Robinson Helicopter sees markets in China and India for thousands of helicopters and has plans to set up more dealerships.

David Smith, vice president of operations for Robinson Helicopter, thinks the emerging civil helicopter export markets for China and India are in their infancy. “These places have been emerging for too long,” he recently told AIN. “Emerging. That’s the word I always hear from the trade groups. It’s past emerging. It’s past due.”

Set Jet members who depended on the business jet per-seat charter broker to fly them to some of the most desirable destinations for high-net-worth West Coast travelers—including Los Angeles; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Aspen, Colorado; Las Vegas; and Scottsdale, Arizona—will have to find another club to join.

On Saturday, Set Jet emailed its $99-per-month members—of which there were more than 2,800—to tell them the company, which was founded in 2014, was ceasing operations. Its website doesn’t sugarcoat things.

China’s efforts to develop a second airliner to boost the nation’s economic competitiveness and prestige was slowly coming to fruition in the form of the C919, the inaugural flight of which officials expected to fly in March of 2017.

Developed by state-run Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), the narrowbody had reached the early stages of pre-flight trials, including taxi and brake tests, according to a Comac official who spoke with AIN on the condition of anonymity. “Every day, the experimental test pilots get progressively more involved in testing different things,” he told AIN. “It looks like it will fly late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter. After that you probably won’t see it fly for quite a while.”

Lilium has launched a service organization to support customers of its six-passenger eVTOL aircraft. The Power-On business unit will handle battery management, maintenance, flight operations, training, and digital solutions.

According to the German company, it is the first eVTOL manufacturer to establish a comprehensive customer service organization in a support market that it expects to be worth at least $5 billion by 2035. It has appointed aftermarket veteran Dominique Decard to run the profit center, capitalizing on his leadership experience with various European airlines.

Some two and a half years since its establishment, Buffalo-based Private Jet Maintenance (PJM) has turned its attention to applying its newly acquired Part 145 repair station certificate to opportunities for expansion. Now largely engaged in supporting out-of-production business jets, the company operates out of a modestly sized hangar at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, whose lease expires in November 2024.

By that time, an offer from Signature Flight Support to lease a larger hangar could allow it to maintain larger jets such as Bombardier Globals and Challenger 650s. In a recent interview with AIN, PJM director of maintenance Ben Chieffo explained that profit margins on maintenance of large-cabin jets can exceed those on small aircraft such as Learjets by a factor of three.

With more than 190 countries in the world, even the most seasoned travelers will inevitably feel out of their depth somewhere.

The new Amazon series Expats—a Nicole Kidman vehicle in which a wealthy woman suffers glamorously in Hong Kong—explores the “Americans abroad” theme. “So many people now are self-conscious of being an American abroad, because we have a bad reputation sometimes,” the series’ director, Lulu Wang, told The Wall Street Journal. “People tend to try to correct themselves. And Margaret [Nicole Kidman’s character] is that way, wants to be very considerate, wants to treat the locals well, and she has all of these things. But then when she’s struck with grief and she’s spiraling, all of those niceties and social politenesses that she’s trying to maintain fall apart.”

Having already sold the Gripen multi-role fighter to Thailand, Sweden’s Saab hopes to secure further sales of the type in Southeast Asia. Two major opportunities exist in the region in the form of a follow-on order from Thailand and a fighter requirement in the Philippines. A Gripen C from the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) sits on display in the static park at the Singapore Airshow.

Thailand acquired its first batch of six Gripen C/Ds starting in February 2011, having ordered the type in 2008. Saab delivered a planned second batch in 2013 to complete the equipment of 701 Squadron at Surat Thani. The aircraft primarily serve defense roles and operate alongside a pair of Saab 340 airborne early warning aircraft supplied with the fighters as part of an overall air defense package.

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