Atlanta-based fractional aircraft provider Volato is starting the year off with a bang with an order for 15 HondaJets. The company launched last year with just one specially modified four-passenger HondaJet Elite S—Volato’s aircraft offer galleys and lavatories—and now operates five of the light jets. It will have a fleet of 22 once this latest order is completed.
Its program offers five-year terms with fractional shares ranging from one-sixteenth shares to full ownership. According to Volato, it has sold most of its current inventory of HondaJets, with limited fractional ownership shares available on upcoming first-quarter 2022 aircraft deliveries.
“The private aviation industry has long needed an overhaul with a focus on efficiency for up to four-passenger missions and as we enter year three of the pandemic it’s clear the aviation industry has changed for good,” said company CEO Matt Liotta. “The ease of booking, convenience of check-in, comfort, and now cost are all attractive for private flight.”
Last month, the company rolled out a by-the-hour charter service for non-owner customers, with a portion of the revenue returned to the fractional owners.
“The launch of our charter service completes our business model,” explained Volato co-founder and chief revenue officer Nicolas Cooper. “We are launching another revenue stream for our owners where they can earn up to $1,250 on every live flight hour, irrespective of who is flying.”
The late-December pledge from the U.S. wireless and aviation industries to work together over the safety of the 5G C-band was short-lived, with both sides issuing acrimonious letters and petitions between Christmas and New Year’s. Wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon are scheduled to switch on this C-band on Wednesday. While the main concern is the potential of this C-band to disrupt aircraft radio altimeters, the larger issue is which agency has primary responsibility for aviation safety.
In a New Year’s Eve joint letter to the CEOs of AT&T and Verizon, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson asked the carriers to delay the rollout of 5G C-band for another two weeks and at some locations for up to two months. The wireless CEOs rejected this entreaty yesterday but pledged to continue to work with the FAA if it and the industries it regulates are willing to accept a gag order and cease and desist from any further regulatory or legal challenges. During the next two weeks, the FAA will work to identify priority airports, issue required notams, and begin approving alternate means of compliance.
On Thursday, Airlines for America (A4A) filed an emergency petition with the FCC seeking to delay the 5G C-band rollout. A4A said it would seek judicial relief if the FCC failed to act on its position by noon today.
Market indicators provide hope of “great things” for a business aircraft market that a leading industry analyst said “is seeing its best times in years.” But with Covid-19 and other factors generating uncertainty, Richard Aboulafia, formerly v-p of analysis for Teal Group who is today stepping into the new role of managing director for AeroDynamic Advisory, provided a more conservative forecast of output returning to 2019 levels in late 2022 or early 2023 with modest growth afterward.
Aboulafia noted corporate profits, equities markets, and oil prices ostensibly have been drivers of the business jet market and “all have spent the last year in a remarkable rebound from some terrifying pandemic-related declines.” This rebound implies a great deal of wealth and liquidity currently. Oil prices, meanwhile, have been closely correlated to large aircraft demand.
But Aboulafia cautions that the business aircraft market has “badly lagged” those wealth indicators over the past decade. This creates a question of whether the market is delinked from those indicators or whether it was recovering from overcapacity.
Regardless, other immediate indicators are also positive, including record-low used jet availability, pricing strengthening, and the upswing in fractional and charter utilization. However, aircraft production still hasn’t recovered to 2019 levels and OEMs, which suffered from jet-price deflation post-2008, do not yet appear ready to announce production increases, he said.
Tamarack Aerospace has submitted a petition for reconsideration to the NTSB, asking it to reconsider the probable cause conclusion in the crash of a Cessna CitationJet on Nov. 30, 2018. The jet was equipped with Tamarack winglets and the Active Technology Load Alleviation System, which uses Tamarack Active Camber Surfaces to alleviate structural loads.
The NTSB’s probable cause was “the asymmetric deployment of the left wing load alleviation system for undetermined reasons, which resulted in an in-flight upset from which the pilot was not able to recover.”
Tamarack’s petition asked the NTSB “to reconsider and modify its findings and determination of probable cause…The basis of this petition is that the NTSB has made erroneous findings that are unsupported by the factual record, inconsistent with engineering principles, or proven to be physically impossible.”
According to Tamarack, the NTSB failed to consider the company's supplemental party submission sent to the Board four business days before issuance of the final report and 35 months after the accident. Another issue is “the report states that the autopilot prematurely disconnected at a 30-degree bank angle. The autopilot system disconnect threshold is 45 degrees, which is 15 degrees more than the bank angle at which the accident aircraft’s autopilot actually disconnected. Therefore, the autopilot clearly did not disconnect because of excessive bank angle.”
