UK Business Aviation Fails To Win Quarantine Exemption
The UK government has denied a request from the British Business and General Aviation Association (BBGA) to exempt private aviation movements from the 14-day quarantine requirement that begins on Monday. In a meeting yesterday, the trade group tried to persuade Home Secretary Priti Patel that the country’s business aviation industry would be able to implement measures such as rapid Covid-19 testing of passengers and crew and creating so-called “sanitary travel capsules" through rigorous social distancing for the relatively small number of people using this mode of transportation.
“No consideration is being given [by the government] to business aviation because all the effort is going into making the [quarantine] process work for scheduled airlines and large airports,” BBGA chief executive Marc Bailey told AIN. He acknowledged that the quarantine will take effect for at least an initial three-week period through June 29, but he held out hope that the industry might be able to win concessions later.
However, Bailey warned that if the new level of travel restrictions are maintained beyond the short term, the business aviation sector could see bankruptcies. “If we have not started to get traffic increasing again towards the end of this year then we will see casualties because companies can’t keep bleeding cash at the current rate for another four or five months,” he predicted.
Reopening our economy post-Covid-19 is a grand science experiment, and we should have a strong sense of its success in the next four weeks. The reopening will either create a new virus spike or our economy will find a safe balance that will allow for a confidence to come back to us even if there are some new realities such as lighter capacity for restaurants and other gatherings.
I believe that if we can create confidence around getting out and about, many if not most segments of our wonderful business aviation industry will rebound. Once air charter begins to really come back and operators start to use their aviation assets again, fuel sales will come back. Taking to the skies in private jets and commercial airplanes will spur spending again. This is what we need.
Let’s all be patient and continue to be positive. I believe our future is right before us. Before you know it, we will be traveling again. And although there might be adjustments from what we knew pre-Covid, the world will not look completely different and we will be able to adjust and operate profitably within this post-Covid-19 industry.
With business jet deliveries anticipated to be down approximately 30 percent industry-wide this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bombardier Aviation announced this morning that it will permanently cut its workforce by more than 10 percent.
The Montreal-based airframer explained that due to the “current market conditions reflecting the extraordinary industry interruptions and challenges caused by Covid-19,” it will be forced to reduce its staffing by approximately 2,500 positions.
In a letter to the company this morning, Bombardier Aviation president David Coleal stated, “These reductions are absolutely the least preferred outcome. However, we have reached the end of our ability to maintain our pre-Covid employment levels.”
The reductions will mainly affect production workers at its Quebec, Ontario, and Mexican facilities, and only 40 U.S.-based staffers will be let go, according to a company spokesperson. The OEM’s aftermarket organization will remain untouched.
"This situation is frustrating and disappointing,” Coleal said, “especially given we began 2020 poised to grow our business with a continued focus on our talented team—all of this backed by a tremendous portfolio of aircraft and services.”
He noted that the manufacturer hopes to return to pre-Covid demand levels. “Should the market change, we will evaluate measures to welcome back our valued team members…but our immediate focus will be supporting our team members who unfortunately are leaving Bombardier.”
Global business aviation activity in May and early June are trailing the same period last year by 51 percent, according to data released yesterday by WingX Advance. North America continues to be the most robust region post-Covid, with year-over-year activity now down 49 percent—an improvement over the 75 percent decrease seen in April.
The rolling seven-day average in North America started in May with 3,800 daily departures, but ramped up to 6,200 by the end of the month—a 63 percent increase. In the U.S., segments flown in the seven days after Memorial Day were down only 3 percent versus the same dates in 2019.
In the rest of the world, much of the business aviation activity has operated out of Europe, which is still more than 60 percent below normal levels. Of the other regions, Oceania has recovered the most, with traffic only 25 percent below normal; South America, 27 percent below par; and Asia, now about half normal.
“The key U.S. market appears to be entering a faster recovery phase, with holiday travel in the last week seeing close to normal activity for the end of May,” said WingX managing director Richard Koe. “Europe is still lagging, with business aviation traffic down by 60 percent. Coming into the summer, we expect to see faster recovery, although countries with quarantines in place will obviously miss out.”
Texas-based Galaxy FBO is continuing to expand, breaking ground on what will be its third full-service FBO. To be located at Dallas-area Addison Airport (ADS), its design will be similar to the recently-opened facility at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport. Galaxy FBO also operates a Houston heliport.
The new FBO will be on the southeast side of ADS at the end of Runway 33 and will consist of a 20,000-sq-ft terminal featuring a pilot lounge with showers and snooze room, passenger lounge, onsite car rental, and concierge.
