Nearly three-quarters of the FBOs in the U.S. and Canada saw higher fuel sales last year versus 2020, according to Aviation Business Strategies Group’s (ABSG) annual FBO fuel sales survey and industry forecast, which was released today on the eve of NBAA’s Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference. Underlining the post-Covid boom in private aviation flight activity, 40 percent of the survey respondents indicated they saw more than 8 percent improvement in fuel sales year-over-year, while an additional 32 percent said they had increased between 1 and 7 percent.
“After the Covid-induced recession of 2020, there appears to be a very rapid recovery in fuel sales for most FBOs responding to our survey,” explained ABSG co-principal and industry veteran John Enticknap. “In fact, many FBOs are reporting fuel sales equal to, if not greater than, pre-pandemic levels recorded in 2019.”
However, ABSG co-principal Ron Jackson noted that it is not a situation of a rising tide lifting all boats. “Of the FBOs reporting, 16 percent said they had a decrease in fuel sales in 2021 compared to 2020, while 13 percent indicated about the same fuel sales.” Some locations that depend on avgas sales reported headwinds due to a depressed flight training market and fuel supply disruptions, he added.
Sales at European jet card provider PrivateFly climbed 258 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, with sales in March representing the highest month of card sales ever for the Directional Aviation company and sister company to fractional provider Flexjet. “It’s clear from the extraordinary growth we are seeing that there is strong demand in the current market conditions for a jet card product, providing certainty of price and availability,” said PrivateFly and Flexjet managing director Marine Eugène.
PrivateFly also has created a super-midsize jet card—replacing its midsize jet card—intended to offer customers access to larger business jets across the midsize and super-midsize categories such as the Cessna Citation Latitude and Bombardier Challenger 350. The company also offers a light jet card and a heavy jet card, with all three categories offering fixed hourly rates and guaranteed flights within Europe.
Eugène said the high demand for business jet travel is challenging but not insurmountable. “We are not complacent about the operational challenges either, but with the strength of our supplier relationships and our expert team, we are confident we can continue to deliver an outstanding service,” she said.
So far, advance bookings indicate a strong summer ahead for the company in Europe despite some uncertainty created by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Eugène added.
In an investigation of the FAA’s mitigation efforts to detect and counter malicious use of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), the U.S. DOT’s inspector general office found that the agency was lacking resources in its counter-UAS (C-UAS) measures.
Given the increasing safety and security concerns related to UAS, the GAO sought to assess the FAA’s process for coordinating with other federal agencies authorized to issue guidance and implement use of C-UAS technologies. Further, the watchdog agency wanted to ensure that these technologies used by other agencies would not adversely affect aviation safety.
The report concluded that the FAA is coordinating with other federal agencies that use UAS detection and C-UAS technologies to ensure there is no impact to airspace users. However, the FAA has “not conducted a strategic assessment of these programs to ensure it has the resources needed to keep pace with increasing demand,” the GAO said. “Because the FAA has not yet completed the necessary testing of UAS detection and C-UAS technologies, the agency cannot fully assess their impact to aviation safety and security, and may not understand those impacts for several years.”
The FAA concurred with all three recommendations to improve the effectiveness of its C-UAS efforts and provided actions to be taken and scheduled completion dates.
Gogo Marches Toward 5G Launch
During the past three months, Gogo Business Aviation has been on a tear with the development of its 5G program. Despite a global environment that has created supply-chain woes, the inflight Wi-Fi provider remains steadfast that it will launch 5G in the second half of this year and that the program remains on schedule and on budget.
Titan Aviation Fuels acquired Geneva, Switzerland-based aviation fuel reseller Akryl, the companies announced today. The move will allow Titan, which supports more than 550 U.S. FBOs in its network, to extend its aviation fuel supply footprint, as well as contract fuel program for U.S. and Canadian customers, to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Akryl will be rebranded as Titan Aviation Fuels and will maintain offices in Geneva along with Dublin, Ireland.
Akryl’s online digital fuel procurement platform allows flight departments to view aviation fuel pricing in real-time and make fuel purchases worldwide, Titan said. This platform can also be integrated with a customer’s operations software to enable a more streamlined and efficient way to manage fueling operations.
“Not only does the [addition of Akryl] give our contract fuel program an international footprint for our North American-based customers,” said Titan Aviation Fuels president Robbie Stallings, “but also provides access to Titan programs for European-based customers traveling to North America. As a result…[this will] drive international traffic to our extensive Titan-branded FBO network.”
