Commercial: DayJet Set to Launce Innovative Service with Eclipse 500

DayJet announced, as this issue was going to press, the receipt of $50 million in capital resulting from the completion of its third round of private equity financing. This latest round of investment provides DayJet with the capital required to launch its innovative "Per-Seat, On-Demand" jet service in the second quarter of this year and places the company among the best capitalized pre-operational air carriers in history, according to the company.

By providing "Per-Seat, On-Demand" jet service, DayJet’s service is designed to save some of the time and aggravation of regional business trips. Like traditional charters, DayJet’s service will be "on-demand." The customer will dictate when and where the plane will go within the DayJet network. Unlike charters, DayJet’s service is "per seat." Rather than renting the entire plane, the DayJet customer will only rent the seats needed. Therefore, other passengers may end up in the other two seats

According to DayJet, nearly 80 percent of regional business trips are made by car. Long drives can leave the traveler road-weary before the meeting even starts. In addition, because of the time it takes to drive, even trips for short meetings may involve the expense and inconvenience of an overnight stay. That’s wasted time that cuts into your productivity and the quality of your life.

For regional trips, commercial flights with their fixed schedules, security lines, delays, and hub connections frequently aren’t any better. Typically, regional business travelers spend more time traveling on the ground and in airports than in the air.

Here’s an example of the logistical problem that DayJet is designed to solve. DayJet employees frequently travel from their headquarters, in Delray Beach, Florida to an Eclipse facility in Gainesville, Florida. That trip requires driving 4.5 hours each way, which means a very long day or an overnight stay. Since there is no direct service, the trip takes six or seven hours on commercial airlines. DayJet will be able to make the Delray Beach to Gainesville flight whenever the customer wants to go in 55 minutes, using convenient local airports.

DayJet plans to charge between $1 a mile and $3 a mile, or a little more than full coach fare that an ordinary airline would charge. Other than the value of the lost time, the cost of driving a car is more than 50 cents per mile. DayJet is betting that a company would rather pay more than full coach fare or the cost of driving to get a businessman to a meeting in a manner that saves hours of travel time. After all, Ben Franklin said time is money and he got rich.

DayJet believes that it can afford to fly people at these rates for two reasons: first, the Eclipse 500 is an efficient plane that costs only about $1.5 million compared to $12 million for a mid-sized business jet; and second, DayJet will use state-of-the-art real time computer programs to schedule its flights.

While the cost of flying on DayJet’s Eclipse 500s will be a much less than the cost of flying on a corporate Lear Jet, flying DayJet will provide a less pampered experience. In fact, DayJet’s Eclipse 500s don’t have bathrooms. DayJet doesn’t think that the lack of bathrooms will be a problem, since most flights will be an hour or less.

Unlike many charter operations, every day, each plane will return to its home base. While this may result in some empty return flights, the cost of those empty return flights will be relatively low because of the low operating costs of the Eclipse 500 jets as well as DayJet’s real-time operations system, which optimizes the operational performance of its fleet. According to DayJet, this home base approach has two important advantages. First, the air crews will be able to sleep at home every night and lead a normal life. Second, every day, the same flight crews will be flying the same planes and the same maintenance crews will be servicing them. This continuity between crews and their planes will enhance safety and efficiency.

DayJet’s Chairman, Ed Iacobacci, of Citrix and IBM fame, first came up with the "Per-Seat, On-Demand" concept when he was doing a lot of regional traveling for Citrix. He found that access to a corporate jet saved him tons of time and greatly improved the quality of his life. He wanted to make on-demand air service available at a reasonable cost to executives and employees who couldn’t afford access to a corporate jet. He formed DayJet in January of 2002 to turn his idea into reality.

The Eclipse 500 Jets

The Eclipse 500 Jet, which was certified by the FAA in 2006, has been called the Model T of business jets because of its simplicity and low cost. According to Eclipse, the total operating cost of an Eclipse 500 jet, which is powered by twin Pratt & Whitney 610 engines, is only $372 per flight hour: $193 per hour in variable costs and $179 per hour in fixed costs (minus engine reserves).

The Eclipse 500 Jet is truly very light, weighing just 3,550 pounds empty (compare the 3,100 pound weight of a Toyota Camry) and 5,520 pounds loaded. The Eclipse 500 is lighter and cheaper to operate than other business jets for a number of reasons. For instance, friction stir welding eliminates the need for rivets. Also, the plane has eliminated all hydraulic systems except for brakes, which simplifies maintenance and decreases weight. Instead of using hydraulics, the plane is operated by purely mechanical controls. Flaps and landing gears are operated by electric motors, which can be easily replaced.

The aircraft uses low-maintenance LED lighting. Except for four mechanical circuit breakers, all circuit breakers are electrical, with switches in the cockpit.

