Business jet deliveries in the third quarter at Embraer were flat year-over-year, but are up more than 25 percent year-to-date. The Brazilian airframer handed over 14 light jets (all Phenom 300s) and seven large jets (two Praetor 500s and five Praetor 600s) in the latest three-month period versus 19 light jets (three Phenom 100s and 16 Phenom 300s) and two Praetor 500s in last year's third quarter.
Year-to-date, business jet deliveries totaled 54, including 36 light jets (two Phenom 100s and 34 Phenom 300s) and 18 large jets (six Praetor 500s and 12 Praetor 600s), up 25.6 percent from 43 aircraft—33 light jets (five Phenom 100s and 28 Phenom 300s) and 10 large jets (one Legacy 650, four Praetor 500s, and five Praetor 600s)—in the first nine months of 2020.
In the third quarter, Embraer reached a milestone, delivering its 1,500th business jet—a Phenom 300E to Haute Aviation in Switzerland.
Separately, the company this week delivered its first Praetor 500 in Canada to fractional operator AirSprint, which will be recorded in Embraer's fourth-quarter deliveries. Earlier this year, AirSprint converted two Legacy 450s to Praetor 500s and, with this most recent announcement, it now has three of the type in its fleet that also includes six Legacy 450s, six Cessna Citation CJ2+s, and five CJ3+s.
Million Air Franchisee Acquires ACI Jet Stake
Freeman Holdings Group, the largest franchisee within the Million Air FBO Network, has acquired an ownership interest in California-based aviation services provider ACI Jet. The latter company’s founder, William Borgsmiller, will remain in control of ACI's three FBOs—at John Wayne-Orange County (KSNA), San Luis County Regional (KSBP), and Paso Robles Municipal (KPRB) airports, all of which will retain the ACI name for now.
Freeman currently operates 14 FBOs, with a dozen under the Million Air label, at locations such as Orlando, Florida; Yuma, Arizona; Medford, Oregon; and Syracuse, New York. This move will bolster Freeman’s California presence, which includes facilities at March Air Reserve Base (KRIV) in Riverside and Southern California Logistics Airport (KVCV) in Victorville.
“With our 35 years of operational and commercial development background, we are confident we can augment ACI’s potential by incorporating Million Air’s industry-recognized customer service and facility standards to the ACI group of FBOs,” said Freeman Group CEO Scott Freeman. “All additional FBOs will combine to provide a huge choice of destinations to our customers."
FAA, NTSB Investigate MD-87 Crash in Houston
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the Tuesday morning crash in Houston of a privately operated McDonnell Douglas MD-87. The twinjet experienced difficulties on takeoff from Houston Executive Airport en route to Boston and, according to a preliminary report from the FAA, the “aircraft on departure rolled through the safety area into a pasture and caught on fire.”
Though the twinjet was destroyed in a post-crash fire, all 21 aboard, including the two pilots, escaped to safety. An FAA preliminary report indicated that the 19 people in the cabin were all passengers, but the Texas Department of Public Safety said there were 18 passengers and one flight attendant, adding that all got out without serious injury.
The aircraft—N987AK—was registered to Spring, Texas-based 987 Investments for Part 91 operation. It was owned by a local businessman who was one of the passengers, according to local news reports. His company released a statement to AIN noting that “there was a minor injury sustained by a passenger going down the [emergency escape] slide, but thank God that there was no loss of life. We will be working with the FAA and the NTSB to ensure that we are complying with all of their requirements.”
New White Paper Examines Decarbonization Needs
Deloitte Consulting has authored a white paper on the decarbonization of aviation and the impact new technology solutions will have on lowering scope 3 emissions, which include those produced by aircraft.
According to the report, without the implementation of decarbonization procedures and technologies, aviation emissions could be responsible for 22 percent of the planet’s total emissions by 2050.
While the industry has issued ambitious goals for the coming decades, the path to meeting those 2050 emissions reduction targets remains challenging as there is no silver bullet that will ensure the industry meets its goals, the report stated.
Among the most promising methods for reducing scope 3 emissions are sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and electric propulsion. SAFs are likely to be the best possible solution for reducing emissions in medium-to-long-haul flights, while electric propulsion could be the most feasible zero-emission solution for smaller aircraft and short-haul flights.
For long-haul aircraft, the focus should be on increasing the production capabilities of SAFs (both bio-SAFs and synthetic SAFs) to drive down the price and increase acceptance, the company noted. It cautioned that while bio-SAFs could only be a net-zero solution over the fuels’ life cycle, synthetic SAFs hold the potential to be a zero-emission solution.
The information you need, when you need it
Business aviation operators rely on multiple apps and data from multiple sources for everything from flight planning to maintenance, fleet status and crew management. Some are needlessly complex and few can share information with one another.