Titan’s non-fuel support services include a pilot loyalty program, aviation card processing, aviation insurance, quality control training, Atlas FBO management software, equipment leasing and financing, and online aviation parts store.
Web Manuals and the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) have partnered to create and implement the Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) in the Web Manuals Store. It will be available to all customers of Web Manuals, which digitizes manuals for aviation companies.
The addition allows Web Manuals users to easily connect to BARS and receive automatic warnings and task management features that have made the Web Manuals Compliance Module popular. FSF’s BARS is a risk-based management program for organizations that use aircraft operators to provide contracted aviation support for their operations, especially within remote and challenging environments.
“Our aim at FSF is to lead global aviation safety and facilitate solutions to accomplish this,” said FSF BARS program managing director David Anderson. “Our partnership with Web Manuals helps achieve this, and we look forward to working with them.”
The sanctions placed on Russia, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil and petroleum products, by Western nations are having a domino effect on jet-A pricing in the U.S., particularly on the East Coast.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the country is divided into five Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) that enables regional analysis of petroleum product supply and movements, with District 1 being the East Coast. The region receives its refined fuel supplies mainly from the Colonial Pipeline that runs from Texas to New Jersey, as well as from imports from Europe. According to Reuters, deliveries of the latter are down nearly 60 percent as Europe deals with its own fuel supply difficulties.
That has caused record-high pricing for jet-A in recent days in PADD-1, with the market closing out last week above $6.60 per gallon, more than twice the seasonal average. Additionally, the pandemic factors into the pricing as refiners, faced with a surplus of jet fuel due to drastically diminished airline flight schedules over the past two years, diverted supplies toward diesel and gasoline.
Jet fuel pricing correlates strongly with the price of home heating oil, and Reuters noted that the spread between heating oil and U.S. crude futures is now nearly three times what it was a year ago.
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
What is lift coefficient?
A. The wing dynamic pressure expressed as a non-dimensional value.
B. The lift and drag forces resulting from an increase in angle of attack.
C. The ratio of lift pressure to dynamic pressure.
D. A coefficient used in aerodynamics to account for random boundary layer fluctuations.
Lilium has pushed back the projected timeline to achieve type certification of its seven-seat Lilium Jet eVTOL by 12 or more months, to 2025. The public company confirmed the delay to investors via a 20-F filing late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Thursday, Lilium founder and CEO Daniel Wiegand reported that the Germany-based company will now start building the first production-conforming aircraft for the EASA type certification process in 2023. “We will then spend the following 15 to 18 months running our final test campaign with the aim of receiving our initial type certification in 2025, with scale production of our aircraft set to begin immediately upon type certification,” he said.
Lilium previously was working toward a goal of getting approval for the all-electric aircraft and being ready to start commercial operations in 2024. Wiegand indicated that the decision to delay is based on “the current status of design activities to develop the safest possible aircraft, our discussions with regulators, and…the continued supply chain disruption.”
Following a preliminary design review, Lilium said in late February that it is reducing the number of electric ducted fans for the Lilium Jet from 36 to 30. According to the company, this change was made possible by using a slightly larger and more powerful engine design. The move will reduce parts count, weight, and system complexity, it added.
Want more? You can find a longer version of this article at FutureFlight.aero, a news and information resource developed by AIN to provide objective coverage and analysis of cutting-edge aviation technology.
A veteran aviation manager has launched nonprofit Wings of Love, which is dedicated to raising funds for and providing assistance to children who have lost parents in aircraft accidents. Founder Anna Lovelace, who is also a senior account manager at Universal Weather and Aviation, rolled out Wings of Love in late March after years of laying the groundwork for the organization and said it has already received initial sponsorships and family referrals.
Lovelace said she has seen firsthand the effect of an aircraft crash on surviving children: in 2016 she lost her brother, World Fuel sales executive Eric Grace, and his wife in the crash of a Piper Cherokee Six in the Houston area. They left behind two children and “their world was turned upside down,” she said.
Concerning Lovelace is that an average of more than 400 aviation fatalities occur each year. “Unfortunately, it is something that happens quite often,” she said, adding that people don’t see the long-term struggles of those left behind.
The nonprofit is establishing different levels and tiers of sponsorship, from individual and corporate to those wishing to sponsor a specific family. “In just the first week, I feel like we’ve had such great interest in it,” she said of the launch. “People are asking how they can help."
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