After the travel nightmare I'd been through the past few days, receiving this e-mail was a welcome pleasure:
Great. The plane will be ready for you!The plane being an Eclipse 500 very light jet operated by DayJet. DayJet is a new air taxi service that plans to launch in Florida in late July or early August. The concept of air taxis, very light jets and DayJet was recently profiled in Business 2.0.
In the build-up to launch, DayJet and their PR firm have included local bloggers in their program. Since I run a hyperlocal blog in one of the test markets I was invited to a jet preview this week. I am also a potential customer since I travel quite a bit in Florida.
I had intended to check things out early yesterday morning. However, after my flight from DC was cancelled by USAirways on Tuesday, things were out of whack. A delayed flight back on Wednesday messed up my schedule even more. The DayJet folks said no problem, "The plane will be ready for you." Nice service.
With travel for the day behind me, I headed to Lakeland Linder Airport around 6pm to take a look. I snapped a bunch of shots of the exterior and interior of the plane before we took off. You can check out the entire photoset here. As you can see from the photos it's a very small jet. No including the pilots, it seats only three. That's the core of the air taxi concept.
Rather than chartering an entire plane, which I could never afford, you charter a single seat. The planes will operate between DayPorts. The first five DayPorts are in Florida. They include: Lakeland, Gainesville, Pensacola, Boca Raton and Tallahassee. The DayPorts are cities that aren't normally served by commercial airlines, or if they are the costs and travel times are somewhat out of whack. DayJet's flight costs are based on the window of flexibility you provide DayJet. The maximum window is 5.5 hours.
For example if I say, "I need to fly from Lakeland to Tallahassee tomorrow at 10am" then that's not flexible. As such I would pay the highest rate for the seat. However, if I say, "I need to be in Tallahassee tomorrow morning." and build in a maximum of 5.5 hours into my schedule then I pay the lowest fare.
How much are we talking? DayJet staff has told me the rate variation for the Lakeland to Tallahassee flight is projected to be between $290 and $800 per leg depending on the flexibility. For a round-trip to Tallahassee that would be just under $600.00 if I am flexible with my departure/arrival times. It might be a bit pricey, but everything is relative and the X factor is time.
Currently a trip to Tallahassee takes me about 5 hours via car, so round trip that's 10 hours in a car. With DayJet the flight is a little over an hour. Compare a little over two hours with ten. If I can 'work/bill' for any of that saved time then the jet has almost paid for itself. That's big the allure of 'corporate jet' travel, by saving time (and billing for it) that is normally lost at the airport, you make up for the price difference.
Let's look at travel costs. I bill clients for mileage. Roundtrip to Tally is 590 miles or at $.48 cents per mile that's $283.20. Throw in an overnight stay and a meal or two and you might get close to the cost of the fare.
To compare with commercial airlines, a round-trip ticket on Delta from Orlando to Tallahassee is anywhere from $390.00 to $450.00 depending on when you book. Of course with that you get all the fun of commercial air travel. A drive to the airport, security, delays, etc. For me the drive to Orlando airport is at least 45 minutes. Throw in security and the fact that you have to arrive at least 30-45 minutes prior and, well you know. With DayJet I drive less than twenty minutes to Lakeland Linder airport and then walk on a plane, with at most two other people.
When DayJet talks about their fares the usually make the comparison to business class fares, which for most flights are considerably higher than coach. For a run like Orlando to Tallahassee there are no business fares since you're flying on an RJ.
Will they make it? The market will obviously decide. I see them making the majority of their trips to-from Tallahassee in support of the legislature, lobbyists and other related government activity. Most of those folks have the budgets to cover the costs for flight costs.
DayJet plans to operate in the Florida market to prove their concept and iron out any bugs. From there they plan to expand across the Southeast, then on to the rest of the country.
Will I use it? I plan on it. I'll make a few trips and then re-evaluate the cost/benefit. The key is doing something constructive with the time you're saving by not messing around with commercial air travel and all the hassles.
Visitor Comments
What great concept, I'd love to see it work. Your analysis certainly shows the cost could quite manageable/justified.
BTW, if you want to see more about these jets check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqiSgi6bV04
Rumor is you know the guy who designed the interface they keep showing :)
Posted by: jharr | June 14, 2007 10:33 PM
Good concept; I can certainly see the market.
The only free stuff I've managed to get from blogging is energy drinks, books and a t-shirt. ;-)
Posted by: Fritz | June 15, 2007 12:11 PM
I fear that DayJet's biggest problem is going to be the perception issue. Telling a client "I'm taking American Airlines and staying at a decent hotel and renting a car"... no big deal. Telling them "I'm taking the DayJet"... may cause a red flag...even if the costs are the same or lower. Chicken and Egg stuff, unfortunately.
