Pentastar, Farnborough Take Top Honors in AIN FBO Survey

Pentastar Aviation at Detroit-area Oakland County International Airport (KPTK) once again earned the highest score (4.83) among all aviation service providers worldwide in AIN’s annual FBO Survey with a score of 4.83. Winners of the 2025 survey were honored last night at the AIN FBO Awards dinner in New Orleans.

Notably, Pentastar edged out second-place finisher Modern Aviation at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (KFTW) by just one-tenth of a point. For Pentastar, this represents its fifth consecutive year as the highest-ranked FBO as selected by AIN readers.

Florida and Texas FBOs dominated the top Americas facilities, with the two states claiming 12 of the 16 top 5% slots. All but one of the rest of these top-five FBOs in this year's survey are in Florida: Sheltair Tampa (KTPA), Henriksen Jet Center at Austin (Texas) Executive Airport (KEDC), and Jet Aviation at Palm Beach International (KPBI), which tied with Sheltair at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (KFLL).

As for FBOs in the rest of world (ROW), the UK’s Farnborough Airport again earned the highest accolades (4.66) in the survey, as it has virtually since the day it opened more than two decades ago. It also garnered the top grade among all facilities worldwide in the facilities category with a 4.86. Harrods Aviation and Universal Aviation, both at London Stansted Airport (EGSS), rounded out the top-three ROW spots.

AINsight: Criminalization in Aviation a Genuine Concern

Criminalization of aviation incidents and accidents—and its unintended consequences—holds the potential to negatively affect aviation safety and jeopardize a positive reporting culture. Outside of the U.S., there has been a steady increase in legal actions against flight crewmembers and other aviation workers.

Often, dual investigations are initiated following an incident or accident. The technical investigation focuses on improving flight safety. Whereas a judicial investigation aims to determine fault and blameworthiness for actions that may lead to criminal or civil liability and subsequent prosecution.

Between 1956 and 2009, there were 57 prosecutions of aviation professionals worldwide. These cases involved many different aviation professionals, including pilots, air traffic controllers, maintenance technicians, airline and air traffic managers, manufacturers, and third-party vendors. Penalties in these cases resulted in prison sentences, monetary damages, and/or probation, according to a book entitled “Flying in the Face of Criminalization.”

The Flight Safety Foundation has taken note of this uptick in criminal investigations and recognizes the negative impact on safety: “This can have a chilling effect on the flow of crucial safety information and a long-term adverse impact on safety. Holding controllers, pilots, and aviation maintenance technicians criminally liable for honest mistakes ultimately threatens the safety of the traveling public.”

FAA Looking at Mixed Traffic at Multiple Airports

The FAA is reviewing helicopter routes at multiple airport locations where airplanes and rotorcraft mix, FAA acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau told lawmakers yesterday. Testifying before the Senate aviation subcommittee on the January 29 midair collision of a U.S. Army Black Hawk and PSA Airlines CRJ700 near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA), Rocheleau said the agency is using machine learning to mine tens of millions of data points to identify risks of mixed traffic.

Earlier this month, the NTSB issued two urgent safety recommendations to restrict operations around KDCA. Rocheleau said those recommendations aligned with its temporary action in the wake of the crash, and the FAA has since taken steps to make the restrictions permanent.

“We are continuing to analyze other airports that have both charted helicopter routes and nearby airplane traffic,” Rocheleau said. Plans call for immediately looking at 10 locations around the U.S. considered “hot spots,” conducting a nationwide review, and then continuously analyzing for potential risks with industry partners.

Rocheleau faced critical questioning on why the FAA had not previously acted on numerous reports of close proximity events, including 15,214 between October 2021 and December 2024 at KDCA alone. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) added, "That's the issue. You had an alarm going off once a month…Do we have to worry about this somewhere else because the FAA isn't looking?”

Flight Deck Overhaul Adds Modern Tech to Falcon 900

A Falcon 900B recently departed Duncan Aviation’s MRO facility in Battle Creek, Michigan, following a complete flight deck modernization that incorporated Universal Avionics’ InSight flight display system. A 2C inspection and interior refurbishment were included alongside the avionics overhaul.

The aircraft owner selected Universal InSight to replace the outdated CRTs with LCD displays that provide enhanced 3D graphics capabilities for synthetic vision, weather monitoring, terrain awareness, and traffic detection systems. “Universal InSight is a fantastic option for customers with aging avionics and no path for future enhancements,” noted Duncan senior avionics sales rep Jeff Simmons.

The modernization effort was compatible with the aircraft’s existing Honeywell NZ-2000 flight management system. Additionally, the upgrade established a foundation for future NextGen and Single European Sky ATM Research compliance. More than 250 pounds of obsolete equipment and wiring were removed from the aircraft’s nose section.

