There have only been three complaints to speak of since Airship Ventures began its luxury zeppelin service flying passengers around the Bay Area three and a half months ago.

The primates at the San Francisco Zoo are said to "freak out" when the world's largest airship passes overhead, and two people on the ground have complained that passengers aboard the ship are looking at them through telephoto lenses.

So Alexandra Hall, the chief executive and c0-founder of Airship Ventures with her husband, Brian, has ordered that the 246-foot-long Eureka stay clear of the zoo and, well, she insisted that no spying is permitted.

As complaints or problems go, most businesses would wish they were so lucky. But, as Hall put it in an interview Friday at the company's Moffett Field headquarters, "It was not the best time to launch in the luxury tourist business," just as the economy was tanking. "There was not a lot we could do about that," because the plans for the sightseeing service were put in motion two years ago and could not be stopped.

The company offers one- and two-hour flights out of Moffett and Oakland International Airport - or longer if desired - for a pretty penny. A standard one-hour flight is $495 per person and two hours is $950. Odds would seem stacked against the company in a downturn.

But Hall said Friday that a second round of investor funding, for $2.5 million, will be finalized by the end of next week. "We are all breathing a sigh of relief," she said. It will be added to an initial $8 million produced by six investors - the Halls and Esther Dyson, a technology investor, and three others who are unidentified and who have confidentiality agreements with Airship Ventures. The new round of financing was provided by Dyson, along with two unnamed partners.

The company did have to lay off a few employees - there are about 25 now - when a cash flow problem occurred recently, said Hall. Other personnel changes have been made and there are fewer managers now. Airship Ventures has a lease financing agreement with the German manufacturer of the zeppelin - so it effectively makes mortgage payments on an airship it will eventually own.

That arrangement has been restructured, said Hall. "We had to look at what was going to be a realistic projection for us and what it is going to take in addition to what we had already done in order to stabilize the company and allow us to succeed," she said.

Hall added that the company got off to a problematic start because the airship's planned arrival date was delayed for six weeks and revenue that was planned for the fourth quarter last year did not materialize.

"It was pretty challenging, while we were busy smiling for the cameras" as the company made its debut, she said.

But, there's been progress. The company will soon have flown 1,500 passengers and 800 are booked but have yet to take their flights. Long-term plans are to turn its headquarters, Building 20, the old bachelor officers quarters at Moffett Field, into a boutique hotel.

"If these walls could talk," said Hall.