Wind, rain and the roar of airplanes taking off Friday couldn't stop DayJet, a new jet service, from opening its new base in Gainesville.
DayJet, which is aimed at business travelers, is "per-seat, on-demand," meaning passengers schedule their own flight times but pay for a single seat instead of renting a whole jet.
Traver Gruen-Kennedy, vice president of strategic operations, said DayJet chose to expand in towns that have potential for growth but aren't easily accessed by scheduled flights.
"If the town is big enough to have scheduled service, it's too big a town for us," he said.
DayJet is also opening ports in Tallahassee, Lakeland, Pensacola and Boca Raton, but about 75 different airports are available to those who rent the whole jet. The planes travel only in Florida and southern Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
Ed Iacobucci, company president and CEO, said DayJet would bring between 30 and 40 jobs to Gainesville but some of those are being filled from out of state.
Prices range from ,260 to ,996 per seat and are based on the customer's flexibility, said E.J. Wojtowicz, sales manager. A customer who can leave at any time of day will have a cheaper fare than someone who needs to leave at a specified time.
Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan said at the ceremony she thought the prices were reasonable for business travelers. Hanrahan does consulting in addition to being mayor of Gainesville.
"In many cases this would be a better deal for my consulting clients rather than paying me my hourly rate to travel to Pensacola or Tallahassee," she said.
The jets are Eclipse 500s, which pilot Ron Brown said are the world's first certified very light jets. About the size of a mini-van inside, each jet has seating for two pilots and three passengers.
Brown said each one holds 227 gallons of fuel which take it about 1,000 miles - about 4.4 miles per gallon.
"It's kind of a revolutionary little airplane," he said.
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the airport, Hanrahan, County Commissioner Paula DeLaney and Gainesville Chamber President and CEO Brent Christensen took a 20-minute flight over Gainesville. "It feels just like being in a large SUV," said Hanrahan, who said the ride was smooth despite the storm.
So far 50 customers in the Gainesville area have registered for the service, and Gruen-Kennedy said he expects 200 to 300 in coming days.
Jet services might one day be economical for students to travel home on weekends, he said, because students' time is less "valuable" than business travelers'.
