In a keynote presentation this morning at EBACE Connect, aviator and philanthropist Erik Lindbergh challenged the business aviation sector to step up its leadership role in making the industry more environmentally sustainable. He told NBAA president Ed Bolen that the Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation will soon roll out a series of prizes to incentivize innovation towards carbon neutrality through its ForeverFlight initiative, which is backed by the XPrize Foundation and its $100 million funding from Elon Musk.
“We will have multiple prizes to overcome barriers [to its net and true zero-carbon goals], and we’re not sitting in the back waiting for something to happen that we might not like,” said Lindbergh. “Europe is leading the way in sustainability issues and we in the U.S. need to move in that direction.”
Lindbergh also confirmed his intention to mark the centenary of the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 by his grandfather, Charles Lindbergh. He told the EBACE Connect audience that he aims to make the flight from New York to Paris in a low- or zero-carbon aircraft, adding that a hybrid-electric model will probably prove to be the most feasible option.
Business Aviation in Italy continued its recovery in the first four months, with year-over-year activity up nearly 37 percent above the depths it reached last year when the Covid-19 pandemic was starting to reach full effect in the country and lockdowns were taking place across Europe. “That is remarkable,” said Chiara Dorigotti, CEO of SEA Prime, which manages the private aviation infrastructure at Milan Linate and Malpensa Airports under the Milano Prime brand.
Speaking at EBACE Connect this week, she noted that while the private aviation traffic numbers at the two airports are still down from 2019, they are on a trend to return to normal by next year. With the increasing efficacy of the Covid vaccines, the company is expecting that trend to continue through the remainder of the year with the news that several of the city’s signature events, including Design Week, Fashion Week, and the Formula One Grand Prix, are on track to return as live events.
Meanwhile, to accommodate the needs of Italian aircraft maintenance and management provider and long-term tenant Sirio, SEA Prime will construct a new 4,500-sq-m (48,500-sq-ft) hangar at Linate that will be able to accommodate bizliners. The €10 million ($12 million) facility, the 11th hangar on the Milano Prime ramp, will be completed in 2022, the company said.
Advanced Air Mobility Pioneers Present to Bizav Crowd
The business aviation community got a virtual introduction to some of the pioneers of so-called advanced air mobility (AAM) during an EBACE Connect session yesterday. Speakers from four electric aircraft developers explained how their plans to transform the air transport business model have made strong progress while other aviation sectors have been held back by the Covid pandemic.
In the UK, Faradair Aerospace is about to complete the design of its Bio Electric Hybrid Aircraft (BEHA) and start structural engineering work. Over the past eight months, the company has added major new partners, including propulsion providers Honeywell and MagniX, as well as expanded its workforce at a new headquarters at Duxford airfield.
“We are going to see a democratization of the regional air travel model,” CEO Neil Cloughley told the EBACE Connect audience. “Covid has brought a huge opportunity. We’re seeing a lot more interest in sustainability and new business models because technology is proving itself [in terms of value to society].”
Toulouse, France-based Skyconseil is offering EBACE Connect participants a free six-month trial of its Guidor software, which helps dispatchers and flight crew optimize flight paths to avoid hazardous weather and improve efficiency and situational awareness. Guidor is available for Apple iOS and Windows devices.
Skyconseil’s Guidor app is designed to help customers fly optimized trajectories and adjust flight plans dynamically to adapt to rapidly changing weather. Skyconseil has partnered with IBM’s Weather Company, aeronautical information management provider M-click, and connectivity expert Atmosphere to provide services to Guidor users.
The Guidor app helps pilots view detailed information about weather phenomena, including real-time turbulence, and it is updated automatically via onboard airborne connectivity systems. Aircraft position information is plotted on the Guidor moving map, delivered via external GPS connected to the iPad or from an aircraft interface device that is connected to the aircraft’s avionics.
Guidor shows both a moving-map display with the flight-planned route and weather overlays and also a vertical depiction to help pilots choose an optimum altitude. Users can slide back and forward in time to see how the weather changes in relation to the aircraft’s past or projected position. Built-in tools let users optimize the route by changing waypoints, altitude, and speed to see how that affects fuel consumption.
As the Covid pandemic begins to fade, more new customers have been drawn to private aviation, particularly charter. In an EBACE Connect panel on Tuesday, experts in the field examined what they believe are some of the issues facing the industry.
Ian Moore—chief commercial officer of VistaJet, which purchased XOJet last year—sees an opportunity for light business jet/short-haul flights as commercial airlines have contracted their routes. “We feel that area and that market is something that the XO brand can go after in a combination of working with the operators that already have light jets in that market but also adding light jets ourselves.”
He ties the growth that the market has experienced over the past year to clients who have tried private aviation for the first time. “It's all of our jobs to keep them in the industry,” Moore said.
Bernhard Fragner, CEO of Austria-based light jet operator GlobeAir, spoke about factors concerning “one-click” charter pricing, noting that the European market is very supply-driven. He suggested the establishment of a centralized industry inventory database. “Our pricing varies roughly 20 percent up and down depending on the demand,” he said, adding that variables such as crew availability, which is limited by duty times, must also be considered, in addition to aircraft costs. “This is a real-time pricing factor,” he added.
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