Dassault Readies Extra AOG Support for Davos Forum
Dassault Aviation will once again support its Falcon business jet customers traveling to the World Economic Forum 2020 in Davos, Switzerland, by positioning a team of maintenance specialists, equipment, and aircraft at nearby airports, the French airframer announced yesterday. The forum is scheduled for January 21 to 24.
“Field support for major events has become woven into our regular product support operations,” said Jean Kayanakis, senior v-p of worldwide Falcon customer service and service center network. “It is part of our global commitment to position support as close as possible to the customer. We want to ensure that Falcon operators attending such events have access to the fastest, most comprehensive and highest quality onsite support available.”
The extra support at Zurich International Airport and St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport will come from Dassault’s newly acquired service centers in Switzerland—TAG Maintenance Services and the business aviation operations of RUAG—and elsewhere in the Falcon support organization. Dassault plans to provide similar support for Falcon operators at the Super Bowl early next month in Miami, as well as at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
AINsight: 2020 Vision
Business jet OEMs are coming off some of their best performance in the last 10 years, whether measured by net new orders, backlogs, and book-to-bills above 1:1. In fact, when totals are added up, unit deliveries of new business jets and order backlogs will likely end 2019 up by more than 10 percent year-over-year—the first time this has occurred in the post-2008 recovery period.
But a dichotomy between new and preowned sales has emerged, with important implications for industry stakeholders in 2020 and beyond. In the first 11 months of 2019, preowned business jet sales were off about 16 percent year-over-year. During that time, inventory began to rise in both nominal and fleet-for-sale percentage terms, while prices mostly softened.
Meanwhile, the market sentiment of the owner/operator community has clearly downshifted, in what looks to be a reaction to a multitude of complicating factors that have clouded forward visibility. These include a deteriorated macroeconomic and trade environment; diminished business confidence; concerns about climate change and environmental sustainability; Middle East tensions; the U.S. Presidential election; unresolved Brexit issues; and a strong U.S. dollar.
Within the business aviation industry, the challenges of an aging fleet, diminished aircraft residual values, sluggish aircraft utilization patterns, and the loss of talent to higher-paying aviation sectors and other industries are compounding to increase the level of uncertainty facing existing and prospective business aircraft owners and operators.
Wheels Up founder and CEO Kenny Dichter was honored with the Eren Ozmen Entrepreneur of the Year Award last night during the 17th Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards in Los Angeles. Hosted by actor and aviator John Travolta, the Living Legends Awards honor those who have made significant contributions to aviation and aerospace.
Dichter, who follows past recipients that include Elon Musk, is honored for bringing innovation, technology, and a disruptive force to private aviation. He founded membership-based Wheels Up in 2013 with a fleet of King Airs, and since then the operator has sold more than 8,000 memberships, expanded its fleet to nearly 200 aircraft, and grown its employment base to more than 1,000 people. The company now has an enterprise valuation of more than $1.5 billion.
“I’m honored to be receiving the Eren Ozmen Award following the long line of accomplished entrepreneurs…and I hope that it inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs with disruptive ideas to dream big,” Dichter said. “Wheels Up’s tremendous growth is a testament to our incredible employees, as well as our investors and partners."
Before launching Wheels Up, Dichter co-founded Marquis Jet in 2001, which introduced the first fractional jet card program. Marquis ended up generating more than $5 billion in revenue, helping lead to its sale to NetJets in 2010.
Gulfstream Unveils 2020 Customer Event Calendar
Gulfstream Aerospace’s customer support organization has released most of its 2020 calendar of customer-focused events, the first one of which is slated for January 22 in Zurich, Switzerland, in conjunction with the 2020 World Economic Forum in nearby Davos. Customer events include Gulfstream’s biennial Operators & Suppliers Conference, two customer advisory board meetings, and a flight operations forum.
They begin with the flight operations forum next week in Zurich—a flight-crew-focused event with presentations on advanced aircraft technology, connectivity, and an interactive collaboration session between pilots and Gulfstream staff. Its first advisory board meeting kicks off February 3 to 5 at Gulfstream’s Savannah headquarters, followed by a virtual meeting from August 31 to September 2, allowing 100 select Gulfstream operators to talk with Gulfstream senior executives and staff about their aircraft and the company’s support services.
Gulfstream’s marquee customer event, the Operators & Suppliers Conference, will be held June 7 to 10 in Savannah. Typically drawing between 1,500 and 2,200 customers and suppliers, it focuses on safety, operational issues, and technical updates.
“These events provide us with numerous opportunities, in groups or individually, for customer input and feedback,” said Gulfstream Customer Support president Derek Zimmerman. “They also provide another opportunity for us to share up-to-date information with our customers and discuss many topics relevant to the continued safe, efficient, and reliable operation of their aircraft.”
