Bombardier has opted for Iridium Certus connectivity service for its Challenger 3500 super-midsize twin, the Montreal airframer announced today. The Challenger 3500 is the first aircraft in its class to be equipped with Iridium Certus as a baseline feature, Bombardier noted. The L-Band service offering, developed in collaboration with Collins Aerospace, is also available for retrofit on Challenger 300/350s through Bombardier’s service center network.
Iridium Certus provides connection speeds of up to 704 Kbps, which Bombardier said provides a strong foundation for connectivity with low latency and global coverage through the Iridium Next constellation of more than 66 cross-linked satellites.
“By incorporating the new Certus system to Challenger 3500 jets, we offer our clients a highly reliable connectivity service with pole-to-pole coverage,” said Jean-Christophe Gallagher, executive v-p of aircraft sales and Bombardier Defense, adding that the offering is part of its focus on cabin amenities for the 3500.
“Collins Aerospace’s new Iridium satcom solution will provide Challenger 3500 operators with faster speeds, lower weight, and smaller antenna footprint than legacy satcom systems allowing for minimum drag and lower power usage while providing more efficient connectivity services for the passengers in the cabin,” added Nate Boelkins, v-p and general manager of business and regional avionics at Collins Aerospace.
AINsight: Finding Value in Numbers
There are some changing realities afoot in our aviation world these days, including a higher supply of preowned business aircraft inventory, prices coming down from frenzied levels, increased days on the market, and higher costs to operate. In fact, it could be inferred that the higher supply and price reductions are driven in some part by the higher costs to operate.
As an aircraft seller, the smartest play is to be well-advised of market conditions and drivers and try to capture an opportunity to sell without the last two years’ bravado.
Although in no way should this market be considered a buyer’s market, it is no longer a seller’s market, either. It is a very healthy balanced market without the seller’s mandated transaction process of little to no due diligence on the part of buyers.
Over the last two years, many first-time buyers have entered our world without what might have been a full understanding of the cost of operations. Many were very low-time users who might have been better served buying fractional rather than whole aircraft.
Florida-based aircraft charter and management provider Elite Air has begun construction on a dedicated 72,000-sq-ft terminal/hangar complex at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (KPIE). The project is anticipated for completion in 2025.
Currently based out of the Sheltair facility at KPIE, Elite manages 26 aircraft, 22 of which—ranging from the Gulfstream G650ER and Bombardier Global 5500 to the Beechcraft King Air 350—are on its Part 135 certificate.
The $15 million project, with an entrance on Roosevelt Boulevard, will include an FBO-like 7,000-sq-ft, two-story terminal with a porte-cochère, pilot lounge, food and beverage area, two conference rooms, and second-floor office space for both the company’s operations and tenant leasing. Occupying 14 acres at KPIE, the complex will also feature 65,000 sq ft of hangar space capable of handling the latest ultra-long-range private jets. Upon completion, Elite plans to provide its own ground handling services, and 24/7 U.S. Customs is available on the field.
In addition to sheltering the company’s aircraft, with hangar space in Florida at a premium, Elite is also accepting waiting list applications from outside operators. “Hangar space has become tight throughout the Tampa Bay area, and even nationwide,” said company president AJ Becker.
NetJets Aims to Hire Nearly 850 Pilots This Year
NetJets is actively hiring best-in-class pilots to command the world’s largest, most diverse private fleet.
A U.S. District Court in Texas convicted Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin, owner of Wright Brothers Aircraft Title and Aircraft Guaranty Corp. (AGC), of money laundering, wire fraud, and two counts of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine on Thursday, following a two-week trial.
Mercer-Erwin, a well-known figure in the business aircraft transaction community, served as a board member of the National Aircraft Finance Association. But according to the government, her Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based aircraft title and escrow services enabled cartels to use U.S.-registered aircraft that AGC held in trust to be used in the drug trade.
Following her arrest in 2020, the FAA suspended title transfers of more than four dozen aircraft held in trust at the direction of the Department of Justice, raising concerns about the legitimacy of the registrations of some 6,000 U.S. aircraft owned in trusts. AGC was a trustee to more than 1,000 such airplanes.
Mercer-Erwin was also found guilty of operating a Ponzi scheme as part of her money laundering, advertising aircraft for sale that were actually not available, and using escrowed funds to repay money deposited by previous would-be buyers. Co-defendants Kayleigh Moffett, Mercer-Erwin’s daughter, and Carlos Rocha Villaurrutia pleaded guilty in April. Mercer-Erwin faces up to life in prison.
NetJets pilots will picket the annual shareholders meeting of parent company Berkshire Hathaway tomorrow to protest what they say is the company’s failure to deal with the shortage of flight crew. The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) said it is expected around 1,000 of its members and their families will be outside the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where Berkshire is holding its annual shareholder meeting all day tomorrow.
