In a response to record demand, fractional-share provider Flexjet has increased its pilot hiring goal this year—to 350, up from a previous 300—as it enlarges its business jet fleet and network of private terminals. Directional Aviation’s Cleveland-based company also expects to add 50 more jets this year, which would increase its fleet to 231 aircraft. Flexjet’s fleet types include the Embraer Phenom 300, Legacy 450, and Praetor 500; Bombardier Challenger 350; and Gulfstream G450 and G650.
The company also is in the planning stages for a private terminal in Scottsdale, Arizona, adding to its network of such facilities at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport; Dallas Love Field; Florida’s Naples Airport and Palm Beach International Airport; New York’s Westchester County Airport; and California’s Van Nuys Airport. Additionally, Flexjet has broken ground on a global operations center next to its facility at Cleveland Cuyahoga County Airport that will serve as the company’s master logistics and control center.
As part of its pilot hiring plans, Flexjet has boosted pay and benefits to include starting total compensation of $128,000 for first-year pilots, as well as home-based crewing, flexible scheduling, and guaranteed captain upgrades. The additional hiring round will increase the number of existing pilots with Flexjet from 800 to 1,150.
“We want Flexjet to be a career destination for pilots not only for the long-term earning potential but schedule, quality of life, and modern equipment,” said Flexjet COO Megan Wolf.
AINsight: FAA Letters, Part 2
In part two of this series, I want to discuss a particular type of letter asking for additional information about a specific medical condition that pilots sometimes receive from the FAA that requires immediate attention. This is one version of the “nastygrams” that I referred to previously.
Most of these requests do not “deny” the pilot’s medical certificate. These letters typically have verbiage that the FAA is “unable to determine the pilot’s eligibility” and give the pilot 60 days to submit the additional information.
On the surface, that seems reasonable. But the rub is in the actual timing and processing of these letters. Recently, it has been taking anywhere from two to four weeks for the pilot to receive the letter after the FAA’s processing date stamped on it. Once the pilot and the treating physician scramble to obtain the additional testing, it is then sent to the FAA for review, with the agency often taking yet another one to two weeks to log it into the system.
Therefore, a pretty good chunk of the 60-day requirement can be eaten up purely in the logistics. So if you receive a letter from the FAA asking for additional medical information, get on it immediately.
JetNet iQ’s newly released business aircraft forecast calls for 1,100 jets and turboprops to be delivered this year, up about 6 percent from the 1,034 airplanes shipped in 2021. “Despite surging OEM backlogs and book-to-bills, we continue to expect modest year-over-year growth in business jet and turboprop deliveries in the near-term, driven primarily by production and supply chain limitations,” the business aircraft information and consultancy firm said.
“We continue to hear of the daily pressures that put stress into workflows and that disrupt smooth production cadence,” JetNet noted. “While new aircraft demand remains robust by almost any prior-year standard, labor shortages, supply chain pressures, and—appropriately—cautious management practices are tempering any significant increases in production.”
Meanwhile, JetNet’s latest data indicates that more than 3,600 preowned business jets changed hands last year, up 30 percent from 2021 and the highest annual total ever recorded by the company. Preowned turboprop sales also climbed 27 percent year-over-year, it added.
Preowned business jet inventory tracked in the JetNet system fell 46 percent by year-end 2021, to just 855 aircraft. At the beginning of this month that dwindled to just 706 business jets, with less than 8 percent of this inventory being five years old or younger, according to JetNet.
In response to Transport Canada's notice of a proposed amendment (NPA) to require the installation of lightweight flight data recorders (LDR) on virtually all general and business aviation aircraft registered in Canada, a number of alphabet aviation organizations have raised issues about the feasibility of the proposal. Those concerns were raised by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and through a joint submission by the Canadian Business Aviation Association, Canada Owners and Pilots Association, Helicopter Association of Canada, and several other aviation trade organizations.
Because information from flight recorders can reveal information that accident investigators would not otherwise have learned, the organizations said they might consider supporting a flight recorder equipage mandate if it provides for compliance flexibility, alternate means of compliance, minimizes costs and unnecessary burdens on manufacturers and aircraft operators, is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and is harmonized with globally accepted standards. But this proposal does not meet any of those conditions, according to the organizations.
In sum, the organizations recommended that Transport Canada “temporarily suspend or rescind the NPA until all the issues are analyzed and addressed.”
Legacy Flight Academy (LFA) drew more than 80 students to its Eyes Above the Horizon event at Moton Field, home of the Tuskegee Airmen in Tuskegee, Alabama. The March 26 event provided an opportunity for students to take a flight, some for the first time, and receive mentorship from military and commercial pilots. LFA last held Eyes Above the Horizon at Moton Field in 2019 in an event that featured Tuskegee Airman Brigadier General Charles McGee.
