DayJet secured Federal Aviation Administration approval to add the Eclipse 500 to its Part 135 certificate, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the air taxi start-up to begin operations with its growing fleet of Very Light Jets (BA, Aug. 20/71). "This milestone is the culmination of more than five years of dedicated work to develop the world's first fully automated fleet operations system," said Ed Iacobucci, DayJet president and CEO.

DayJet expects to quietly begin operations in the next few days with a limited number of customers while it fine-tunes its operations, said John Staten, chief financial officer and vice president, business operations. Staten likened the "prelaunch" to opening a restaurant and testing it with a few customers before having a public debut. DayJet expects to formally launch its per-seat, on-demand air taxi service in October.

DayJet will kick off service with a fleet of 12 Eclipse VLJs, and the carrier plans to add eight more in the next 30 days and another eight in the subsequent 30 days. DayJet is selling a "membership" service to potential travelers and is initially operating permanent "Dayport" bases at five locations in Florida - Gainesville, Lakeland, Boca Raton, Tallahassee and Pensacola. DayJet plans to establish additional Dayports as its service grows.

Some 200 companies have subscribed to use the DayJet service, and the number of individual members has grown to about 1,200. DayJet is marketing service to points within a 600-nautical-mile radius and primarily targeting potential customers who would otherwise drive to their destinations. However, Staten added that the company has seen an uptick of interest from customers who are seeking an alternative to flying on the scheduled airlines. The next several months should provide "a pretty good sense" of whether DayJet's expectations for its service were on target, he said.