Three more views (last, for now) on DayJet and air taxis
As advertised a while ago, here are excerpts from three additional and, to people following the story, intriguing perspectives on the potential of air-taxi services like DayJet and the problems DayJet itself has just encountered.
The long, detailed, and very-interesting-to-those-who-are-interested full documents come after the jump. Here's the gist, Executive Summary style:
#1 is from a inactive private pilot and very active airline passenger named John Schubert, who argues that air-taxi services like DayJet are already becoming so threatening to the major "legacy" airlines that the airline companies are fighting back as hard as they can, through lobbying and PR.
#2 is from a currently active private pilot and "serial entrepreneur" named Drew Eginton, who argues that DayJet tried to do too much too fast ("hypergrowth," was the term I quoted in my story") rather than expanding more cautiously. He also says that more attention should be paid to a controversial German aviation company named Thielert, which is embroiled in fraud charges now but in principle could have made, and might still, a big difference in air travel.
#3 is from the retired air traffic controller and "Get the Flick" blogger Don Brown, who says that in addition to consulting Russian mathematicians, "ant farmers" [see the story], etc, DayJet should have been sure to include air traffic controllers in its startup team.
To this one I have an answer: My story was long as published, but it started out a couple thousand words longer. Part of what melted away was a description of DayJet's successful interactions with local ATC officials. The key to the success was that DayJet planned -- and plans -- to go where the existing airlines don't; so if a route is already crowded, by definition that's a reason
All the details below.
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1: From John Schubert
"You mentioned the airlines fighting back if DayJet got too successful.
"They already have fought back, and it's dirty pool.
"They have pushed mercilessly to sandbag General Aviation (including charter aircraft) with exorbitant user fees, the higher the better. They have shamelessly and dishonestly blamed general aviation for their own scheduling delays. They even filmed a commercial which showed a bunch of fat cats in a private jet getting priority over an airliner. We all know that doesn't happen in real life, but the airlines have been utterly dishonest in their attempts to make the public believe that general aviation is somehow to blame for the airlines' dreadful on-time record.
"This comes at a time when general aviation is undergoing several technological revolutions that are poised to benefit a broad class of the public. Small jets like the Eclipse 500 (and a dozen of its competitors) are becoming available at a fraction of the traditional cost of small jets, making it cost-competitive for business people to fly a jet charter instead of an airline. Propeller aircraft are undergoing a variety of technology changes that bring new levels of safety and convenience down to middle-class prices. (For the tech minded, this means flying IFR in a glass panel LSA for $120,000. For the non-tech minded, this means your neighbor will pitch in with a half-dozen fellow pilots to share ownership of this surprisingly versatile aircraft.) Small aircraft are starting to get better engines, better weather-avoidance systems, airbags and a long list of other new safety technologies.
"These new technologies come at a time when airlines just don't care when and where they strand their customers. These new technologies threaten to siphon off the full-fare paying customers to the charter business.
"People who have never flown a charter are in for a treat when they do. It begins with not having to take your shoes off to go through security. You are never separated from your suitcases, and the charter has no way to lose them. Your pilot has the flexibility to divert to another airport if you have last-minute changes in your plans, and you'll be delighted when you find that all of the nation's 5,000 public-use airports are open to you, not just the couple hundred airports that have airline service. With so many airports, you can probably get within a few miles of you on-the-ground destination. (And parking is traditionally free at general aviation airports!) If the weather is a factor, the charter pilot has options an airline pilot doesn't have, including flying partway and landing while a storm passes, or using a convenient alternate destination airport. The number of ways a charter pilot can deliver superior customer service is just endless.
"If I were an airline, I'd be scared witless. That's why they've launched such a desperate campaign against general aviation.
"FYI, I am a currently inactive private pilot. My least-favorite airline changes from time to time, but the way a Delta "customer service" person sneered at me when I had to spend the night in Atlanta's airport, while sick with a raging fever, makes Delta number one on my hate parade right now."
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2. From Drew Eginton
"[I am] a 3000 hour GA pilot and a student of Boyd [Col. John Boyd, military strategist abound whom I have written over the last 25 years.]..
"I'm also a serial entrepreneur, now building my fourth software company. I'm a bit skeptical of cos. like DayJet where they hire people in advance of funding and plan to hit the wall at 100 mph if they do not get funding, and then tell their staff, "Ummm, I'm sorry?" I hope they get going again, but if they don't and it's a good business model, somebody else will. In the meantime, cheaper Eclipses for the rest of us.
"Anyway, I would assert the bigger news the last few weeks is the disclosure of alleged criminal fraud at Thielert. That's because it's the first new engine technology (in 60 years?) for light aircraft that delivers step-function gains in efficiency and performance -- while fitting better into the ecosystem of global, contemporary GA. Since no one has been able to produce an inexpensive turbine, and turbine fuel consumption is problematic in light aircraft anyway, the Thielert heavy fuel [diesel] alternative promised much. In their transformative potential, the Thielert diesels are GA's Prius.
"Now all of that is questionable. I don't see the American engine manufacturers getting the capital from their corporate controllers to build a line of diesels; I cannot believe that the IRR is there, particularly when factored against the litigation risk any domestic manufacturer incurs. I just cannot believe Textron is going to give Lycoming $100mm of capital in order to sell engines one at a time and reserve $10,000 per engine for litigation expense. So we're left with 1945 technology (and 1935 engine accessories), that burn an orphaned fuel.
"I would assert that Thielert had a greater potential to transform GA than any of the VLJ manufacturers. Of course you are right, DayJet clearly represented a potential, larger influence on society. But Thielert offered a more rational, integrated, and efficient solution for owner-piloted aircraft. Unfortunately, it appears the founder was a financial thug. We shall see, I guess, how much of Thielert's value was founded on air. Rumor is that Diamond launched its own heavy fuel engine development effort last year, in a kind of anticipatory reaction to Thielert's ethics. Maybe they can get it done."
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3) From Don Brown
"I would like comment on the apparent absence of one element though -- Air Traffic Control. The article makes clear that the company highlighted -- DayJet -- has examined the business in incredible detail. As an example:
”The answer involves an odd assemblage of talents and disciplines that includes American computer scientists who call their specialty “ant farming”; Russian mathematical prodigies who made their way from Minsk and Moscow to Florida, via Jerusalem; Internet-business pioneers; and, yes, pilots and maintenance experts and dispatchers, including many refugees or retirees from the troubled airlines. Plus Bruce Holmes himself, who joined the company a year ago, after NASA radically cut back its airplane-related activities to shift its resources to space exploration. “
"To me -- an ex-air traffic controller -- the absence is glaring. It seems to me that a company that will interact with air traffic control on a daily basis would have covered this base. Perhaps they have. But it’s been my experience that other businesses haven’t. From companies relocating their flight departments to governments choosing a location for a new airport -- it seems as if little (if any) thought has been given to air traffic control considerations."
