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.