Reading (Pennsylvania) Airport Authority has approved the purchase of the two FBOs at Reading Regional Airport/Carl A. Spaatz Field (KRDG). The announcement marks the end of several months of negotiations between the authority and the owners of the Reading Jet Center and Millennium Aviation.

According to airport manager Zackary Tempesco, the matter came to pass when a third FBO operator that wished to establish itself on the field began negotiations with the airport. Those negotiations stalled. However, rather than face competition for an annual fuel flowage of 1.1 million gallons, the two existing service providers approached the airport authority and asked whether they could be bought out. Following the trend of airports bringing their FBO operations in-house, the authority made the decision to acquire the companies.

Purchase prices were determined at $4.7 million for Millennium Aviation and $9.1 million for Reading Jet Center, and Tempesco told AIN that plans call for operations to be consolidated in the newer, more optimally located Millennium facility on the east apron. The two FBOs are home to 20 turbine-powered aircraft and between them, they offer nearly 110,00 sq ft of hangar space that can accommodate aircraft up to the size of a Dassault Falcon 900.

Pending final approvals, the transactions are expected to close in early January.

In the days immediately after wildfires ravaged portions of the Hawaiian island of Maui on August 8 and 9, in-state helitour operators swung into action, flying in tons of much-needed supplies donated by volunteers and delivered via the island’s airports in Kahului (POGG) and Kapalua (PHJH), which remained open.

Rainbow Helicopters president Nicole Battjes said the 70-mph sustained winds that fueled the Maui conflagration were the highest she had seen during her time in Hawaii. Rainbow’s involvement with the relief process started with a phone call for help from her Maui director of operations, Matthew Frisbie. It quickly became clear that thousands on Maui “had lost everything,” Battjes said.

Within days, the company’s GoFundMe page had raised more than $51,000, and Rainbow had delivered more than 3,000 pounds of supplies to Maui from its base at Honolulu International Airport (KHNL), flying its Robinson R44s and Airbus AStars.

Maverick Helicopter’s chief pilot on Maui, Jake Harmon, knew the relief mission was on in earnest when supply-laden members of the public began showing up at the company’s hangar in Kahului after Maverick posted on its Instagram account that it would probably be flying some supply drops to the west side of the island.

Using four of its Airbus EC130s, Maverick delivered 18,000 pounds of supplies to the airport closest to fire-ravaged Lahaina, Kapalua.

Wichita-based lighting supplier PWI has earned FAA PMA approval to replace fluorescent interior lighting with LEDs in Cessna Citation II 550 and 525 CJ1 business jets. The company, which has now gained permission to install LEDs in all cabin configurations of Citation II and CJ1 models, supplies kits to replace all fluorescent lights in the galleys, lavatories, and passenger cabins.

Approval for the Citation LED kits follows FAA certification of PWI’s cabin LED kit for the Falcon 900B earlier this year.

Benefits of LED over fluorescent lighting include reduced maintenance, longer service life, no heat, no high voltage and resulting possible EMI/RFI interference, and no buzz, hum, or light flicker. The Citation LED cabin lighting kits offer 100,000 service hours, require little power and no maintenance, and run on the 28 volts supplied by the aircraft.

PWI designed the kits to connect directly to aircraft wiring, using the exact electrical connectors found in the Citation, making for what the company calls a very straightforward installation.

The kits come in both 4000K warm white color temperature and 5100K cool white. The LEDs dim using the  lighting aircraft controls or any third-party cabin management system.

PWI says future expansion of entire-cabin LED upgrade work will involve additional Citation, Falcon, Gulfstream, and Learjet aircraft.

Global business aviation activity declined by 3.1 percent year-over-year in July with operations down 8.1 percent in Europe and 3.6 percent in North America, according to the latest Argus International TraqPak report.

Argus expects this slowdown to ebb somewhat in August with activity in North America forecast to be off by only 0.1 percent and European operations decreasing 5.3 percent year-over-year.

The decline in North American operations in July exceeded Argus’s original forecast for a 2.7 percent drop, the data analyst and safety specialist noted. Fractional operations in the region remained up, by 4.9 percent, driven in part by a 20.1 percent surge in large-cabin activity. But fractionals marked the only positive segment for operations in the month.

Part 135 operations saw an 8.5 percent decrease with double-digit drops in small-cabin (down by 13.2 percent) and turboprop (by 13.6 percent) activity. Part 91 activity was down by 2.3 percent, led by a 9.9 percent drop in midsize-aircraft activity in the segment.

In Europe, activity saw the largest drop, but Argus characterized this as a “stable environment” considering that July 2022 was the busiest month on record in the region. Small-cabin operations led the slide, down 12.3 percent.

