Wheels Up remained the dominant U.S. Part 135 operator in the first half, according to Argus International’s 2023 Mid-Year Business Aviation report, but it joined the majority of the top operators in seeing its activity slide from the previous year. Overall Part 135 flight activity in the U.S. dropped 10 percent year-over-year during the first six months—the largest decline of any business aviation operating sector.

Wheels Up remained atop the pack with 70,258 hours logged through the end of June, besting the next closest operator, Executive Jet Management (EJM), by more than 30,000 hours. But along with having the most hours, Wheels Up also experienced among the largest declines in the first half, falling 12,225 hours from a year ago.

The largest slide came from XOJet, which fell to the ninth spot with hours plummeting from 23,625 in the first half of 2022 to 9,103. At the same time, affiliate operator Jet Edge—which was acquired by XOJet parent VistaJet in June 2022—saw a leap in hours from 14,069 in the first half of 2022 to 29,011 this year.

Exclusive Jets moved into the number four spot with 27,740 hours, and rounding out the top five was Solairus Aviation with 26,265 hours. Others following in the top 10 were Jet Linx, Corporate Flight Management, Jet Aviation, XOJet, and Clay Lacy Aviation.

While most pilots can simply enter the office of their AME and leave with a new medical certificate in hand, as I have discussed before, some pilots have medical conditions that require documentation to be submitted to the FAA. This somewhat complicates those specific FAA medical issuances, but usually things work out in favor of the pilot.

And, for many such medical conditions, with a small documentation packet—often just a few pages—the AME can issue that pilot’s medical certificate on the spot at the time of the FAA examination.

I’ve discussed formal special issuance protocols previously, and, while those also require documentation submission to the FAA (sometimes voluminous in nature), most special issuance pilots do indeed get their medical certificates renewed on an appropriate schedule.

To facilitate this procedure, to the FAA’s credit, the agency continues to improve protocols and checklists for pilots, their AMEs, and the pilot’s “treating physicians.” The purpose of all the effort being put into these documents is to enable everyone involved to know precisely what the FAA is expecting to be presented in a pilot’s required medical data. This is a valuable improvement to the medical certification process, but it has added some complexity and hardships, too.

Blade Air Mobility continues to post higher revenues, as well as losses. In the second quarter, the helicopter passenger ridesharing and medical organ transplant transport company saw revenues jump 42.7 percent (adjusted for the acquisition of Blade Europe) from the year-ago period to nearly $61 million. Meanwhile, its MediMobility division revenues virtually doubled from $17.2 million to $34.4 million over the past year.

Short-distance passenger helicopter revenues increased by 6.2 percent to $19.18 million, and jet revenues were flat at $7.4 million, a 0.2 percent decrease from the year-ago period. Revenues for the first six months of 2023 increased by 42.3 percent to $106.28 million, up from $74.66 million from the year-ago period. However, losses from operations also increased, to $12.2 million, up from $9.7 million in second-quarter 2022.

"Blade's record performance this quarter illustrates the value proposition of our diversified business model," said CEO Rob Wiesenthal. "In MediMobility organ transport, we continue to benefit from new organ preservation technologies that are expanding the market, as well as the addition of a number of new transplant center and organ procurement organizations. In our passenger business, we saw strong volume and pricing growth in the Northeast, particularly for our five-minute helicopter transfers between Manhattan and New York-area airports."

Synerjet, Pilatus Aircraft's distributor in Latin America, has added a maintenance center in Goianápolis, Brazil, and expanded its maintenance facility at São Paulo Catarina Executive Airport. The company made the announcement this week at LABACE 2023, where it displayed a Pilatus PC-12 NGX turboprop single and PC-24 twinjet. 

The Goianápolis facility at Condomínio Liberty Airport planned to be inaugurated on August 23 will encompass 3,500 sq m (38,000 sq ft). At Catarina, the maintenance facility is expanding to 8,100 sq m.

During LABACE, Synerjet delivered a PC-24 to Amaro Aviation for the company’s shared ownership program. Another Pilatus jet delivery, in response to an international tender held in 2022, is heading to Argentina's Santa Cruz Province. That PC-24 is equipped with an aeromedical configuration.

“The versatility of the [PC-24] made this aircraft a reference in the market and an essential choice to meet the most diverse demands of air transport,” said Synerjet CEO José Eduardo Brandão.

In addition, Synerjet is expanding its presence in Argentina by establishing a partnership with Hessa/Indaer, an aircraft maintenance company located at San Fernando Airport in Buenos Aires. The partnership will provide a specialized team to support Pilatus customers in Argentina and other countries neighboring Brazil.

Beijing-based business aviation services group Sino Jet today revealed an agreement with Aerofugia to purchase 100 of the latter company's AE200 eVTOL aircraft. Aerofugia, which is owned by automotive group Geely, has said little about how far the development work for the five- to six-seat vehicle has progressed, beyond releasing a video showing flight testing of a prototype.

According to the announcement with Sino Jet, the AE200 will have a range of up to 300 kilometers (188 miles) and a speed of 250 km/h. This performance is comparable to that anticipated for an earlier eVTOL model, the TF-2, that Aerofugia started working on after Geely acquired U.S. flying car developer Terrafugia in late 2020. In September 2021, Geely announced a joint venture between Aerofugia and European eVTOL developer Volocopter.

Based on information on the Aerofugia website, the deal with Sino Jet appears to have been signed on July 26 but was not announced outside China at the time. Under the deal unveiled today, Sino Jet will receive the aircraft from another Geely subsidiary, Wofei Changkong, which was described as “the core eVTOL provider for Sino Dragon Aviation.” The companies have not disclosed the value of the transaction or when the AE200 aircraft will complete type certification and be ready for delivery.

The Cessna Caravan market is growing in Brazil, Bob Gibbs, Textron Aviation's v-p of special mission sales, said this week at LABACE 2023. “There’s been a big uptick in [aeromedical] purchases, with Caravans bought by the fire department but used by the Ministry of Health,” he said. “All public safety purchases are long-cycle, but they all have to add aircraft eventually.”

Referring to airline Azul’s plans to expand scheduled service from 60 to 160 cities in Brazil, Gibbs affirmed, “A lot of that [will be] Caravans. The Brazilian investment in infrastructure has paid off. Safety has increased enormously in the Amazon with increased radar and communication coverage.”   

Gibbs, who has been selling aircraft to the Brazilian market for a quarter century, remembers a riskier Amazon region. “Twenty years ago, there was no radar control—all positions were self-reported,” he recalled. Even today, flying beyond daylight hours can be risky, he added, “because if Boa Vista is closed, your nearest alternate illuminated landing strip might be 300 miles away.”

Caravans have been used in Brazil for scheduled passenger transport at least since the early 1990s, with airline TAM being one of the early adopters. TAM Aviação Executivo is the Textron Aviation distributor responsible for sales of the Caravan in Brazil and displayed a Grand Caravan EX this week at LABACE.