Investing in electric ground handling equipment is a key element in efforts by business aviation services group Luxaviation to reduce the environmental impact of its operations. In the Europe-based group’s new sustainability report published on Wednesday, it said its ExecuJet FBO chain has now achieved 57% of its goal of electrifying ramp vehicles and other equipment by 2030.

The company's interim target is to electrify 65% of its ground handling infrastructure by 2027. Its Paris Le Bourget Airport FBO is already 100% electrified.

Across Luxaviation’s 140 facilities worldwide, the company is also seeking to reduce waste and improve energy efficiency. For instance, the group is aiming to reduce single-use plastic bottles and cans at ExecuJet FBOs by next year and to completely eliminate them by 2026.

“In 2023, we made progressive strides in understanding and thereby reducing our environmental impact,” noted Luxaviation CEO Patrick Hansen. “Our expanded use of sustainable aviation fuel and the electrification of our ground vehicles have set new industry benchmarks for eco-friendly practices.”

In the new report, Luxaviation also mentioned its plans to get involved in supporting eVTOL aircraft as part of its commitment to adopting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The company aims to decarbonize operations by 2030 as part of the industry-wide commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Boeing has once again found itself in the doghouse. Last week, Boeing invited dozens of reporters from around the world—including me, a local Seattleite—to its 737 production facility in Renton, Washington, to highlight improvements to its safety and quality culture.

Ironically, comments made during a briefing on its new safety and quality improvement plan landed Boeing in hot water with the NTSB, which slapped the company with sanctions the next day.

Before laying out the details of its FAA-ordered safety and quality overhaul, Elizabeth Lund—senior v-p of quality at Boeing’s commercial airplanes division—made brief remarks about the January 5 incident in which a mid-exit door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 departing from Portland, Oregon.

According to the NTSB, Lund’s comments contained unreleased and unverified details about its ongoing investigation and amounted to “blatant violations” of federal regulations and the terms of Boeing’s party agreement to the investigation. In response, the NTSB rescinded Boeing’s access to investigative materials and filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, which is also separately charging Boeing for crimes pertaining to the fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Lund sought to differentiate the door plug incident from the 737 Max crashes because it was a manufacturing issue rather than an engineering issue. But this comparison doesn’t really help Boeing’s case, because there is an even deeper problem.

Daher equipped and is operating a new logistics hub for Airbus Helicopters that opened this week in Albacete, Spain. Airbus Helicopters inaugurated the facility Tuesday with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joining in the celebration.

Adjacent to Airbus Helicopters’ production facility, the 50,000-sq-ft warehouse is equipped with an automated and robotized storage system, which Daher called the first of its kind in the aeronautics industry.

The system uses technology from French warehouse automation specialist Exotec, enabling the reduction of total storage space required, reducing the need for operators to move around the site, and improving efficiency and responsiveness, Daher said. It added that the design of the warehouse focused on optimizing quality control, reducing human error, maximizing safety, and improving operator working conditions. Notably, Daher noted that the warehouse will use biofuel-powered trucks for inter-site transportation to reduce CO2 emissions.

Working in partnership with the Confederation of Employers of Albacete, Daher is recruiting and training most of the workers for the warehouse, which will eventually employ more than 300 people.

“We’re proud to be putting our expertise and innovative capabilities to work for Airbus Helicopters, using technology that positions Daher firmly on the pathway toward Industry 4.0, and fully delivering on the goals of this project,” said Aymeric Daher, CEO of Daher’s logistics division.

Germany’s Mönchengladbach Airport (EDLN) is now the first in the country to offer continuous supplies of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). While the renewable fuel has been offered at other German airports in the past, Düsseldorf-area EDLN has contracted with refiner TotalEnergies to provide regularly scheduled deliveries of the blended SAF, produced via the HEFA pathway from animal fats and used cooking oil. It will be dispensed on the field by Mönchengladbach-based FBO Rheinland Air Service (RAS).

“As the European dealer of Honda Aircraft and Daher Aircraft for Germany and Austria, Rheinland Air Service is committed to carry out all HondaJet ferry flights and demonstration flights through RAS with SAF,” said company CEO Johannes Graf von Schaesberg. “The same applies to Daher’s TBM and Kodiak aircraft.”

At an event this week at the airport, Oliver Krischer—North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport—participated in the ceremonial first refueling of an aircraft with SAF.

“Air traffic must become climate neutral; that is why we are supporting measures and projects that make flying without fossil fuels possible,” he stated, adding that electric propulsion will play a large role along with SAF use. “It is pioneering that Mönchengladbach Airport has now created the possibility of refueling aircraft with SAF.”

An around-the-world flight conducted by a Learjet 36A in April has been certified as a new world record by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA). The flight—which departed Wichita on April 3—was intended as a fundraiser to support the restoration and eventual return to flight of the first production Lear Jet (23-003) currently underway.

Carrying pilots Bart Gray, John Bone, Kirby Ezelle, and Joshua Podlich, as well as observer Joel Weber, the Global Jet Care-operated Lear 36A established a new westbound record in the C-1f category (land planes with a takeoff weight of 6,000 to 9,000 kilograms) of 341 mph, returning to Wichita in 67 hours after making 11 fuel stops. It is expected to be confirmed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the regulating body for aviation records.

The flight also commemorated the 100th anniversary of the first global aerial circumnavigation, conducted by a group of U.S. Army pilots flying modified Douglas DT-2 torpedo bombers, known as World Cruisers. The two surviving aircraft completed the 1924 flight in 175 days, covering more than 27,500 miles.

AIN sister publication Business Jet Traveler has launched its 14th annual Readers’ Choice survey. The poll solicits private aircraft fliers’ opinions about and experiences with flying privately and asks them to rate charter, jet card, and fractional-share providers, membership clubs, aircraft manufacturers and models, and more. All respondents will receive a prepublication copy of the results, be entered into a drawing for a $500 Amazon gift card (gift cards apply to U.S. survey respondents only), and have a donation made on their behalf to Corporate Angel Network. Take this year's survey or view results of the previous Business Jet Traveler reader surveys.