“This day happens to be one of the most important days that we have seen in a long time,” NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen said this morning during the opening session at the association's 35th annual Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference (SDC). “That is because, over the last week, we have seen misstatements about business aviation and misperceptions being projected.”

He was referring to proposals in Washington regarding increasing jet fuel taxes on business aviation, lengthening aircraft depreciation schedules, and stepped-up IRS auditing of aircraft operators. “We see that our industry is effectively under attack,” Bolen stated.

Bolen urged the audience gathered at Texas' Fort Worth Convention Center to contact their elected officials and tell the industry’s story about how these aircraft are used and the essential and unique benefits they provide. "Let them know this is an industry that does great things,” Bolen said. Playing off this year’s SDC theme of “Engage and Empower: Where Your Quest Begins,” he added, “We need our community to feel empowered to tell Congress—we need people to be engaged to make that happen.”

Atlantic Aviation is expanding its plans to support eVTOL operations through a partnership announced today with manufacturer Lilium. Under a memorandum of understanding, the business aviation services group will prepare its North American network of more than 100 FBOs to support commercial operations with the six-passenger Lilium Jet.

The companies said their collaboration will focus on infrastructure provisioning, including electric charging equipment, and determining how to optimize the passenger experience. Joint strategic planning will also cover aircraft flight paths and operations forecasting.

Lilium’s aircraft is expected to operate on sectors of up to around 175 kilometers (109 miles) at speeds of up to 250 kph. In addition to the standard model, Lilium is developing a more spacious Pioneer Edition with four seats in a cabin that could be customized for private owners.

Atlantic Aviation has a presence at more than 30 airports within Lilium’s intended U.S. launch markets in Florida, Southern California, Texas, and the Northeast corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston. The FBO chain has similar partnership agreements with other eVTOL aircraft manufacturers, including Archer, Joby, and Beta Technologies.

Industry safety rating auditor Argus International introduced cabin crew training provider Sterling Aviation Services as the first member of its certified training program. Argus established the certification to recognize the organizations that contribute to training industry standards at the highest level to support safe corporate flight operations.

Calgary, Canada-based Sterling has more than a quarter century of experience in training flight attendants. The company also provides manuals, annual recurrent training, and education covering aviation food safety and executive services. Argus recognized Sterling and its leadership team this week at the 2024 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference.

“Where they really meet industry best practices is in their emergency training,” said Ed Wandall, Argus’ v-p of business aviation. He also noted an NTSB report stating that “the performance of flight attendants in emergencies can profoundly affect the survival and injury rates of passengers."

According to Wandall, Sterling's “emergency training uses the specific aircraft types that flight attendants will be flying in and is comprehensive and vibrant. Sterling Aviation is the perfect example of why we developed this certification program.”

Energy management company World Kinect yesterday announced plans to sell charter information platform Avinode Group to Camp Systems International for $200 million in cash. The sale includes World Kinect’s aviation software that serves the FBO market.

World Kinect expects the deal to close within 60 days and plans to use the proceeds to repay debt and reduce its annual run rate of interest expense by approximately $10 million, according to company executive v-p and CFO Ira Birns. “Longer term, this transaction should provide us with additional liquidity to invest in our core distribution platform and emerging sustainability offerings.”

Camp is a subsidiary of Hearst and specializes in aviation management services such as maintenance tracking, engine health monitoring, inventory management, and flight scheduling. Customers include more than 30,000 users and 1,500 MRO facilities supporting more than 20,000 aircraft and 30,000 engines.

“We are excited to acquire the Avinode Group and FBO products with their strong track record of delivering innovative, market-leading solutions,” said Camp Systems CEO Sean Lanagan. “This acquisition represents a complementary extension of our business and platform, to bring exciting new opportunities to the market and better serve our expanding customer base.”

While Blade Air Mobility expects adjusted earnings to turn positive in 2024 and anticipates double-digit growth in 2025, the flight provider’s net loss more than doubled last year, to $56.1 million, up from $27.3 million in 2022. Adjusted earnings in 2023 improved by $10.8 million to show a loss of $16.6 million—based on a 54 percent hike in revenues, to $225.2 million.

For the full year, Blade's operating expenses grew by 46.9 percent, while net loss from operations grew by 27.3 percent, to $68.1 million. Net losses during the fourth quarter were “primarily due to a $20.8 million impairment charge on intangible assets related to the Blade Europe acquisition,” according to the company.

In 2023, Blade saw earnings from passenger flights swing from a $6.4 million loss to a deficit of $4.9 million, a 21.7 percent improvement. Over the same period, earnings from medical flights climbed from $5.1 million to $10.8 million. The charter broker is adding eight Hawker 800s to its organ transplantation business and will use those to replace some third-party operations.

Blade is paying $21 million for eight Hawker 800s, an average of $2.625 million each. The acquisition will be funded through $11.7 million in cash and $9.3 million in existing deposits with the operator, according to the company.

Duncan Aviation recently finished a refurbishment of a Falcon 50 with fresh exterior paint, full interior renewal, and an aft-cabin reconfiguration with new divan installation, as well as avionics upgrades, winglets, and LED lighting.After completing a pre-purchase evaluation at Duncan’s Battle Creek, Michigan facility, the team immediately began the transformation process.

Senior completions and modifications sales rep Tiffany Buschini explained that the owners wanted to add a divan as part of the refurbishment. To meet the request, Duncan removed the existing right-hand aft single seats and installed a three-place divan. The team also replaced the pull-up jumpseat with a side-facing jumpseat.

Buschini explained that the interior wasn’t necessarily in poor condition when it arrived at the Duncan facility. However, the new owners wanted to personalize it, down to the cupholders and galley inserts the team designed to hold handmade pottery mugs created by a friend of one of the owners.

The team made modifications to the interior by removing the mirrors and trim in the lavatory and adding custom light covers to give it a more modern look. LED lighting also makes the area brighter and more contemporary.

Avionics upgrades include a Collins Aerospace Pro Line 21 integrated avionics system with synthetic vision and FANS-1/A and ATN-B1 controller pilot datalink communications.

Louisiana-based Citadel Completions today announced that it is now an authorized Starlink dealer. Under the agreement, Citadel will install Starlink connectivity systems on large-cabin, narrowbody, and widebody business aircraft. The announcement comes as other providers such as Duncan, Banyan Air, and Clay Lacy have inked Starlink partnerships.

Citadel Completions vice president of sales and design Shane Combs told AIN that Starlink and other companies run by billionaire Elon Musk are enjoying an increasing national spotlight. “Anything that Mr. Musk touches seems to be dynamic one way or the other," Combs said.

He added that Citadel has been collaborating with the Starlink team to integrate its technology. “We’ve been working with the Starlink team and the SpaceX aviation team and supporting them and their endeavors," he said. "Behind the scenes, we’ve been studying and engineering, and we’re ready."

Combs wouldn’t confirm the number of Starlink installations that have been performed so far but said it's “more than a dozen.”

AIN’s senior-level Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit (CALS) East, set for July 15 to 17 in Jersey City, New Jersey, will address the latest hot topics, strategies, and solutions in business aviation. The summit is attendee-centric and serves as an educational and professional networking platform, connecting corporate aviation leaders with peers, industry experts, and solution providers in a relaxed, informal environment. We invite U.S.-based flight department leaders to apply to attend this all-expenses-paid event as our guests. Seats are limited, so don’t wait to apply.