Santa Monica, California-based Surf Air late last month closed its European operation that was flying Cessna Citation Mustangs under Globe Air’s AOC, with scheduled services from London City Airport. Surf Air’s core model is an all-you-can-fly membership with access to scheduled, “semi-private” flights.
Surf Air Europe commenced operations in early 2017 from London Luton Airport using a single Embraer Phenom 300 operated by FlairJet. Its first routes were to Ibiza and Cannes in the summer, and it added a Zurich connection and wanted to add cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels, and Geneva.
Before starting flights to Zurich it moved its base to London City Airport, citing member demand for the decision. The company talked about adding more aircraft, such as Pilatus PC-12NGs, which have formed the core of its U.S. West Coast operation.
Simon Talling-Smith, who joined the company to run its European arm having previously run British Airways’ transatlantic alliance with American Airlines, has also left Surf Air.
Surf Air was started in California in 2013 and has grown steadily linking cities in California and Texas using Pilatus PC-12NGs. The company is “now serving 11 destinations in California and Nevada with many more to come,” according to its website.
International air charter sourcing platform Avinode is seeing a strengthening in the medium jet sector with inquires up by 39 percent in the U.S. and by 29 percent in Europe. Avinode, which includes midsize, super-midsize and heavy jets in the “medium jet” sector, traced 100,209 “trips” for medium jets for domestic U.S. travel from Nov. 1, 2017 through Oct. 31, 2018. That number is up from 72,262 trips sourced in the previous 12 months. A trip is a journey sourced through Avinode, but not necessarily booked, the company explained. By comparison, small jet demand in the U.S. grew 32 percent in the 12 months beginning Nov. 1, 2017 to 76,314.
“Medium jets fit the U.S. perfectly,” Avinode said, particularly for coast-to-coast or East Coast to Florida routes. The most frequent request for medium jets were flights between Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in Florida. This was followed by Teterboro to Van Nuys Airport in California.
In Europe, Avinode reported 176,848 trips sourced for medium jets for the year beginning Nov. 1, 2017, up from 137,091 in the previous year.
Avinode pointed to the operational benefits and short-field capabilities of medium jets, but also believes news of new models helps provide a boost to the sector, pointing to the imminent certification of the Cessna Citation Longitude and the unveiling of Embraer's Praetor 600 and 500.
Honeywell Advances SURF IA Airport Alerting
Honeywell, in partnership with Airbus, Dassault, and Eurocontrol, has completed initial testing of SURF IA (Situational Awareness on the Airport Surface with Indications and Alerts), a system that uses ADS-B In/Out technology to give pilots visual and audio warnings of potential runway conflicts. Also known as Surface Indications and Alert system, it takes runway incursion warning systems a step further by adding visual and audible alerts of other aircraft and providing time-to-collision warnings.
Honeywell’s earlier incursion-prevention system, Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RAAS), was a software update to the Primus Apex or Epic avionics suite’s EGPWS designed to improve pilots’ situational awareness during takeoff and landing, including advisories when the aircraft is approaching the runway or taxiing on the runway. SmartRunway and SmartLanding were the next evolution of RAAS and add more features such as when takeoff flaps are not set or the runway selected for landing is too short. SURF IA takes this further, calculating factors, such as time to collision, through algorithms to alert pilots of surrounding aircraft.
Honeywell and its partners’ initial testing of SURF IA is part of research done under the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research program.
The FAA recently opened a new Atlanta Flight Operations Facility at Cobb County International Airport in Kennesaw, Georgia. The modern facility serves as the headquarters for the region’s space- and ground-based instrument flight procedures inspection operations and their aircraft.
Included in the 32,050-sq-ft facility is a 23,100-sq-ft hangar that accommodates six specially-equipped Beechcraft King Air 300 twin turboprops. The site also contains shop space for aircraft maintenance and repair, and administrative space for 26 FAA employees.
The Atlanta Flight Operations Facility is part of the FAA’s Flight Program Operations service unit in the Air Traffic Organization. This program consolidates all of the agency’s aircraft and personnel into a single organization responsible for all aspects of flight program safety, administration, operations, training, and maintenance.
Other Flight Program Operations facilities are located at Anchorage, Alaska; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Battle Creek, Michigan; Fort Worth, Texas; Oklahoma City; Sacramento, California; and Washington, D.C.
Jet Linx Adds Luggage Free, Bogner To Partner Portfolio
Business aviation services and aircraft management company Jet Linx is continuing to expand the array of services offered to its customers through new partnerships with Luggage Free and Bogner. These companies join the Jet Linx Elevated Lifestyle benefits program that offers rewards, upgrades, access, and other features. Through this program, Jet Linx is assembling a diverse group of high-end partners that can provide varied services designed to enhance the overall travel experience.
