Two key DayJet components making a comeback: Eclipse VLJ and software that was a secret weapon – by Graham Warwick in Aviation Week
Five years after DayJet’s ambitious adventure into per-seat, on-demand air taxi operations ended in financial failure, two key components are making a comeback — the Eclipse very light jet and the operations management and optimization software that was DayJet‘s secret weapon … BoldIQ is finding new markets for the software technology. … BoldIQ, meanwhile, is working to apply the software that enabled DayJet’s unscheduled operations to other markets that must optimize resources and deal with disruptions to operations, including commercial airlines, maintenance and health care providers and the military….
A key piece of DayJet, meanwhile, was its ability to operate with no fixed schedule, constantly adjusting operations as customers booked seats or changed plans, while minimizing flights with one or no passengers and operating within constraints such as weather and pilot duty times. To accomplish this, DayJet developed automated operations management software and an optimization engine. As DayJet neared demise, an outside investor saw the potential of its optimization software and bought the code, says Roei Ganzarski, president and COO of Seattle based BoldIQ.
Today, the company is developing markets inside and outside aviation for its two software platforms. The operations management software, with its embedded optimization engine, is already used by charter, aircraft-management and fractional ownership companies. Now, BoldIQ is targeting truck and taxi fleet operators and the energy sector, as well as optimizing computer systems in the health care and information-technology markets.
A selling point for the system is it produces an operational, not theoretical, solution, Ganzarski says. “[DayJet founder] Ed Iacobucci needed a result he could implement, so we take all the rules, regulations and workflows and produce an optimal operational solution,” he says. Within 60 sec. of a change, the software produces three alternative mitigation and recovery plans, with ripple effects on customers and financials. This optimization can reduce business aviation operating cost by 4-16%, he says. When fractional operator AvantAir, which has since suspended operations, cut its fleet to 24 aircraft from 54, it only reduced revenue flights 10%, he says, by using the optimization engine to work aircraft harder and minimize dead-head flights. BoldlQ has yet to break into corporate flight departments, but “with six or more aircraft, it makes sense to look at optimization,” says Ganzarski,
“We see four key markets for the optimization tool,” he notes, particularly in markets that need to recover quickly from operational disruptions. Beyond continued expansion in business aviation, there is optimization of commercial airline operations. “They have long term network planning tools, but are not strong on real-time optimization,” he says. Then there is maintenance, repair and overhaul, “which is a huge real-time disruptive environment.” There is also the military, and its need to reduce costs and resources.
BoldIQ has an agreement with an unmanned aircraft company to optimize the use of UAVs. “We can increase the missions by 10%, which means they can buy fewer UAVs for the same missions or do more missions,” Ganzarski says.