Air Transport

Pioneering Florida air taxi operator DayJet has been explaining about its plans to roll-out its "per-seat on-demand" model in Europe (Flight International, 4-10 September).

It is likely to seek a joint venture local partner or introduce a franchise model, "breaking away a couple of dozen" of the 310 Eclipse 500 very light jets it has on order to launch the operation in the "next year or more".

DayJet vice-president of strategic operations Traver Gruen-Kennedy, speaking to Flight International, flightglobal.com's sister publication, in London during a fact-finding trip to Europe, admitted "there are a lot of unknowns" about moving into Europe, but "there are plenty of people who would be keen to partner with us".

He lists the Nordic region as well as central and eastern Europe as possible bases for an air taxi operation. Better road, rail and airline links are among "reasons we would not start in (continental) western Europe", he says. However, the European offices could be in Geneva or the UK.

Understanding cultures is also important. "We need to find out about business attitudes to using business aviation as a productivity tool," he says. "That differs from country to country and from industry to industry."

Although DayJet - which is due finally to begin passenger flights in Florida in the next few weeks - is not putting a hard timetable on its ambitions, Kennedy says "it won't take us five years to do Europe, but we will do a lot of thinking. We won't do it off the cuff. Our aim is to become the biggest regional carrier in the world."