Arizona-based Cutter Aviation has expanded its FBO network to five locations with the acquisition of AeroJet FBO, one of two full-service providers at Texas’s Georgetown Municipal Airport (KGTU) in Williamson County, which is 30 miles north of the state capital Austin and has been described as one of the fastest-growing counties in the country and home to many large companies. KGTU is also a strategic fueling stop for cross-country flights.
The facility includes a 14,000-sq-ft terminal with conference rooms, pilot lounge with snooze room, flight-planning area, crew car, and concierge service. It also offers 74,000 sq ft of hangar space that can accommodate aircraft up to a Gulfstream G450.
Cutter, which is approaching its 95th anniversary, opened a major new aircraft maintenance and sales facility in San Antonio in 2020. But this new addition is its first FBO expansion into the Lone Star State, and the territory will now be managed by Will D. Cutter, who represents the fourth generation of family ownership.
“We’re thrilled to be part of Georgetown’s community and to increase our presence in the Southwest,” said company president and CEO Will Cutter. “We look forward to welcoming local based clients, as well as transient clients, and providing them the same level of service we are known for at our other locations.”
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
Which of the following statements regarding icing is correct?
A. Hoar frost remaining on the wing upper surfaces is especially dangerous and should be removed prior to takeoff.
B. Since hoar frost is thin and follows the wing shape, there is often enough aerodynamic warning prior to a stall.
C. For operational expedience, deicing on the ground should be reserved for serious icing conditions only.
Jet Linx has resumed limited sales of its executive jet cards. The Omaha, Nebraska-based aircraft charter and management company suspended such sales in October to ensure existing jet card members would have access to Jet Linx’s fleet during the busy holiday season.
New jet card sales will be on a limited basis and subject to a waitlist based on fleet availability and membership tier priority. The cards will be available at Jet Linx’s 20 private terminals in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest.
“To safeguard the quality and reliability of our jet card service offering during this unprecedented spike in demand for private aviation, we are restricting our number of new jet card members and resuming sales on an extremely limited basis,” said Jet Linx president and CEO Jamie Walker. “Since the launch of our jet card in 2004, we have provided guaranteed availability, hourly rates, and safety excellence for all Jet Linx clients. This managed, limited approach to new jet card sales will enable us to do just that.”
Aviation services provider Prime Trip Support has opened its new U.S. headquarters in Houston. The new office, the UAE-based company’s second, will support its global headquarters in Dubai.
Located in the energy corridor, the new facility is open 24/7 with a staff of aviation professionals tallying more than 400 years of combined experience and fluency in 10 languages. Among the services on offer are ground handling logistics, flight supervision, fuel coordination, permitting, regulatory assistance, risk mitigation, and the arranging of hotels and ground transport.
“We are excited to take the next steps in the progression of our company, and the opening of our Americas headquarters in Houston brings us even closer to our client base,” said Prime Trip Support founder and CEO Ammar “Jay” Alhussari, adding the city is the “ideal location due to its centralized location within the U.S. and its deep history of aviation.”
Prime Trip Support plans on continuing its expansion with more offices in other areas in the near future.
The FAA has certified Finland’s Coptersafety as a Part 142 training center. Coptersafety currently offers FAA-approved programs for the Leonardo AW139 medium twin helicopter and plans to expand training offerings to the Airbus H145 and Leonardo AW169 as soon as this year.
The Part 142 approval “is the culmination of over two years of close coordination between the FAA and Coptersafety,” said Matt Presnal, Coptersafety’s chief theoretical knowledge instructor. “The certification makes Coptersafety the first and only independent international helicopter simulator Part 142 training center in Northern Europe. Now we are able to serve our current customers with FAA-certified training and offer our future customers opportunities to obtain their FAA ATP certificates, type ratings, and recurrent training in our state-of-the-art training center and simulators.”
Helsinki-based Coptersafety received level-D qualification from the FAA for its CAE-built AW139 full-flight simulator in 2020. The simulator facilitates training for tasks including airborne radar approaches, offshore standard approach procedures, and night vision goggle use. The company offers a full range of flight and mission training courses, as well as tailored training packages for helicopter emergency and medical services, search and rescue, offshore, and aerial work operators.
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