aren't in the black yet doesn't even mean that the
company has a problem. Very few new companies, especially those with
high start up costs make a net profit in even the first several years.
Amazon.com went along time with their stock continuing to climb with out
ever making any money. Hell, I'm not 100% sure they are really in the
black yet.

Darkwing wrote:
> "Gig 601Xl Builder" > wrote in message
> m...
>> From AvWeb
>>
>>
>> DAYJET ANNOUNCES LAYOFFS


>
> Another failed aviation business, shocker.
>
>

Avweb has a nice editorial that VLJs might not be the critical item for
the new air-taxi operations.

http://www.avweb.com/blogs/insider/AVwebInsiderBlog_AirTaxiServices_MaybeItsNotTheAir plane_197820-1.html

Gig 601Xl Builder presented the following explanation :
> I can understand why that might lead you to thing that the company was in the
> black. But you should think about this. If their booking computer was
> designed to put them into the black on each flight. The first booking would
> have charged the first customer for all start-up costs of the company.

IDIOT ALERT !! IDIOT ALERT !!

On Thu, 08 May 2008 08:32:38 -0500, Gig 601Xl Builder
> wrote in
>:

>And just because they aren't in the black yet doesn't even mean that the
>company has a problem. Very few new companies, especially those with
>high start up costs make a net profit in even the first several years.

It looks like DayJet is still making an effort:

DAYJET EXPANDS OPERATIONS IN FLORIDA
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1124-full.html#197926)
Less than two weeks after announcing cutbacks in staff

(http://www.avweb.com/avwebbiz/news/BizAv_DayJet_CutsJets_CutsStaff_197799-1.html),
DayJet on Tuesday said it will expand its network

(http://www.dayjet.com/News/PressReleases/Jacksonville_Sarasota_05202008.pdf)
of DayPorts, adding two more Florida cities, for a total of nine
sites. With the addition of Jacksonville and Sarasota, 62 percent
of Florida's population now lives within 35 miles of a DayPort
airport, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.


What is ironic, is that both DayJet and Cirrus' SATSair are competing
in the same SE regional market. Imagine how well one of these
start-ups might do if they could command 100% of the market instead of
50%. And the west coast is open, but neglected.