Pilatus Marks 50th PC-24 Delivery

Pilatus Aircraft yesterday announced it has handed over the 50th PC-24, a year and a half since the first delivery of its twinjet. The milestone aircraft went to an unidentified U.S. customer.

To date, the global PC-24 fleet has exceeded the 14,000-flight-hour mark. “We are very pleased with how the PC-24 is performing for our customers, and demand remains very high,” said Pilatus Business Aircraft CEO Thomas Bosshard. Pilatus and its authorized sales centers are taking orders for the type that will deliver in the latter half of 2021.

Since the first PC-24 entered service in February 2018, Pilatus has been gathering customer input on the aircraft’s interior. At NBAA-BACE next week, the Swiss airframer will unveil a PC-24 with a forward galley designed for additional storage of coffee, ice, beverages, and catering. The modular gallery will be interchangeable with the currently available coat closet, Pilatus said. It also is working on a retrofit option for the lavatory to be placed in the rear of the PC-24’s cabin.

The PC-24 and its turboprop cousin, the PC-12, will be on NBAA-BACE static display at Henderson Executive Airport, where Pilatus will also host a special event, “The NeXt Big Thing,” on Monday evening, just ahead of the convention opening.

Textron Aviation Sees Mixed Aircraft Deliveries in Q3

Modifications to the recently certified Cessna Citation Longitude will push some deliveries out to early next year, while deliveries of legacy Citations are expected to be flat year-over-year as customer demand takes a pause because of economic and political uncertainty, Scott Donnelly, CEO of Textron Aviation parent company Textron, said this morning during a third-quarter earnings call. For the quarter, Textron Aviation delivered 45 jets, up from 41 in third-quarter 2018, while turboprop deliveries edged lower to 39 versus 43 in the same period last year. 

The Wichita airframer’s profit rose $5 million, to $104 million, in the quarter on revenue of $1.2 billion—$68 million higher than the third quarter last year.

Donnelly explained that FAA certification required some modifications—including wiring and connectors—to be made to the Longitude, which will push some deliveries originally expected in the fourth quarter to the upcoming first quarter. They are “technically minor modifications,” he said, “but they’re invasive” and slowing deliveries to some customers. The modifications are not expected to slow deliveries beyond the first quarter, he added. 

Also, Textron Aviation will likely deliver about the same number of legacy business jets this year that it did in 2018. Earlier this year it was anticipating legacy deliveries to be higher for 2019, but an erosion in overall business confidence is now muting that expectation.

Challenger 350 Sets 10 Speed Records in Less Than a Day

Bombardier continues to rack up speed records for its lineup of business jets, the latest involving 10 record flights a Challenger 350 accomplished in a period of just 20.5 hours. The tour of speed records, which Bombardier said was unprecedented, began at 7:56 a.m. local time on September 27 in Las Vegas and involved stops in Denver, Chicago, Teterboro, Washington, White Plains (New York), West Palm Beach, Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles, before returning to Las Vegas. Reaching Mach 0.82 during most of the journey, the Challenger 350 arrived back in Las Vegas at 4:20 a.m. local time the following day after flying more than 5,600 nm and setting a city-pair record on each leg.

Bombardier said the record journey was a testament to the Challenger 350’s dispatch reliability and productivity. “By connecting 10 of the top U.S. business aviation destinations in 20.5 hours, the Challenger 350 demonstrated once again its unmatched performance, exceptional reliability, and unrivaled value,” said Bombardier Aviation president David Coleal.

“While this unprecedented record run is an impressive accomplishment, completing a 10-mission tour of the U.S. in less than a day is well within the capabilities of this aircraft,” added Dennis Simmons, senior captain of flight operations.

IBAC Teams Up with AviationManuals for Operator Support

The International Business Aviation Council formed a partnership with Washington, D.C.-based operations manuals specialist AviationManuals to maintain the General Company Operations Manual (GCOM) in line with the latest International Standards-Business Aviation Operations (IS-BAO) update and provide simplified development methods to operators seeking IS-BAO registration.

“We are expanding our relationship with AviationManuals to add value to our IS-BAO operators, especially small flight departments,” said Bennet Walsh, IS-BAO program director. “This new alignment will improve access to our free GCOM that will be maintained to the latest IS-BAO revisions and be available in the operator’s regulatory framework.“

Under the partnership, AviationManuals also is offering registration support to organizations with limited resources at special rates.

“We look forward to supporting IBAC [International Business Aviation Council] by improving and keeping its already robust GCOM up to date, thereby providing an even better free solution to IS-BAO members,” added AviationManuals CEO Mark Baier. “At the same time, we both recognize that developing and maintaining your own manuals, even when starting with the GCOM, may not be an effective and efficient option, particularly for smaller operators. We believe strongly that operators should always be looking to improve their operations and safety culture and IS-BAO remains an excellent way to do so.”