Dassault and Thales Awarded Archange Contract
France’s Direction Générale de l’Armament (DGA) has awarded a contract to Dassault Aviation and Thales to equip two Dassault Falcon 8Xs with the Thales Capacité Universelle de Guerre Electronique (CUGE, universal electronic warfare capability) signals intelligence (Sigint) suite. Launched in February 2018, the program for a Falcon-based Sigint aircraft was then known as Epicure, and at the time the specific model of Falcon platform had not been finalized.
While the initial contract is for two 8Xs, the stated requirement is for three, and a contract for a third is expected. The system is due to enter service in 2025 and will replace the two C-160G Gabriels France's air force currently uses for Sigint.
The CUGE-equipped aircraft are being procured under the Avion de Renseignement à Charge Utile de Nouvelle Genération (Archange, intelligence aircraft with new-generation payload) program, which was launched to produce a successor to the C-160G Gabriel, which is based on the aging Transall airlifter platform.
Thales produces all of the CUGE equipment and is responsible for integrating the system into the Falcon 8X platform. It is also providing a ground-based training system for the monitoring and intelligence specialists who will feed data into armed forces databases to provide a better understanding of the strategic environment.
Bombardier yesterday signaled a possible complete retreat from the commercial aircraft business in a preliminary fourth-quarter earnings report that anticipates a $130 million EBIT loss during the period. The potential exit from the Airbus A220 program, in which the company still holds a minority stake, would follow the company’s decision last year to sell its CRJ regional jet program to Mitsubishi and its aerostructures manufacturing business in Belfast to Spirit Aerosystems. The Canadian company said it expected both transactions to close by mid-year and generate $1.1 billion in cash.
“While the A220 program continues to win in the marketplace and demonstrate its value to airlines, the latest indications of the financial plan from [Airbus Canada Limited Partnership] calls for additional cash investments to support production ramp-up, pushes out the break-even timeline, and generates a lower return over the life of the program,” Bombardier said in the report. “This may significantly impact the joint venture value. Bombardier will disclose the amount of any write-down when we complete our analysis and report our final fourth quarter and 2019 financial results.”
In a statement to AIN, Bombardier said the joint venture remains under review by the partners and that it would release more information on February 13.
Rapidly changing localized weather and pilot fatigue are two possible contributors to the fatal crash of an air-tour Airbus Helicopters AS350B2—registered as N985SA and operated by Safari Aviation—in Hawaii on December 26 that killed the pilot and six passengers.
In its preliminary accident report issued this week, the NTSB noted deteriorating weather in the area of the crash site, 24 miles northwest of Lihue. A witness about 1.5 miles away from the scene said forward visibility was 20 feet in rain and fog shortly before the crash at 4:57 p.m. The closest official weather reporting station in the area, nine miles southwest, at 4:56 p.m. reported 10 miles visibility and broken clouds at 3,400 feet; by 5:18 p.m. conditions had deteriorated to 2.5 miles visibility in rain and mist and overcast at 3,000 feet.
According to the NTSB, the commercial-rated pilot was flying his eighth 50-minute aerial tour flight of the day, suggesting fatigue could also have been a factor.
The helicopter was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire when it hit terrain on a north-facing slope at an elevation of 3,003 feet msl and came to rest at an elevation of about 2,900 feet. It was being operated by Safari Aviation, doing business as Safari Helicopters, as an on-demand Part 135 air-tour VFR flight.
Expert Panel Endorses Cert Process, Calls for Upgrades
A special committee’s findings that the FAA’s aircraft certification procedures are generally effective drew mixed reaction on Capitol Hill, with Democratic leaders saying the agency’s delegation processes have failed and Republican leaders stressing the need to keep the basic processes intact.
Published yesterday, the report probed possible certification process weaknesses exposed by the twin Boeing 737 Max crashes. Recommendations in the report called for mandatory safety management systems for design and manufacturing organizations, expansion of system safety assessments, closer and more specified coordination among different FAA offices, expansion of the FAA’s “global engagement and influence,” and “aggressive” development of the FAA workforce to meet evolving industry needs.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Pete DeFazio (D-Oregon) said he would consider the recommendations, but said, “I want to be very clear: 346 people died because the system failed. Despite the wishes of industry, it would be the height of irresponsibility to leave the [Organization Designation Authorization] system as is…Not addressing the failures head-on would be a grave mistake.”
His ranking counterpart, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri), however, said the report “clearly dispels the narrative that our aviation certification system is broken…The Special Committee has concluded that neither our ‘extremely safe’ aviation system nor the FAA’s certification processes should be dismantled and that doing so could jeopardize safety.” Graves added that he too would examine the recommendations.
Don’t wait—AIN’s FBO survey is now open for year-round feedback. It takes only a minute, and you can do it while waiting for passengers, on the shuttle bus to/from the hotel or any other time that is convenient for you. Log on to www.ainonline.com/fbosurvey to rate your experiences at the FBOs you visit. Voting for this year's survey closes February 2.
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