Global private aviation support provider Jetex has signed an agreement with Shell Aviation to be the first to offer sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the UAE. Dubai-based Jetex has previously stocked SAF at several of its European locations, and it will now do so from its flagship FBO at Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport.

“Bringing SAF to the United Arab Emirates is a milestone achievement, and today I am pleased that we can finally offer this type of aircraft fuel to our customers in Dubai in partnership with Shell Aviation,” said Jetex founder and CEO Adel Mardini. “It is even more important in light of 2023 being announced as the 'year of sustainability' in the UAE as it cements our ambition to reduce carbon emissions.”

Recognizing the need for aviation to address the issue of climate change, Jetex has adopted an environmental strategy with a focus on carbon emission reduction, recycling, and introducing the latest green technologies across its worldwide network. Those efforts are in line with IATA’s goal of net-zero aviation by 2050.

SAF—blended with conventional jet fuel at ratios up to 50 percent, the maximum currently permitted by aviation authorities—is a drop-in fuel. In its neat (100 percent) form, SAF can provide lifecycle CO2 emission reductions of up to 80 percent compared with jet-A.

OpsGroup said GPS spoofing continues to expand and increase, noting nearly 50 reports of fake signals impacting operators involving three different types of incidents.

It first sounded the alarm in September, saying it had received a dozen separate reports of aircraft being targeted with fake signals as they flew over Iraq near the Iranian border. In late October, reports flowed in from operations over the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, and on approach to Amman, Jordan. In these cases, the aircraft showed a false position of being stationary over Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport (LLBG) even though they actually were up to 212 nm away.

The latest GPS spoofing incidents now involve flights from LLBG that are being led toward Lebanon.

OpsGroup said this has been a “real-world discovery of a fundamental flaw in avionics design—if a GPS position signal is faked, most aircraft are incapable of detecting the ruse.” Complete loss of navigation occurs in some cases, while in others the fake signals have led to “subtle, undetected erroneous tracking." 

OpsGroup further said, “The industry has been slow to come to terms with the issue, leaving flight crews alone to find ways of detecting and mitigating GPS spoofing.” Key signs of spoofing include a rapid jump in estimated position uncertain figures, an EFIS warning related to navigation, and/or a significant change in the UTC clock time.

The crew of the Raytheon Hawker 850 that hit a Cessna Mustang landing on a crossing runway at Houston Hobby Airport (KHOU) on October 24 did not follow ATC instructions to line up and wait (LUAW). They began the Hawker's takeoff roll and ignored two ATC instructions to stop and hold its position before completing the takeoff, according to the just-released NTSB preliminary report.

The accident occurred at about 3:20 p.m. when the Hawker (N269AA) that was taking off on Runway 22 struck the Mustang (N510HM) landing on cross-Runway 13R. The Hawker sustained “minor damage” when its left wing struck N510HM's tail and vertical stabilizer; the Citation's empennage was substantially damaged. N269AA was able to become airborne and it circled back to the airport before landing safely. No injuries were reported among the seven onboard the two aircraft.

Per the NTSB report, at 3:15 p.m. the ground controller instructed the Hawker’s crew to monitor KHOU Tower frequency. At 3:18 p.m., ATC instructed the Hawker crew to LUAW on Runway 22. The Hawker crew told investigators they believed they were cleared for takeoff and began their roll. The controller twice ordered the crew to stop and hold its position but received no response.

During the post-accident interview, both crewmembers of N269AA stated that there were “no controllability issues during takeoff.”

Wheels Up reported third-quarter losses of $145 million this morning on $320 million in revenues. The loss included a $56 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge. Meanwhile, active members fell 15 percent year-over-year, to 10,775, and live flight legs were down by 21 percent, to 16,581. Revenue per live flight leg dropped by 2 percent, to $12,945.

For the first nine months, Wheels Up posted $407 million in losses on $1.007 billion in revenues. Quarterly losses and revenues have been decreasing this year as the company continues to implement its plan to reorganize into two principal service areas and consolidate Part 135 certificates. It also recently opened a consolidated operations center in Atlanta.

"Despite the challenging year, we are proud of the progress we have made on our operating and profitability goals and the renewed market confidence resulting from the recently closed capital infusion," said CFO Todd Smith. "Our on-time performance and controllable interruption rates are improving, and the third quarter marked our best profit performance since 2021."

"The strategic [$450 million] investment from Delta Air Lines, along with our new partners [announced in September], demonstrates their confidence in our operational and commercial plan to deliver a compelling and differentiated experience for our customers," said CEO George Mattson. "I look forward to leveraging a deeper relationship with Delta."

With a focus on “Integrity in Safety” at the just-concluded Bombardier Safety Standdown, Chris Lutat, managing partner at Convergent Performance, addressed what this means during his presentation, "Integrity in the Cockpit: Practical Applications of a Timeless Virtue.”

“Are you working on every part of your job?” he asked, connecting integrity with digging deeper into the work done to promote safety. “Are you putting…the appropriate amount of time and effort into, for example, fatigue risk management or have you just been…developing a fatigue risk management program? Are you bolting that onto your existing safety practices, enhancing your SMS, or are you genuinely working on every aspect of your job?”

Lutat is aware that pilots, maintainers, and managers face an overwhelming number of opportunities available for flight operations to enhance their safety programs, as well as diversity issues, cross-generational personnel, workforce shortages, supply chain issues, technology changes, and more.

“The good news is that Standdown, for over a generation, has been addressing all of these things, whether it's fatigue, whether it's professionalism, whether it's airmanship, whether it's unusual attitude, training, maintenance training—there's dozens of resources on the Safety Standdown website that you can use beginning today.

“You have to put a little bit of time and effort into yourself before you can then put your safety behaviors and your safety knowledge [to work] and promote the safety.”