Alto Aviation’s Cadence cabin management system was also installed, featuring contemporary control interfaces while providing passengers with HDMI connectivity, Bluetooth functionality, and accessible USB charging capabilities. “It controls all of your cabin functionality from the galley to the lav, while also offering control of the entertainment,” Simmons explained.

According to Duncan Aviation, eight Falcon 900Bs now operate with the InSight system, with three more currently undergoing similar modifications.

Study Targets Clarity for Mitigating Contrail Impact

Airbus and a consortium of 10 partners from four European countries this week launched a study to assess the impact of non-CO2 emissions on local air quality and climate. The research program, called Particle emissions, Air Quality, and Climate Impact related to Fuel Composition and Engine Cycle (PACIFIC), was announced on Tuesday at the Airbus Summit in Toulouse and will focus mainly on contrails.

According to Mark Bentall, head of research and technology programs at Airbus, the PACIFIC project will use an A350 and its Rolls-Royce engines for ground tests to assess how different fuel mixes impact contrail formation. He said this approach, in which a controlled environment can be maintained, will provide more extensive data than that gathered from previous flight tests with an A320.

Program partners aim to test the theory that the use of various blends of sustainable aviation fuel could reduce soot particles and the ice crystals that form contrails. The new approach to testing is intended to ensure consistency in combustion parameters and hardware similarity based on lab-scale experiments at Germany’s DLR aerospace research agency and full aircraft engine tests conducted by Airbus in Toulouse.

Research will focus on understanding how soot forms during fuel combustion and establishing how predictive tools could more effectively anticipate when and how it will be part of aircraft emissions. Tests will analyze the quantity of fine particles released with an engine running at different power levels.

FlyExclusive Reflects on Its First Public Year

FlyExclusive’s first year as a public company comes at a time of big political and economic shifts for the aerospace market, as well as the global economy. CEO Jim Segrave told AIN that in spite of that, the air charter company is still enjoying high demand.

“So, from a demand standpoint, we still have…way more trip quote requests and demand coming in the door than we can possibly fly. So it still, for us, is not a demand issue,” he said. “It is really more about an availability issue, and availability translates to dispatch availability up time on maintenance and, of course, making the pilots so you’ve got every airplane that's available to fly. So that’s really still the focus today.”

Segrave was also reflective of how things have changed since his company became public: “The level of accountability being a public company is intense and I wouldn’t say there’s anything that happened that I was surprised about over the last year of public, but the level of intensity is extreme and it puts lots of pressure on you. I think the business is doing a better job because of it.”

He is also optimistic about the company’s jet card program that was launched five years ago and now has more than 1,000 members.

World Fuel Rolls Out SAF Book-and-claim Tool

World Fuel Services unveiled its myWorld Decarbonize tool this week at NBAA’s Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. The tool is part of the fuel provider’s book-and-claim system, enabling operators to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) benefit credits even when the actual product is unavailable at that location.

World Fuel is a certified trader under the leading industry authorities, ensuring that the SAF it distributes meets specific sustainability requirements. It also provides customers with the documentation to demonstrate compliance with regulations and traceability of the fuel’s environmental attributes from production to runway.

MyWorld Decarbonize uses a CORSIA life-cycle analysis approach to assess fuel burn carbon emissions via a proprietary calculator that accurately accounts for the fuel’s production and combustion phases. It allows users to easily purchase the appropriate SAF certificates to counter those emissions at the point of sale.

“The launch of the myWorld Decarbonize tool will play a crucial role in enabling our supply and trading. “This tool supports our customers in their journey towards net-zero emissions by making lower carbon options easy to buy.”

SAF is viewed as the industry’s best near-term option for lowering its carbon footprint. In its neat, unblended form, SAF can reduce life cycle emissions by up to 80% versus jet-A.

Photo of the Week

Time for some sleep. To celebrate World Sleep Day two weeks ago, Luxaviation UK George Galanopoulos read “Biggin’s Bedtime Story” to Captain Mary, who along with Captain Merlin are the mascots for London Biggin Hill Airport. The story recounts Captain Mary’s smooth arrival at Biggin Hill before retiring at The Landing, the airport’s 56-room, on-site hotel. Thanks for sharing, George!

Keep them coming. If you’d like to submit an entry for Photo of the Week, email a high-resolution horizontal image (at least 2000 x 1200 pixels), along with your name, contact information, social media names, and info about it (including brief description, location, etc.) to photos@ainonline.com. Tail numbers can be removed upon request. Those submitting photos give AIN implied consent to publish them in its publications and social media channels.