Full-Service Winnipeg FBO Is Home to the Jets

Winnipeg might not be the first guess for the genesis of commercial aviation in Canada, but in 1920 the Manitoba city hosted the first passenger flight from what would eventually become Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (CYWG). Today, the field is home to Fast Air, one of three FBOs and one of the country’s largest aviation services providers.

The company—which began at CYWG in 1995 as an aircraft charter and management provider—purchased the existing Esso Avitat FBO in 2015 to provide better vertical integration with its fleet operations. It now is the dominant FBO on the field, claiming more than 60 percent of the general aviation business there, according to Dan Rutherford, Fast Air’s manager of business development.

BJT: A Look Inside an eVTOL Cabin

New electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft such as the one from Lilium could start entering service in 2025. Advanced air mobility pioneers say they will transform how we move around crowded cities and potentially connect communities in a more cost-effective way.

With battery-powered propulsion systems, they can fly without producing carbon emissions and are far quieter than traditional aircraft. Business Jet Traveler had a chance to sit in one of the first eVTOL cabins to get a feel for what the future of flight might be like.

From the Archives: Marquis Jet's Dichter Leaves NetJets

NetJets lost some of its creative energy in July 2011 when Marquis Jet founder and former CEO Kenny Dichter resigned as vice chairman of the company. NetJets, a Berkshire Hathaway company, bought Marquis Jet in November 2010, as part of the NetJets 10-year business plan under then-chairman and CEO David Sokol. Dichter plans to “serve in an advisory capacity” to NetJets for the next year, “focusing on branding, product development and owner engagement.”

Dichter and partner Jesse Itzler later founded Alphabet City, a sports-compilation CD company that they sold to SFX Entertainment in 1998. The pair later conceived Marquis Jet as a pure jet card provider, but they needed a partner to provide the lift for their customers and found one in NetJets founder and then-chairman Richard Santulli.

BJT: Preowned Bizjet Market Downshifts

A market shift that accelerated through the end of last year has continued into 2023, with declining sales, increasing inventory, and softening prices. More on what these trends mean for buyers and sellers in a moment, but first some data points illustrating the change, and the forces driving it.

Preowned business jet and turboprop transactions in the fourth quarter—historically the year’s busiest time—dropped from 1,021 in record-setting 2021 to 636 in 2022, according to Amstat, a 37 percent decline. Back in the fourth quarter of 2020, as post-Covid demand jumped, sales hit 979 units, also bettering the last quarter of 2022’s volume by more than a third.

Sponsor Content: C&L Aviation

ERJ 135, 140 & 145 Semi-Private Interior Upgrade Options

Semi-private conversions remain a niche market with only a few MROs providing conversion and upgrade services. As one of those MROs, we often get asked about the available semi-private options – from basic interior refurbishment to the complete luxury VIP experience.

Preparing for Night Vision Goggles

Operators are increasingly adopting the use of night vision goggles (NVG) for both emergency and non-emergency flights as they strive for continuous safety improvement. But preparing the aircraft and the operation for their use requires careful planning, experts advised.

As with any aircraft program, operators must factor in the cost, safety benefits, and any risk involved when planning for NVG modifications, said Jeff Stubbs, senior v-p of operations for systems technology at RebTech. “It is important to understand the cost of the night vision imaging system [NVIS], which comprises the cost of the goggles themselves; shipping the goggles out every six months for calibration; pilot training and recurrent training; cockpit modification; ease of installation; and maintenance,” he said. “There is also the need to ensure to purchase FAA/EASA-accepted goggles. This will reduce potential headaches down the road.”

FutureFlight: Joby Chooses Dayton for eVTOL Plant

Joby Aviation will mass-produce its four-passenger eVTOL in Dayton, Ohio—home of the Wright Brothers. The California-based eVTOL aircraft developer announced on Monday that it will build its first scaled production facility at Dayton International Airport, where it intends to manufacture hundreds of aircraft per year together with its partner, Toyota.

“We’re building the future of aviation right where it all started, in Dayton, Ohio,” said Joby founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “The Wright Brothers harnessed revolutionary technology of their time to open up the skies, and we intend to do the same—this time, bringing quiet and emissions-free flight that we hope will have an equally profound impact on our world.”

AINsight: Training Contract Ethics and Accountability

I’ve never been a fan of pilot training contracts. Meaning a legal document that binds a pilot to a flight department for a set period of time after earning a type rating or the pilot owes his or her employer for some portion of the training investment.

I’ve always thought of these kinds of agreements as a red flag, and I know I am not alone. To many, it suggests a low-paying job or a toxic work culture where a pilot might not want to stick around. Perhaps it means the job equates to “indentured servitude.”