“Despite the sustained pilot labor crisis, NetJets executives have chosen not to take meaningful steps to attract and to retain talented pilot personnel, putting the brand’s status as the global leader in private air transportation at risk,” NJASAP said.
In March, the group warned NetJets that unless pay and conditions are improved in the course of ongoing midterm contract negotiations, NetJets risks losing flight crew to airlines now offering substantial double-digit increases to attract new employees. It pointed to a survey indicating that almost a quarter of NetJets pilots plan to leave the company within 12 months if contract negotiations are not concluded to their satisfaction.
The pilot’s union accused the company of failing to acknowledge the situation in the labor market and take proactive steps to remain competitive. “NJASAP views this head-in-the-sand stance as unfathomable, especially when we stand ready to partner with management to recapture NetJets’ former cachet, benefitting all Berkshire Hathaway stakeholders,” it concluded.
The mandate of Abu Dhabi-based aviation investment vehicle Serenity Aviation Holding has widened from business aviation to include commercial aviation, the military, airports, MROs, and advanced air mobility, CEO Rob DiCastri told attendees on Wednesday at Corporate Jet Investor Dubai.
Established in 2021, Serenity is majority-owned by the International Holding Company, a UAE-based group of more than 500 companies. “They’re the fastest-growing holding company—and the second-largest listed—in the region now, at something like a $350 billion market capitalization,” he said.
DiCastri said the company was now engaged in six different acquisitions “from small to very large,” while four different joint ventures were in the process of being formed.
Serenity was created to build and consolidate aviation services in Abu Dhabi and grow its economy, he said. “It’s a very wide mandate…It’s not just private aviation, which, of course, is my background. It’s commercial aviation, military, airports, MROs, that type of thing. The mandate that I have is to go out and find the best brands in the world.”
DiCastri took over the lead role at Serenity in August 2022 after serving for six years as CEO of Royal Jet Group, the UAE charter concern that is now understood to operate more than a dozen BBJs.
Day rates for contract pilots of popular business aircraft have increased dramatically over the last year, according to data from CrewBlast, a technology-driven private aviation and yacht staffing company. Data reported by CrewBlast users indicates the increases are across almost every category of business aircraft, but the most dramatic for some large-cabin business jets, with select domestic day rates rising 25 percent or more.
Captain rates for Bombardier Globals (excluding the Model 7500) are up from $1,500 last year to between $2,000 and $2,500; for Challenger 300 series from $1,300 to between $1,800 and $2,000; for Citation Sovereigns from $1,250 to between $1,500 and $1,800; and for Hawker 900s from $1,200 to between $1,500 and $1,700. According to CrewBlast, the top type ratings among crew users of the platform are for the Gulfstream G550/G650; Bombardier Challenger 300, 604, and Global Express; Cessna Citation Sovereign and XLS+; Dassault Falcon 7X; Embraer Legacy 600; and Hawker 900XP.
The CrewBlast data confirms continuing trends in business jet crewing and comes at a time when Delta Air Lines has boosted top pilot pay almost 34 percent, to nearly $600,000 annually, and pilot unions across the country at almost every carrier, including fractional provider NetJets, are aggressively negotiating for higher pay.
The global ambulance and air ambulance markets will post an annual growth rate of 8.9 percent, increasing from a 2021 value of $40.6 billion to $94.2 billion by 2031. That's according to a new report from consultancy Research and Markets.
The firm said the growth will be driven by dramatic increases in the use of automobiles and subsequent crashes, as well as an overall explosion in the world’s geriatric population, from 524 million in 2010 to two billion by 2050. The growth of the elderly population is due to improved regional medical care in markets, including China, Japan, and the U.S., according to the study. As a result, Research and Markets anticipates increased demand for ambulance services"as the elderly are more vulnerable to illnesses and infections."
However, Research and Markets also pointed out that significant limits remain with regard to the growth of the air ambulance market, specifically “the requirement for specialized equipment and skilled medical personnel, the cost of deploying an air ambulance, the possibility that air ambulances may be unable to fly in bad weather, and the absence of modern tracking systems.”
Vote Now in Business Jet Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Survey
AIN sister publication Business Jet Traveler has launched its 13th annual Readers’ Choice survey. The poll solicits private aircraft fliers’ opinions about and experiences with flying privately and asks them to rate charter, jet card, and fractional-share providers, membership clubs, aircraft manufacturers and models, and more. All respondents will receive a prepublication copy of the results, be entered into a drawing for a $500 Amazon gift card, and have a donation made on their behalf to Corporate Angel Network. Take the survey.
Photo of the Week
King of fire. Julio Flores, a sheet metal technician at Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems, took a photo of this Beechcraft King Air 350 on the MRO company’s ramp at Tennessee’s Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport (KMQY). We love the fiery sunrise skyline in the background of this venerable turboprop twin. Thanks for sharing, Julio!
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.
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