NetJets Inc., the fractional ownership and plane leasing company owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has announced major layoffs. Due to a slowdown in business travel and the overall usage of private jets the company is firing 495 pilots.

Bloomberg quotes a statement from David Sokol, NetJets CEO who said that the decision came from looking at current and predicted flight demand. The news comes just around two months after Sokol took over and the company moved back to Columbus, Ohio.

Currently the company owns more planes than it is using. NetJets employs over 3,000 pilots worldwide. The layoffs come after an earlier layoff of 350 non-pilot workers which was announced in September. Some are questioning whether or not the fractional private jet model still has a place in this economy. I think it does but that the scale may be smaller than these companies would like.

Private jet company NetJets has announced major job cuts. The company, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, will cut 350 jobs, five percent of its work force. The Columbus Dispatch also reports that the company is delaying an expansion of its Port Columbus campus. The project was to be one of the biggest economic-development projects in Ohio and Columbus fought valiantly to lure NetJets to Ohio. The company had promised that the $200 million expansion could create as many as 800 jobs within six years. The company had not accepted any public money for the expansion. Cash incentives were to be made in the form of reimbursement.

Like many jet operators NetJets has struggled in the economic slump. It lost nearly $350 million during the first six months of 2009. Many charters and fractional businesses have had layoffs in the wake of major decreases in business travel and some have folded up shop completely. Ohio government officials expressed confidence that the company would continue to stay in the state and would be an economic powerhouse once again.

Famed billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. picked up a pricey bauble this Valentine's week, $250 million of Tiffany & Co. debt. Tiffany & Co. is still the world's second-largest retailer of luxury jewelry but like many retailers, especially those in the jewelry business, it took a deep hit over the past holiday season. With its stock share price falling and lower sales numbers, the Buffett boost provides much-needed insulation in an unsure world.

Buffett has been buying up debt everywhere lately on companies as varied as Harley-Davidson and Sealed Air Corp., the makers of Bubble Wrap. Bonds on this debt pay between 10 and 15 percent. The Tiffany bonds are at 10 percent and half of the bonds will mature in 2017, the rest two years later. Tiffany will use the money to repay debt and regroup in a time that has seen other jewelry retailers including Whitehall and, just last week, Fortunoff, fall into bankruptcy. In the last year or so much of Tiffany's strategy has involved opening smaller stores and creating more entry-level sterling silver pieces. Last March before the economic crisis really got into full spin, I questioned whether these stores and this merchandise represented a dilution of the TIffany brand. Given the prevailing winds of change, Tiffany could decide to reverse course, open fewer stores this year and strengthen its luxury reputation or it could continue on the current track and hope that consumers with less money to spend will still want a little piece of Tiffany.