In the rest of the world, operations actually are still improving from last year, up 12.3 percent, despite a 31.9 percent plunge in large-cabin activity.

Lufthansa Technik (LHT) has moved to address a pressing need for more maintenance technicians and engineers with a recruitment drive that saw 321 people enter the company’s apprenticeship program this year. The MRO said it needs mechanics, electronics technicians for devices and systems, engineers, and junior staff for the logistics department and the commercial sector.

Germany-based LHT calls the training of highly qualified employees “a central measure” because Lufthansa Technik competes with numerous other companies preparing for the changes brought by what it called the upcoming generation shift and digitalization.

“Today, employees expect exciting tasks, good supervisors and colleagues, career prospects, and job security,” explained Andrea Jacobsen, head of entry programs at Lufthansa Technik. “In addition, they expect comprehensive support during the training period. These features are weighted higher by them than a high training salary or benefits such as discounted flying or an international environment.”

LHT prepared for the influx of trainees with the expansion and modernization of its trainee workshop in Hamburg late last year.

Of the total of 321 new apprenticeship or study places, 215 involve jobs at Lufthansa Technik, 52 at Lufthansa airline's MRO operations, and the remaining at companies in the Lufthansa Technik Group. Women account for 11 percent of the apprenticeship positions and 18 percent of the study positions this year.

Denver-based aircraft certification service provider Peregrine has received an organization designation authorization (ODA) from the FAA, the company said. The designation will allow Peregrine to process engineering approvals on what it called a streamlined, expedited basis. ODA allows Peregrine to develop and process approvals for many types of supplemental type certifications (STCs) for Part 23, Part 25, Part 27, and Part 29 aircraft on behalf of the FAA.

According to Peregrine, the designation will help mitigate the effects of the FAA’s heavy workload and long lead times. Project completion dates will become more predictable while Peregrine’s customers continue to receive certification support.

“Our team has worked tirelessly to achieve this distinguished delegation, which allows for an efficient process to better serve the aerospace industry,” said Peregrine founder and ODA administrator David Rankin.

Along with STC development for avionics upgrades, Peregrine offers parts manufacturer approval for components and installation kits and carries approval to manufacture parts to technical standard order criteria. Additional services include engineering design and integration, flight testing, dealer equipment sales, rapid prototyping, 3D printing, metal fabrication, and wire harness assembly.

Google is the latest company to join the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) program developed by American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) and Shell Aviation.

Intended to show clear demand for SAF and demonstrate how the private sector can drive change and help finance aviation’s goals of decarbonizing, the book-and-claim program launched last year with one million gallons of SAF available for corporate customers, enough to fuel nearly 15,000 transatlantic flights.

While SAF production is slowly increasing, it still represents less than 1 percent of the jet fuel consumed and is more costly than conventional jet-A, thus limiting demand.

Shell and Amex GBT partnered up to help resolve these issues by joining the fuel provider’s airline customers and the latter’s more than 19,000 corporate customers to offset the cost of SAF and increase its use. That demand in turn would encourage capital development in new production facilities and technologies required to achieve economies of scale.

The system uses a blockchain-powered digital SAF accounting program to provide transparent tracking of the environmental benefits of the fuel as it is delivered into the fueling network. It will eliminate problems such as double counting of benefits for corporations looking to log their verified lifecycle emissions reductions derived from SAF.

“Business travel is a crucial passenger segment for aviation, accounting for around 15 percent of air travel globally and generating around 40 percent of revenues,” explained Andrew Crawley, Amex GBT’s president. “To have Google join our growing SAF program demonstrates how corporate collaboration can accelerate aviation’s transition to net-zero and enable more sustainable travel.”

GainJet Ireland has won EASA Part M subpart I approval from the Irish Aviation Authority, authorizing it to issue and extend airworthiness review certificates for aircraft models within its scope of approval, the Shannon, Ireland-based Continuous Airworthiness Management Organization (CAMO) said Thursday.

The approval covers the Gulfstream G550 and G650; Hawker 800 series; Bombardier Challenger 604 and Global 5000; Cessna Citation X; and Embraer Legacy 600 and Lineage 1000.

“This additional company approval has expanded our CAMO capability and services for both the GainJet Ireland fleet and our customers,” said GainJet Ireland accountable manager Ray Mills. “We are marketing our services to other operators and owners as our new approval will also allow us to issue ARC recommendations to the Irish Aviation Authority.”

GainJet Ireland remains in the process of a company expansion and plans to open an office in Dublin before year-end. The company has expanded its services from aircraft management to providing demonstration, delivery, and maintenance check flights primarily to satisfy the growing needs of lessors. Ireland is a global leader in aircraft financing and leasing,” noted Mills.

Separately, the Irish Aviation Authority recently granted GainJet Ireland a commercial operators drone license.