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AVWEBBIZ NEWS
May 6, 2008
DayJet Announces Layoffs
By Russ Niles, Editor-in-Chief
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.
--
Ignorance is always afraid of change.
~ Jawaharlal Nehru
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