You know you like to watch

After detailing Dayjet website traffic stats here, it's only fair to share some numbers for Discussions' own visitors. 275 unique visitors visited the blog 450 times as of October 30th for 860 total pageviews. While 20 countries sent traffic to the blog, the US and Canada contributed the lions share.

Five states contributed 20 or more visits each, with Florida leading with 75. North Palm Beach leads the Time on Site category with an average 17+ minutes for each of three visits. California had 36 visits from 23 different locations.

Notable companies with visits include; Boeing, Rockwell, AlliedSignal, Deutsche Bank, Embraer, Falcon Jet, NetJets, Gulfstream, Intel, JPMorgan Chase. Who knew Pronto Aircraft still had net billing in its' name? Greenville S.C. had a few visits - coincidentally the home of SatsAir.

A friendly discussion

with Ed Iacobucci via AeroNews. Eclipse Aviation is an Aero-News sponsor. Ed states almost 300 companies signed up for DayJet service. Very little interest so far in whole aircraft service, which faces much more competition than per seat offerings. Ed also relates that virtually 100% of customers are coming from the auto side of travel.

The discussion lightly touches on diverting around weather, but no questions were raised regarding the lack of flight into known icing, and its possible impact on North FL ops this winter.

Seperately, POGO announced plans to interview at the Embry-Riddle career expo in November.

Tell us how you really feel, Steven Syre

Any columnist that starts with a question like "Can a turkey fly?" has my attention. And Steve Syre of the Boston Globe keeps slinging the 'tude on Pogo Jet (potential DayJet near-competitor) and its IPO from there.

Pogo Jets exists in Chicopee but doesn't have any real operations to speak of so far. It is a developing business that should be seeking venture capital investors instead of public stockholders right now.

The comapny, which looks to fly in early 2009 or so using Eclipse 500's in a per aircraft rental with "finely appointed leather interiors" has an updated website at FlyPogo.com

{Scab (ed)} /Analyst Vaughn Cordle of the consulting firm AirlineForecasts has looked over Pogo plans and doesn't like what he saw. "It's a bust of a business idea," he says.

Cordle can tick off a list of problems with the Pogo plan: bad economics, aircraft reliability questions, and lack of an existing service center. He ranks Pogo atop several companies exploring similar strategies, but only because of Crandall's experience and reputation.

But back to Steve.....

The Eclipse 500 jet seats five, and Pogo plans to use two pilots on every flight, leaving room for three passengers. Scott McCartney tested three very light jets for the Wall Street Journal last fall and described the Eclipse 500 like a sports car, very nimble but cramped.

The jet's interior has 20 percent less space than a Honda Odyssey minivan's. If you end up in the third passenger seat, "it will remind you of sitting on a floor cushion at a Japanese restaurant," McCartney wrote. Oh, and this: There's no bathroom on the plane.

Pogo Jet is an idea still too far ahead of its time for commercial success. But it can offer investors the chance to throw their money out a window from an exceptionally great height.

Eclipse streamlines

Aero-News Network reports a reduction in employee headcount for Eclipse Aviation in ABQ. While the VP of Engineering, Ken Harness, is rumored to have left his position for another in the company, the website still lists him as part of the Eclipse engineering team.

Crosstown Traffic

Alexa details the web traffic for DayJet at approximately 22,000 users monthly. Compete.com
lists a tripling of traffic leading up to the official launch, but shows that pageviews and average stay in minutes have actually decreased per visitor since March 2007. Compete shows the 'Velocity' of the website increasing for the PR push at launch.

Kissing your sister

Is this DayJet's method of improving average aircraft utilization? Flying a Lear 60 on a DayJet flight number to ABQ...No word if the ac will stop in Independence, KS on the return.
DayJet Lear info here



Some rough numbers from deep inside a comment at Eclipse Critic blog:
...All 12 DayJet planes have flown in the past 6 days. In the last 30 days, cycles on the aircraft have ranged from 12 being the fewest to 36 the most. Hours have ranged from 10.75 (.3 hours per day) to 31.75 (1 hour per day). That includes weekends when the planes aren't flying, so the actual usage really averages about .5 - 1.4 hours per aircraft per business day. I'll try to remember to do this again on 11/3, after one month of revenue flights.

Light this Candle

Kudos to DayJet for a service inauguration including guest FL Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp.

Ed is quoted in the St. Pete Times as looking at as many as three more airports by the end of the year. Possibly including St Pete. Clearwater.

Congrats to Ed for being named among the 50 most influential people in tech.


Daily Aviatior says Boca to Lakeland is the most popular route, currently.

MSNBC Video



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