Scott Kirsner wrote about the struggles of a company that wanted to be the Uber for private jets:

• The service, BlackJet, would sell individual seats on popular routes for a fraction of what it normally cost to charter a private plane. The hope was that with enough passengers the service would break a profit.
• A trip from Boston to San Francisco, for example, would cost a user of the service $3,500. Such a trip on a private jet normally costs $20,000.
• Users of the service had to pay an annual $2,500 membership fee and give two days’ notice before they flew.
• However the service is running into problems. Most planes are flying empty – and when there are actually enough passengers for the company to break even, the passengers themselves feel crowded and unhappy.

Read more about the layoffs, what the future of the company may hold, and its celebrity backers such as Ashton Kutcher and Jay-Z over here.

Source: Boston