Luggage Free is a full-service travel shipping company that provides door-to-door service, handling everything from luggage and bicycles to strollers. Jet Linx jet-card holders will have access to member benefits for Luggage Free services. As for Bogner, a high-end fashion and sportswear label, Jet Linx members will receive special seasonal offers on its collections.
“Both Luggage Free and Bogner are natural additions to our exclusive portfolio of Elevated Lifestyle partners, providing premium quality and convenience to our members and aircraft owners,” said Jamie Walker, president and CEO of Jet Linx. “Both brands will become an integral part of our experiential benefits program.”
The additions come as private jet travel companies increasingly are seeking to align with known luxury brands and assemble unique packages as the build their membership bases.
FSF Publishes ‘Short Sleep’ Best Practices
The Flight Safety Foundation has published best practices guidelines for implementing a policy allowing for controlled rest (CR) on the flight deck. It was developed by an industry Fatigue Countermeasures Working Group.
Controlled rest is defined by ICAO as a “short sleep opportunity” that serves as a mitigation strategy in case of unexpected fatigue during flight. It is not to be used as a planned strategy to extend duty periods, but rather as a “safety net” to combat in-flight fatigue. The first CR procedures were introduced by airlines more than 20 years ago, but this document provides the first complete review of the practice, along with an overview of current scientific research on napping, sleep inertia, and CR.
According to a recent survey of managers and flight crew where CR is practiced, 90 percent said the practice has provided significant benefits for flight safety, 87 percent said CR has reduced fatigue-related performance decrements during critical phases of flight, and 83 percent said CR has reduced instances of uncontrolled napping.
However, some national regulators, including the FAA, prohibit CR. Controlled rest was considered when the latest FAA flight and duty time rules were developed beginning in 2010, but it was excluded from the final regulations. CR is permitted for some or all operators in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and most states in Europe.
NBAA has updated its member categories to better represent the industry’s ever-changing landscape and reduce complexity, it announced late last week. Under the new structure, NBAA membership includes three member types: operating, business, and professional.
The association said it will automatically update members to their appropriate category, which will be reflected on their My NBAA Profile webpage. Thus, corporate and business members are now operating members; associate members are now business members; and business aviation contractors are now professional members.
The operating category includes those that own or operate aircraft, primarily not for hire, as a transportation aid in the conduct of its business or activities. The business members category covers those with a commercial interest in business aviation that do not qualify for membership as an operating member. And the professional segment includes those with a “pervasive interest in business aviation” such as contract pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance personnel.
According to NBAA, the new structure also allows for the inclusion of students, recent graduates, retirees, former military, and those not currently employed by a company eligible for NBAA membership.
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
Per FAA AC 43-4B "Corrosion Control for Aircraft," which was released in September 2018, which of the following factors might influence metal corrosion and the rate of corrosion?
A. Mechanical stress on the corroding metal.
B. Availability of oxygen.
C. Presence of biological organisms.
D. None of the above.
E. All of the above.
Aviation Journalist Jack Elliott Flies West
Journalist Jack Elliott Shapiro, 94, died November 20 in New Jersey. Under the pen name of Jack Elliott, he contributed to numerous aviation publications, including AIN. But he was best known as the author of the weekly column “Wings Over New Jersey,” published for more than 38 years in New Jersey’s Newark Star-Ledger. The column is thought to be the longest-running aviation column in any mainstream publication.
Elliott was raised in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He served with the U.S. Army during World War II, participating in the liberation of Rome in June 1944, after which he flew to southern France in the back of a Waco glider.
He earned his pilot certificate in 1954, later adding commercial, instrument, glider, and seaplane ratings. By then he had begun his journalism career, first with the Long Island Press, and later with the Star-Ledger. He began writing the aviation column in 1963, continuing to contribute weekly after he left the paper for a career in aviation public relations. A book compiling his most memorable columns, titled Adventures in Flying, was published in 2008.
Elliott belonged to a host of aviation organizations and received multiple awards for journalism, culminating in his induction to the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame in 1986. He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Esta-Ann, children Amy and Stephen, and grandson Hudson.
AIN’s Human Factor: One Turn of the Wrench Exposes SMS Flaws
While safety management systems (SMS) are powerful tools that are now seeing widespread adoption throughout the aviation industry, if not fully utilized and embraced from the top to bottom of an organization, and without proper reporting, any “near-misses” can go unchecked until disaster strikes. A U.S. Navy aircraft mechanic who was seriously injured in a maintenance accident went on a crusade to find out how the root cause of such a situation, which previously harmed four others, had slipped through the cracks in the Navy's SMS.
AINalerts News Tips/Feedback: News tips may be sent anonymously, but feedback must include name and contact info (we will withhold name on request). We reserve the right to edit correspondence for length, clarity and grammar. Send feedback or news tips to AINalerts editor Chad Trautvetter.
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