According to Mark Reed, DayJet’s vice president of maintenance operations, the recently designed Pratt & Whitney 610 engines are extremely efficient and durable.

To save time for DayJet’s customers, its Eclipses will cruise at a brisk 370 knots per hour. To avoid thunderstorms, it can fly as high as 41,000 feet.

Eclipse had planned to use state-of-the art avionics by Avidyne, but at press time Eclipse and Avidyne had just announced a parting of the ways (see sidebar, page 33). According to Reed, the plane’s diagnostic system is comparable to the diagnostic system on a 767. It identifies faults and transmits fault data to ground personnel using an iridium satellite communications link. The plane monitors its own engine trend data, which can be transmitted, in real time, to Pratt & Whitney. The Eclipse also collects other operating data that can be accessed when the flight is completed.

DayJet’s Maintenance Ops

DayJet hired Mark Reed in 2005 to plan and implement the firm’s maintenance operations. Reed has worked in aircraft maintenance for more than 25 years. He got started in the Air Force, where he traveled all over the world as a C-141 flight engineer. After the Air Force, Reed went to work for Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, Georgia, where he was a technical representative and later became manager of C20 field services. From 1996 through 2005, Reed worked for the fractional ownership pioneer Executive Jet, which became NetJets. At NetJets, Reed started as director of maintenance for Gulfstream aircraft. He later became vice president for NetJet’s overall aircraft maintenance operations — in charge of maintaining more than 400 jets. An article in the August 2004 issue of Aviation Maintenance discusses Reed’s NetJets maintenance operation.

Given the plane’s simplicity and modernization, Reed anticipates hiring about one mechanic per airplane to carry out regular line maintenance. DayJet will rely on the manufacturer, Eclipse, which has a facility in Gainesville, for heavy checks and maintenance. DayJet will send personnel to Eclipse’s facility to assure quality control and compliance with company directives.

Reed has done several rounds of interviews for mechanics. Some are coming from airlines while others are coming from different business jet services. DayJet will be making offers within a few weeks of receiving the aircraft from Eclipse.

Each mechanic will receive three weeks of training on the Eclipse 500 jet and the Pratt & Whitney engines before they begin performing maintenance work. DayJet will also require follow-up on-the-job training.

For awhile, according to Reed, his greatest challenge will be working with the Eclipse. "Getting the EA500 up to air-carrier levels of dispatch reliability will be job one for us." While Eclipse is building a good product, Reed reports that "Eclipse needs us to help accelerate the maturation process."

According to Reed, "Our goal of a fully digital MRO system is definitely within reach given DayJet’s in-house IT talent. Our software engineers don’t have the word ’no’ in their vocabulary."

Like fractional ownership more than a decade ago, Reed anticipates that "the per seat-on demand model will open the door to a new level a service for a lot of people. It’s great to be in on the ground floor of something with so much potential for a positive impact."

Team to Replace Avidyne on Eclipse 500 Eclipse Aviation named a team of avionics providers for its Avio avionics suite on the Eclipse 500 very light jet, just a week after its separation from previous supplier Avidyne. Eclipse, Albuquerque, N.M., said Innovative Solutions & Support will supply the hardware and software for the flight displays, Chelton Flight Systems will supply the flight management systems, Garmin International will supply the transponders, Honeywell will supply the multi-mode digital radios, and PS Engineering will supply the digital audio system for the Avio NG, as Eclipse is calling the integrated system. Eclipse said Avio NG’s integrated system applies to the entire aircraft, including avionics, engine operation, fuel system, flaps, landing gear, cabin pressure and temperature. The avionics benefits of the new components include enhanced digital audio and video and a 63 percent increase in pixel density, which improves display resolution. After numerous certification delays, Eclipse broke off its relationship with Avidyne Feb. 27, without divulging details of the split. Vern Raburn, Eclipse Aviation president and CEO, said Eclipse found getting components from several companies rather than one was the best solution for the company and its customers. "Best of breed vs. all from one is how I would characterize it," Raburn said in a conference call on March 5, 2007. "This is the best solution for a variety of reasons." The change in partners will not have any impact on production of aircraft, Eclipse said. Avidyne will supply components for "significantly less than half" of the Eclipse 500s manufactured this year, Raburn said. The company projects it will manufacture 402 jets in 2007 and less than 1,000 in 2008. All of the Avidyne systems will be retrofitted with the new systems in the second half of the year, Raburn said. Each aircraft will take about 10 days to upgrade and the work will be completed at the company’s Albuquerque, N.M., headquarters. "We’re trying to architect a system that as these systems mature it doesn¹t mean you have to throw away your airplane to get them," Raburn said. — By Emily Feliz