DayJet's Full Stop

I am on my way back from a legal conference in beautiful Montreal on a layover in Philadelphia. As has been widely reported on aviation news sites and on DayJet's own website, DayJet ceased operations today after being unable to secure additional and necessary financing. Since it's inception, I have been a big fan of Dayjet - the technology, the people, the vision, the concept, the aircraft and the operation itself. It is definitely a disappointment for me and a setback for the air taxi industry, but it's surely not the end.
I have said repeatedly that the air taxi industry is still in the infancy stage. The debate continues with respect to which air taxi economic models and aircraft combinations will ultimately be around 10 years from now. I am not sure if the economy and "credit crisis" can get much worse, but I suspect it will and the freeze in the investment market surely hurts. Other air taxi operations here and abroad will cease. Some will survive. And others will enter the market this year and next benefiting from the lessons learned of those who did not make it.

DayJet was indeed a visionary first-mover with the VLJ on demand, per seat, air taxi service. As discussed on Wikipedia, "First-mover firms often face high research and development costs and the marketing costs necessary to educate the public about a new type of product. A second-mover firm can learn from the experiences of the first mover firm and may not face such high research and development costs if they are able create their own similar product using existing technology. A second-mover firm also does not face the marketing task of having to educate the public about the new project because the first mover has already done so. As a result, the second-mover can use its resources to focus on making a superior product or out-marketing the first mover."

While there will continue to be a number of aviation consultants who will question the air taxi economic model, it's way too early to declare the air taxi movement a failure. There are a number of operators who are still flying this weekend -- even under the worst economic conditions we have likely seen in my lifetime. And, stay tuned, there are a number of second-movers out there.