I had actually written about DayJet some time ago when Robert Cringley talked about them and their routing software:
http://www.communityguy.com/index.cfm/id/DayJet
Any way you slice it, it's a fun concept. Hopefully they'll come to Dallas soon :)
Posted by: Jake McKee | June 15, 2007 7:21 PM
I would love to test one also, what about price for a day or week ? where are they based ? Armand Rousso
Posted by: armand rousso | June 16, 2007 11:24 AM
Armand Rousso, they are based all overs US, just go and see their Website. You will have to get register and fill a form and then book a date.
Posted by: FredLevy | July 8, 2007 12:19 PM
I attended Josh Hallett's session at the Florida Public Relations Association Media Breakfast in Lakeland, Florida on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007.
He used DayJet as example of how a new company could benefit from blogging.
Thank you Josh. Good luck DayJet.
Posted by: Jeff Griggs | October 18, 2007 10:49 AM
The worst company in Florida, Stay away!!! they are seeking huge wallets and a dream for another big payday IPO.
Dayjet CFO John Staten and incompetent Customer care Director Like BIll Brown is the mixture for
losing your MONEY! The planes lack in every department especially no bathrooms,food room you can't help think
of Buddy Holly onboard it's tiny cabin. PROTH is right don't buy the stock when they go public this market is very small and the hype will dryup quickly along with all investors money... BYE BYE
Posted by: p.norb | October 26, 2007 7:35 PM
Ignorant? The ignorance only come from fooled people. The many that don't stop to think where
the Spin doctor's of The so called "Corporate inventions get the NEXT best craz". The whole idea behind the so called VLJ is Eclipse and Dayjet to get public support. Build up enough investors on future projections of PROFITS (no one knows when) The Ceo's get rich and the small investors and public lose in the end. THE TRUTH is these people have done it before with Computer tec and are now doing it in a aviation industry. The computer and internet bubble have made these people rich and created the 90's bubble to bankrupt millions in debt and close the small business by 2001.
The goodfellas are back trying to fool you idiot!
Eclipse is a sweat factory for the little jet that sucks. The production is slow because it's the frankinstien of parts coming from all over.
Dayjet's another full of it secret sauce of
spin news... Look at the model real closely and
you see it too...
Posted by: raygravano | January 21, 2008 2:46 PM
"Eclipse is a sweat factory for the little jet that sucks. The production is slow because it's the frankinstien of parts coming from all over."
ALL airplanes are made from parts sourced from various suppliers - nobody makes the "entire" airplane themselves, not Boeing, not Airbus, not Piper/Cessna/Beechcraft, nobody in the entire world.
When Bill Lear was developing the Lear Jet, people told him no one would buy it because you couldn't stand up in it. Somehow, Lear managed to sell a few of his airplanes anyway, evidently to people who thought getting there quickly was more important than being able to promenade around the cabin.
DayJet's business model may or may not work (I suspect it will), and the Eclipse is one of the first of a coming swarm of very light jets. My airplane is a lot slower than an Eclipse, but I can still beat the airlines flying from Daytona to Tallahassee. Takes me two hours, 12 gallons of gas, and I don't have to go through Atlanta. And I can keep my shoes on, too.
Airlines like hub and spoke routing because they make more money that way. Passenger inconvenience is not important to them. Flying the airlines is like riding the bus - if they are going where you want to go, that's fine, if not, tough.
Posted by: Miguel | February 26, 2008 4:00 PM
As a fifteen year veteran heavy business traveler, I'm here to tell you there is a ready market of people like me who are sick of the outright customer abuse from the hub-&-spoke guys. My fervent wish is that someday there will be a bunch of little DayJet-type companies who will finally put Delta, USair, etc. out of their collective misery. This is potentially the same type of disruptive technology that dethroned the mighty mainframe in the computer biz years ago.
Posted by: Mark | March 27, 2008 11:07 PM
Dayjet a bad nightmare and I know people that will freak out in one of its flights..
The high cost of fuel and 3 seats and no bathroom is a great formula for no money.. I can’t believe people would think this is a good business. The customer service management is run by a dope who has no clue in aviation feild. This is all a hype and gimmick to get you to invest and hope for ipo
Posted by: bill nworb | April 30, 2008 10:41 PM
HHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA
PAYDAY Dayjet can't get the money... BOOO WHOOOOO
I feel so bad for you NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Now welcome to the party pal!!!!
I was there with no job had to leave then get stressed out by bunch of Menpausal peoplzeee hahahaha
Posted by: big joe | May 15, 2008 3:04 PM