Isle of Man Cleared in Bizjet Tax Avoidance Review

The UK government’s review of how the Isle of Man administers tax on aircraft and yachts has found no evidence of value-added tax (VAT) avoidance—although it has recommended additional post-registration compliance checks. The review’s findings were published yesterday after an in-depth investigation into the application of aircraft and yacht VAT rules in the Isle of Man, and whether its rules and procedures enabled importation of private jets into the EU without paying the correct amount of VAT.

The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown Dependency that is outside both the UK and European Union, but part of the UK for VAT purposes. Following a series of allegations of VAT avoidance in late 2017 stemming from BBC Panorama’s “Paradise Papers” documentary, the Isle of Man government invited HM Treasury to carry out a review of its VAT rules and procedures regarding aircraft and yacht importations.

The central finding is that allegations of widespread VAT avoidance on aircraft and yachts were not upheld, with the report recognizing that the Isle of Man government carries out extensive and effective compliance checks during VAT registration. It recommended further compliance checks in the years after registration to ensure that the right amounts of VAT continue to be collected.

Helicopter Lessor LCI in New $100 Million Deal

Helicopter lessor LCI announced long-term leases for five rotorcraft—three Leonardo AW139s and two Sikorsky S-92s. The leases were made via a new $100 million investment vehicle in partnership with the Flexam Tangible Asset Income Fund, registered in Luxembourg. Flexam invests in industrial equipment and commercial real estate. “The helicopter leasing marketplace is a dynamic one offering many investment opportunities,” said Flexam Invest partners Fabrice Fraikin and Florian de Sigy.

“LCI is delighted to lead the helicopter leasing sector in launching this new form of ownership vehicle,” added LCI CFO Jaspal Jandu. “It enables investors to participate at a specific transaction level.” LCI’s current fleet of almost 100 aircraft is valued at approximately $1 billion. The fleet is deployed across four continents in multiple sectors, including offshore wind, emergency medical services, search and rescue, maritime pilot transfer, and offshore oil and gas.

LCI entered the helicopter leasing marketplace in 2012 with a $400 million order for a fleet of Leonardo AW139s, AW169s, and AW189s. Since its inception in 2004, LCI has acquired fixed-wing and rotary aircraft with a value of around US$6 billion. Since January 2018, LCI has raised more than $380 million in new helicopter debt financing.

EASA Takes Next Step to Requiring Runway Alert Systems

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has issued its opinion to proceed with regulations to require CS-25 (equivalent to FAA Part 25) airplanes be equipped with runway overrun awareness and alerting systems (ROAAS). The opinion to go forward with the requirements is the result of positive feedback from the agency’s notice of proposed amendment published late last year. The EASA said “a majority” of the 99 comments “were supportive” of the proposal.

Nevertheless, several comments challenged the proposed timeline of three years for the production cut-in, as well as a request by others to exempt business jets and turboprops. In response to the timeline, EASA proposes to set the deadline to provide “five years between the date of publication of this opinion and the date of applicability of the production cut-in; and not less than three years between the entry into force of the regulation and the date of applicability of the production cut-in.” On this basis, the proposed deadline is Jan. 1, 2025, or a later date to fulfill the second condition.

Regarding the request to exempt business jets and turboprops, EASA said such exemptions are “justified neither by the analysis of safety data nor by actual technical or economical concerns that could be foreseen regarding airplanes in production and to be registered in an EASA member state.”

JetSuite, JSX Select Traxxall for Mx Tracking

JetSuite and JSX (formerly JetSuiteX) have selected Traxxall as their maintenance tracking and inventory management provider following a comprehensive review of their aircraft maintenance tracking needs, Traxxall announced yesterday. Actual migration to Traxxall’s service across all their operations was completed in May.

“We own and operate a large and growing fleet, offer exceptional hospitality and are guided by very high standards,” said v-p of JSX tech ops Robert Hamel. “To be successful, our aircraft must be extremely well maintained. By generating comprehensive data that minimizes aircraft downtimes, Traxxall contributes directly to our overall operational efficiency.”

Ten-year-old JetSuite owns and operates four Embraer Phenom 100s and eight Phenom 300s for its charter operations, while JSX operates a fleet of 15 thirty-seat Embraer ERJ-135s and seven Embraer ERJ-145s that provide scheduled air service to nine cities in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Washington. Both companies were started by JetBlue co-founder Alex Wilcox. 

Free Seminar at NBAA: Sustainable Aviation Fuel Basics

Alternative fuels are slowly but surely working their way into fuel supplies worldwide and many of the turbine-powered aircraft that will fly to Las Vegas for the NBAA-BACE static display will burn some amount of sustainable aviation fuel. AIN’s 1.5-hour live forum during the NBAA show in Vegas will bring together a panel of industry experts to explain how this fuel is gaining ground, why it is good for turbine engines and the environment, and how you can help move the needle on the use of sustainable aviation fuel in the aircraft that you operate. Register today for this free luncheon seminar on October 23 at 12 noon PT (seating is limited). Moderated by AIN editor in chief Matt Thurber, it will feature panelists Steve Csonka, Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative; Charles Etter, Gulfstream Aerospace; and Keith Sawyer, Avfuel Corp. Sponsored by World Fuel Services, Farnborough Airport and Gulfstream Aerospace.