A newly launched website for Boca Raton, Florida-based AtlantisRoad indicates that Nancy Iacobucci, who co-founded DayJet along with her late husband Ed Iacobucci, is attempting to reboot per-seat, on-demand private jet service. DayJet launched such service in Florida in October 2007 and expanded operations to other Southeastern states before shutting down a year later due to reliability issues with its 28 Eclipse 500 twinjets and funding drying up as the Great Recession took hold.
On the website, AtlantisRoad said it has formed a partnership with Honda Aircraft and will thus use HondaJets for its planned service. The company does not yet have an FAA Part 135 certificate but notes it is developing software that could enable per-seat, on-demand service. Thus, AtlantisRoad appears to be following the same roadmap as DayJet, which first developed its Astro flight optimization software before obtaining a charter certificate and launching service.
The new company counts many former DayJet employees among its ranks. In fact, eight of AtlantisRoad’s 14 listed team members worked for DayJet. Further, four of its 10 advisors are ex-DayJet board members or leaders.
In November, AtlantisRoad filed a trademark application for DayJet, describing it as “software as a service for operating a direct on-demand air carrier.” The company also appears to own the DayJet.com domain name. There is no listed timeline for service launch.
AINsight: Two Down, Two To Go
It's not a bad time to take stock of our year, as well as look ahead to what is in store for the preowned business aircraft market. At our company, we have enjoyed a good second quarter. The first quarter was a bit slow rolling, as was also reported by many of our fellow sales professionals, but the second quarter picked up steam nicely. Airplanes went under LOIs and contracts, pre-buy inspections started up, and the act of buying and selling felt great again.
We are not acting in a frenzied way and patience is becoming the virtue we almost collectively forgot about. This year has brought much-needed inventory to the table, which gives us all more choice and more opportunity to find the right airplane to buy, and not just the only airplane to buy.
Along with more inventory also comes another almost forgotten virtue: sellers having to play in a well-groomed sandbox. For the last two years, the market clearly felt and acted like a sellers’ market. This gave no room to act responsibly as a buyer without the risk of losing the airplane that was often the only one available. We were dealing with unsustainable prices being paid, lack of due diligence being allowed, and frankly, even balanced contracts being more difficult to attain.
Welcome back to the normalization of our transactional business.
What is an ERJ 135, 140 & 145 Semi-Private Jet Conversion?
Looking to offer your passengers a first-class experience with a “hop-on” jet service? There’s a variety of customizable options available for converting an ERJ 135, 140, or 145 to a semi-private aircraft – from complete interior reconfiguration to unique exterior paint – to make your jet service stand out above the rest.
One in five customers booking private charter flights through Victor is now paying to reduce the carbon footprint of their trips through optional purchases of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the company said. Under the booking platform’s “Pay Here, Use There” book-and-claim offering launched a year ago with energy group Neste, Victor's jet passengers are now buying an average of £965 ($1,225) worth of SAF per booking, equating to a carbon cut of 1.5 tonnes per flight.
The average percentage of fossil fuel voluntarily replaced by SAF for each Victor booking is 30 percent. Neste and Victor have called on airlines to adopt their approach, which they said provides travelers with a transparent way to voluntarily take responsibility for their own carbon emissions.
Since SAF is not yet widely available at all airports, “Pay Here, Use There" customers pay a premium for SAF to be uploaded into an aircraft elsewhere in the Neste My SAF network. Members of Victor’s booking platform can choose how much fossil fuel for their own flight to “replace” with SAF, ranging from 5 to 100 percent of the total. The receipt for each flight clearly breaks out how much SAF they purchased.
CHC Helicopter won a construction contract for the world’s largest offshore wind farm. CHC will support the mission to the Dogger Bank Wind Farm in the North Sea with Leonardo AW139 and Airbus H175 helicopters from its base in Norwich, UK. Located 70 nm off the Yorkshire coast, when completed Dogger will employ 277 wind turbines generating an estimated 3.6 gigawatts of electricity—enough to power six million homes. The project is a joint venture partnership between SSE Renewables, Equinor, and Vårgrønn. The first crew-change flights in support of Dogger launched in April.
“Being so far from shore presents new challenges to how we manage logistics in offshore wind, which can only be overcome through the use of trusted suppliers. We are delighted that CHC will join the project to as our aviation partner to support us in our crew changes during the construction of Dogger Bank Wind Farm,” said project manager Alan Borland.
“This significant project represents a major step towards achieving a greener future, and we are fully committed to supporting the development of sustainable energy sources,” said CHC sales director Dave Grant. “Our team is hard at work already to provide safe and efficient services to ensure the success and on-time completion of this ambitious undertaking."
West Star Aviation broke ground on Thursday for a 75,700-sq-ft expansion of its MRO facility in East Alton, Illinois. Once complete, the project will increase the facility’s area to more than 500,000 sq ft. The expansion will include 40,000 sq ft of new hangar capacity, 22,300 sq ft of additional back shop space, and add 13,400 sq ft of storage space.
West Star is working with Contegra Construction and the St. Louis Regional Airport on site preparation and building plans. The company expects to complete the project in the second quarter next year.
“This expansion along with the new hangar in Chattanooga, Tennessee, scheduled to open for business at the end of this month, shows our continued commitment to implementing sustainable growth that benefits our customers, employees, and the surrounding communities,” said West Star Aviation CEO Jim Rankin.
According to West Star Aviation East Alton general manager Brian Bauwens, “The recent rapid growth in the MRO industry has accelerated the need to add additional space to our facilities, allowing us to better serve our valued customers in a timely manner.”
Contegra Construction project director Jared Lengermann noted that this is the third hanger project his company has partnered on with West Star in the past 10 years.
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) has taken delivery of its first Bell 505 turbine single light helicopter that it plans to use for training and helicopter coordinator (HLCO) during aerial firefighting operations. The HLCO assists incident commanders with tactics and strategy while simultaneously managing aircraft separation.
Dubbed “Fire-7,” the helicopter will also serve as a flight training and water drop training platform for LAFD’s pilots. In the coming months, the LAFD plans to add an Isolair fire tank to the aircraft to train pilots on precision aerial water drops.
“The new Fire-7 will assume the lead position for all command-and-control missions,” said LAFD captain Erik Scott. “Fire-7 will help modernize the LAFD’s fleet and it will provide significant tactical and technological advantages in protecting LA against wildfires and other emergencies for years to come.”
“Essentially, the Bell 505 will serve as an air traffic controller in the sky. When we have large brush fires or multiple rescue helicopters working in a certain area, the Bell 505’s technology will assist the pilots in identifying wires, mountains, obstacles, or other aircraft in the airspace and warn the pilots that those hazards are out there,” said Scot Davison, chief pilot for LAFD.
Photo of the Week
Dream flight. To say thank you to U.S. military veterans, nonprofit organization Dream Flights yesterday flew four veterans who live in long-term care facilities near Atkinson Municipal Airport (KPTS) in Pittsburg, Kansas, in a WW II-vintage PT-17 Stearman. In this photo taken by AIN copy/social media editor Kaitlyn Wilson, volunteer pilot Jeff Klosky, an American Airlines pilot and U.S. Air Force veteran, taxis out for such a flight with Deborah Gillum, who served in the Marines. Upon landing, she remarked, “Hot damn that was fun!” Dream Flights continues its 2023 tour today in Decatur, Illinois. Thanks for sharing this photo and volunteering to help with these flights, Kait!
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