“The Red Tail Scholarship Foundation and Box Aviation flew a lot of the students, and we were also able to tour the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site as a part of our character lessons,” said Kenneth Thomas, LFA president and founder of Eyes Above the Horizon of this year’s event held on March 26. Boeing hosted a STEM workshop and Aviation Supplies and Academics distributed information discussing college and career lessons.
LFA, which holds events across the nation to reach underserved and underrepresented communities, in February held its largest program yet in Charleston, South Carolina, where participants flew 114 youth in collaboration with the USAF’s “Accelerating the Legacy" Black History Month event.
Funded through sponsorships and donors, LFA is kicking off its annual Tuskegee99 fundraising campaign via social media tomorrow and is planning its next Eyes Above the Horizon event, which is expected to be scheduled later this year in Northern California.
A day after Textron Aviation announced a deal with flyExclusive for up to 30 Cessna Citation CJ3+s, the Kinston, North Carolina-based Part 135 operator announced the launch of a fractional-share program that will be supported by the light twinjets.
FlyExclusive Fractional will offer shares in the CJ3+ with no monthly management fees and no positioning fees or daily minimums. Instead, fractional owners will pay daily and hourly rates featured in flyExclusive’s Jet Club and Partnership programs. Also, flyExclusive’s fleet of 85 light, midsize, and super-midsize jets will be available to fractional owners through preferred fractional pricing, the company said.
FlyExclusive told AIN it would not publicly disclose specific pricing or fractional share information, but fractional sales start at 40 hours and larger increments are available.
“We continue to innovate in the marketplace with a fully owned and operated fleet and a vertically integrated business model that redefines what it means to fly private,” said flyExclusive founder Jim Segrave. “FlyExclusive Fractional joins our Jet Club and Partnership programs to give flyers a multitude of pathways that all lead to one destination: more ways to take control of their private flying. We will continue to identify new opportunities to extend reliability, flexibility, and private jet charter experiences for our customers and now for our flyExclusive fractional owners.”
NBAA’s Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference (SDC) made its triumphant return as a live event this week in San Diego, following the show's two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. This year’s meeting, which was postponed from January due to the Omicron Covid surge, attracted 2,600 attendees and more than 350 exhibitors. It also featured a full slate of 32 education sessions split over three days, with topics ranging from emissions and sustainability to DIY international trip planning to FBOs being a flight department's partner on the road.
Cynthia Polk, FBO director of Gary Jet Center and a 22-year SDC veteran, told AIN that she felt a return to normalcy while attending the event. “I think the people are happy to be back with all of our industry family and they’re just excited about it again,” she said. “You don’t really appreciate things until you’ve lost them, so it gives you a great sense of renewal that our aviation industry will survive.”
“I was delighted with how it went,” SDC committee co-chair Mitch Greene noted while admitting to some trepidation about marshaling the first live conference since the 2020 edition, which was curtailed amid a nationwide wave of Covid cancellations. “We had great education sessions and the exhibit floor was robustly attended right to the end.”
Next year’s conference is slated for January 24 to 27 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Following the launch of the government/industry initiative Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) earlier this year, Aeroplex Group Partners announced that the self-serve avgas pumps at California’s Santa Monica Airport (KSMO) have transitioned to Swift UL94 unleaded aviation gasoline.
UL94, which is now dispensed from KSMO’s self-serve station at the southwest corner of the field, is not a full replacement for 100LL and is compatible only with aircraft engines requiring 94 motor-octane fuels or lower. That accounts for more than 125,000 aircraft or roughly 66 percent of the current fleet. For those remaining aircraft that cannot use UL94, the Atlantic Aviation FBO on the field will still supply 100LL.
The move makes the city-owned airport the first in the Los Angeles area to offer the replacement for conventional avgas at commercially competitive prices. Aircraft owners who want to use UL94 will need to purchase a supplemental type certificate from Swift Fuels for a one-time fee of $100.
Aeroplex president and CEO Curt Castagna said his company partnered with the airport and the fuel manufacturer on the process, which he described as a “first step in an evolutionary process to deploy a 100 percent 'unleaded' alternative drop-in replacement aviation gasoline that will eliminate the need for toxic lead in avgas altogether.”
Photo of the Week
Evening sky show. Corporate pilot Michael T. Richards snapped this photo of his company’s Eclipse 500 at exactly the right time during a fiery sunset while the twinjet was parked for the night at Hetrick Air Services in Lawrence, Kansas. Thanks for sharing this one, Michael!
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