A pair of 38,000-sq-ft hangars and a 30,000-sq-ft hangar will be able to accommodate the latest big business jets.
The facility will also house sister company Wing Aviation’s charter operation in the metroplex, which will relocate from its current hangar at ADS. When completed in the summer of 2021, it will become the third FBO at the airport, offering the largest uninterrupted ramp on the field.
"We're excited to expand the Galaxy FBO out of the Houston area to increase our overall presence in Texas,” Jeremy Gee, managing director of parent company Black Forest Aviation told AIN. “With the area surrounding the city of Addison continuing to flourish, our new facility will provide the much-needed hangar space for our corporate and general aviation clients, while providing more job opportunities."
Piaggio Aerospace had received 19 “expressions of interest” (EOIs) for the purchase of its Piaggio Aero Industries and Piaggio Aviation businesses by the May 29 deadline, the company reported yesterday. After discussing a potential sale for more than a year, Piaggio in late February formally issued a call for EOIs with an initial April 3 deadline that was subsequently pushed to late May in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The aerospace manufacturer, which entered extraordinary receivership in late 2018, said the EOIs were accompanied by “the large documentation required.”
“EOIs were submitted from all over the world, in particular from North America, Europe, and the Far East,” said Vincenzo Nicastro, extraordinary receiver for Piaggio. “This confirms the interest in the group and its growth potential, although some possibly interested parties could have been discouraged by the current pandemic.”
Nicastro still must examine the eligibility of the EOIs, most of which were for the whole group, Piaggio added. Eligible applicants will be provided access to the data room to fully examine the value of Piaggio and then have the opportunity to submit binding offers. A buyer would be selected after that time. Piaggio’s hope is to find an owner for the whole company by year-end.
Bell V-280 Flies With GKN’s Plastic Airframe Parts
The Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor recently began test flights with thermoplastic parts. Two new GKN Aerospace thermoplastic composite, induction-welded ruddervators and two compression-molded access panels made from reused thermoplastic waste were delivered to Bell in June 2019. The newly installed components have now flown more than 12 hours on V-280 test flights, including during the recently completed autonomous flight testing.
The parts make the V-280 one of the first military aircraft flying successfully with thermoplastic components. The V-280 continued to exhibit excellent responsiveness during test maneuvers according to pilots who flew with the new components installed, according to GKN. The company has designed and manufactured the complete thermoset composite V-Tail for the aircraft. The advanced thermoplastic ruddervators significantly reduce weight, cost, and parts count. “GKN Aerospace’s thermoplastic ruddervators are a great example where we were able to add value and reduce risk for future programs,” said Ryan Ehinger, Bell vice president and program director for the U.S. Army’s Future Long-range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). Bell is one of two finalists for the program recently down-selected by the U.S. Army.
GKN said its design team continues to work with Bell to optimize the V-Tail design to meet customer requirements for the FLRAA program. The company already manufactures thermoplastic rudders, elevators, and fuselage panels for a wide variety of business jets. GKN notes that thermoplastics offer significant advantages in terms of weight, costs, production time, and environmental impact.
HAI Calls For FDM in Piston Helicopters
The Helicopter Association International (HAI) believes the NTSB’s recent call to mandate data, voice, and video recorders in new turbine helicopters is too narrow and should be installed in all new helicopters, not just those with turbine power. In a statement released Thursday, HAI said the agency’s recommendation leaves out the “more than one-third of the U.S. fleet that uses piston engines."
It added, “This focus on turbine aircraft seems unsupported by data showing no measurable safety difference between turbine and piston aircraft.” HAI said the devices, used as part of a flight data management (FDM) program, could likely provide operators “with the tools to reduce accidents and improve overall industry safety.”
According to HAI, it is adding FDM and other NTSB recommendations to its Accreditation Program of Safety that encourages operators to fly to a higher standard. Citing data from the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), HAI noted that FDM was a valuable strategy to reduce the top-three causes of fatal helicopter accidents: loss of control in flight (LOC-I), unintended instrument meteorological conditions, and low-altitude operations. FDM is also useful to monitor aircraft and engine performance, detect and correct procedural noncompliance by flight crews, and preserve more data relevant to accident investigations, HAI said.
Photo of the Week
So, how are your rudder skills? Doron Talmi’s photo captures the crosswind challenges of flying into Ilulissat, Greenland airport. The pilot of this landing Air Greenland Dash 8 is certainly putting their rudder skills to the test in this strong crosswind at the airport in July 2017. Thanks for sharing, Doron!
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