On Demand, in the Air

A recent BBC In Business episode discussed the recent innovations in the on-demand air-taxi market. One of the startups hoping to make a name for themselves in this market are DayJet, who are in the process of launching a service which allows for buying seats on charter aircraft from and to airports you nominate. The logistics are solved in real-time by an automated system, and the wider the time window you allow for your journey (which permits drop off/pick-up of other passengers), the cheaper the ticket. DayJet are hoping to offer prices not far off the cost of a standard economy/coach ticket on scheduled flights. They are also planning to use extremely cheap (only $1.5 million) jet aircraft produced by Eclipse. I think all of this combines to produce what seems to be a pretty novel service, although to be fair they aren’t the only ones exploring this market.

There’s a slightly witty irony in that the CEO of DayJet, Ed Iacobucci, is an ex-IBM executive, and he’s entering an on-demand business. Well, I found it amusing.