Business aviation could find itself squeezed out of one of Europe’s major hub airports after a Dutch appeals court ruled the government can force the management of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to reduce the number of flights each year from 500,000 to 460,000. The ruling, publicized late on July 7, overturned an early legal challenge by flag carrier KLM, which had persuaded a lower court that the Dutch government had not followed the correct process.
Earlier this year, the management at Schiphol announced plans to ban private jets and small business aircraft starting in 2025 as part of a wider strategy to introduce a system that focuses on the structural reduction of noise and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement. According to the Dutch airport operator, business aviation flights cause a “disproportionate amount of noise nuisance and CO2 emissions per passenger.” The airport has also signaled an intention to cut airliner movements at night and has canceled plans to build an additional runway.
KLM and other aviation groups could decide to mount a further legal appeal to the supreme court of the Netherlands. The European Business Aviation Association has not issued a direct response to the latest court ruling but has opposed earlier moves to ban its members from Amsterdam Schiphol.
The NTSB is investigating after a 1979 Cessna Citation II crashed on approach to French Valley Airport in Murrieta, California, (F70) early Saturday morning, killing all aboard. The aircraft crashed 500 feet short of 6,000-foot Runway 18 at 4:15 a.m. local time while flying a second nonprecision RNAV (GPS) instrument approach with vertical guidance into the nontowered airport in conditions described by local law enforcement as “heavy fog.”
According to the National Weather Service, F70 weather at the time of the accident was half-mile visibility in fog and 300-foot overcast. The LPV decision altitude for the RNAV (GPS) approach is 300 feet, with minimum 7/8-mile visibility. Until 3:35 a.m., when mist, 3/4-mile visibility, and 300-foot overcast were reported, the weather was clear with 10-mile visibility.
The wreckage was consumed by a post-crash fire that ignited a brush fire that took an hour to extinguish. The flight originated at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas at 3:16 a.m. local time. The aircraft was registered to Prestige Worldwide Flights of Imperial, California, and it had arrived in Las Vegas from F70 Friday night at 10:04 p.m.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, which identified the pilots flying, and FAA records, both pilots held commercial certificates and were type-rated in the Citation with a second-in-command pilot required.
Last week’s Independence Day holiday weekend in the U.S. saw record business jet activity—surpassing last year by 11 percent—according to industry data tracker WingX Advance, and a 48 percent improvement over pre-Pandemic 2019.
Aside from that burst of activity, for the past month business jet volumes are down by 5 percent year-over-year in North America despite Canada and Mexico being slightly ahead of last year’s pace. Ultra-long-range jets were the only aircraft segment to see growth, up 2 percent compared with June 2022.
Globally, turbine aircraft usage dipped by 3 percent year-over-year in June. In Europe, business jet activity was off by 7 percent, but still 10 percent above 2019. Year-to-date, European business jet sectors are trailing 2022 levels by 8 percent. France—the busiest market in Europe—was down by 3 percent last month compared with a year ago.
Aside from North America and Europe, the rest of the world saw an 8 percent increase in June activity compared with a year ago. Australia is the only market in the group to see declines from 2022. While departures were down by 6 percent, they were still up 71 percent when compared with June 2019.
The Airbus Racer (rapid and cost-effective rotorcraft) compound helicopter technology demonstrator entered the paint shop earlier this month on its way to final assembly. Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even tweeted that the aircraft was on track for ground testing and first flight before year’s end.
Funded by the European Union’s Clean Sky 2 program, the Racer features extensive use of composites in the airframe; a box wing that houses drive shafts to two pusher propellers; low-drag hub, pylon, and nacelles; a 3D-optimized rotor blade design; and an engine installation that includes a new main gearbox, propeller gearboxes, and supercritical shafts.
The aircraft will be powered by twin Safran Aneto-1X engines, which also can be flown in “eco mode,” cruising on one engine while the other idles. The Racer is categorized as a “more electric aircraft,” with plans to eventually install a 270 VDC network, combining higher voltage with a lower-weight electrical system. The aircrafts’s target maximum forward speed is 216 knots.
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
Which corrections are required to pass from measured airspeed to true airspeed (TAS)?
A. No correction is needed—the measured airspeed is by the definition the TAS, unlike the speed calculated by the pilot, which might have human error added to it.
B. The measured airspeed needs to be corrected by wind to determine TAS with respect to the air.
C. TAS is calculated by correcting the measured airspeed for instrument error, position error, compressibility, and density.
D. TAS increases as compared to the same TAS in ISA, but only at really high air temperatures like when approaching the transonic region.
Hera Aviation Group, a non-profit organization created to help companies and individuals manage modern workplace issues such as retention and family dynamics that keep women (and men) from participating in aviation careers, has launched the Hera Initiative to help companies deal with these issues. Hera was founded by corporate pilot Jessica Webster, a mother of two children who has faced her own challenges with workplace discrimination against caregivers.
The initiative is focused on four key elements: education outreach, mentoring, internships and other ways to welcome new entrants, and ongoing career coaching and development. The spur for creating the initiative is that Hera found that even with enlightened and welcoming companies and hiring programs, a significant number of female professional pilots were giving up on their careers after going through all the steps to gain certification and become employable. Hera has found success in encouraging companies to hire and employ more women, but there remains a problem with retention. Based on Hera’s research, Webster said, “Every year, we may be getting more people to be interested, but there’s a bigger hole at the other end. We are not keeping and retaining the professional pilots that we create.”
Where Hera can help, she explained, is to work with companies that are willing to be flexible in order to attract and retain valuable candidates plus help those candidates with roadblocks to current and future employment.
City: Near Murrieta/Temecula-French Valley Airport
State: California
Country: United States
Event Date: July 8, 2023
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