DayJet Adds More Eclipse 500 Jets Nearing Launch
14-Aug-2007
By Karen Di Piazza
Traver Gruen-Kennedy, vice president of strategic operations at DayJet Corp., confirmed to CharterX today that the company took delivery of its eighth Eclipse 500 very light jet. "Tomorrow we'll take delivery of another one," he said. "In a week we'll have 11 jets; we're so close to launching the first per-seat, on-demand air-taxi operation." Now headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., last week
DayJet relocated from Delray Beach.
DayJet Services, LLC, subsidiary of DayJet Corp., originally planned its FAR Part 135 air-taxi launch last November; however, Albuquerque, N.M.-based Eclipse Aviation Corp. wasn't able to keep its delivery promises. Although Eclipse's production is slowly picking up, aircraft deliveries aren't nearly what the company boasted. With DayJet's total order of 1,400 EA-500s, the company continues its patience--a jet here, a jet there. The heat is on Eclipse to ramp up production, as DayJet is Eclipse's biggest customer, accounting for more than half of its order book.
DayJet had a serious decision to make due to Eclipse's delayed aircraft deliveries.
"We can start service with a limited fleet of aircraft or wait for more; we opted for a soft launch," Gruen-Kennedy said. "The Eclipse VLJ is 135 certified; we have 30 pilots who are type rated in the aircraft and our reservation system, ‘Astro,' works. Company personnel have used DayJet's real-time reservation system for more than three weeks. We're very pleased with how the system is functioning."
Its online system, Astro, was named after the animated dog in the Hanna-Barbera television show, The Jetsons.
"We have nearly 200 companies that have signed up with us to use our per-seat service," he said. "We'll start our service with a limited amount of customers; as we take delivery of more aircraft we'll add service. People want to get from point A to point B; they want to use our service rather than drive. They want air transportation options that scheduled airline service doesn't provide."
He said people who work for Fortune 500 companies, law firms, architectural engineering firms, etc., are eager to fly with DayJet. A two-pilot crew will operate all DayJet aircraft, with seating for three passengers. Gruen-Kennedy says all pilots have a minimum of 3,000 total flight hours.
"Most of our pilots have more than 15,000 hours flying turbine aircraft," he said. "We're in the process of interviewing pilots; by year-end 2007 we'll have 100 pilots." Presently, DayJet employs 180 people.
Gruen-Kennedy says before DayJet can fly passengers, first it must conduct proving runs--to satisfy the Federal Aviation Administration. After the FAA approves this process, DayJet's EA-500s will be added to the company's air carrier certificate.
"We expect to fly passengers at the end of August or the beginning of September," he said. "As we'll do a soft launch for now, we'll have a grand opening later--maybe in September. We've been flying company personnel a lot; the Eclipse is a good performing aircraft and we're confident our customers will think the same."
He said that DayJet Leasing, LLC, subsidiary of DayJet Corp., recently closed debt facilities totaling $140 million for the acquisition of its first 80 aircraft. "DayJet Leasing is the company that initially takes delivery of aircraft," Gruen-Kennedy said. "We've raised more than $200 million; this allows us to continue growth in the market; we have plans that include much more than the U.S. And we're not saying we'll never do another round of funding."
Who knows? Maybe there will be an IPO in the future.
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