Introducing Izon, a connected platform for business aviation that provides an integrated, mobile-friendly solution designed to adapt and grow with your needs.
Washington State-based airport development and management company Propeller Airports has purchased Castle & Cooke’s FBO at Seattle-area Snohomish County Airport (KPAE), which is also known as Paine Field. In conjunction with the acquisition, the company has launched a new subsidiary, Propeller Aero Services, that will operate the facility and focus on FBO development.
Propeller—which designed, built, and operates the recently-opened commercial terminal at KPAE—intends to build a new $20 million FBO terminal and hangar complex there. With ground-breaking slated for mid-2022, plans call for a 12,000-sq-ft terminal featuring a passenger lobby with fireplace, 20-seat conference room, pilot lounge with snooze room, in-house catering kitchen, theater room, concierge service, and crew cars. Propeller expects to renovate the existing 5,000-sq-ft terminal, which it will dedicate to light general aviation traffic after the new facility opens.
The company also plans to construct a 40,000-sq-ft heated hangar at the airport. When combined with an existing hangar, this will give the location 50,000 sq ft of hangar space capable of sheltering aircraft up to a Bombardier Global 7500.
Propeller CEO Brett Smith said the acquisition “makes a tremendous amount of sense given our understanding of the airport and our home market.” Castle & Cooke will retain its FBOs at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu and at Los Angeles-area Van Nuys Airport. The deal is expected to close by the end of November.
ACA Honors Industry Orgs, Individuals for Excellence
The Air Charter Association (ACA) honored eight industry organizations and individuals during its Air Charter Excellence Awards 2021 celebration, which was hosted in-person in Brighton, UK, on October 14. Held at the Hilton Metropole, the event included a gala dinner and casino night.
“The past 18 months have been incredibly difficult for our industry, of course, and we look forward to a brighter 2022,” said ACA chairman Kevin Ducksbury. “Coming together for the event in Brighton reminded us how much of a community the air charter industry is and how we can all support each other through recognition and by highlighting the hard work involved.”
Awards were presented to Air Hamburg as the Executive Passenger Charter Operator of the Year; 2Excel Aviation as the Commercial Passenger Charter Operator of the Year; RVL Aviation as the Cargo Charter Operator of the Year; Farnborough Airport as the Handling Agent/FBO of the Year; Gulfstream as the Aircraft Manufacturer of the Year; Tomas Nicolau from LunaJets as the ACA NextGen Young Person of the Year; Faradair Aerospace as the selection for the Sir Michael Marshall Award for Sustainability in Aviation; and Phill O’Dell, chief test pilot at Rolls-Royce and founder of fly2help, as the recipient of the ACA Chairman’s Award.
The honorees were selected from a slate of nominations made from ACA’s international membership.
World Circumnavigator Zara Rutherford To Keynote EBACE
Organizers EBAA and NBAA have lined up Zara Rutherford—the youngest woman to attempt to fly solo around the world—as a keynote speaker at EBACE 2022. The show is scheduled for May 23 to 25 at its traditional home in the Palexpo Center next to Geneva International Airport in Switzerland. The associations have said they plan for the event to have a “strong focus” on sustainability, innovation, safety, and networking.
Rutherford, who is 19, is attempting to become the youngest person to fly around the world in a microlight aircraft as part of an overarching effort to promote aviation and STEM careers for girls and young women.
Flying in a modified Shark UL high-performance ultralight, she kicked off the trip on August 18 in Belgium and, heading west, reached Alaska by late September. She expects to arrive back in Belgium in early December after crossing 52 countries and five continents.
“Zara Rutherford is showing us the future of aviation and inspiring us all along the way. We look forward to hearing and learning from a real aviation trailblazer,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. EBAA chairman Juergen Wiese agreed, saying, “She is a role model and stirs excitement for the future of aviation. This is what EBACE is all about."
AvMet Applications has joined SmartSky Networks’ Skytelligence platform to offer its weather data and analysis to the aviation community. AvMet is a leading collaborator with the FAA’s NextGen aviation weather division.
Business and commercial avionics and developers will now have selective, data-driven access to high-resolution historical weather event forecasts through Skytelligence. “Data-driven decision making is the future of aviation operations,” said Mark Klopfenstein, Avmet Applications president. “SmartSky’s Skytelligence provides an ideal platform for AvMet to bring our weather impact data solutions to the aviation community.”
AvMet’s data services can be accessed on Skytelligence and fused with other data such as real-time turbulence data from IATA via a common storefront that provides application developers with access to data for real-time, critical advisory applications. SmartSky products and services are available through value-added resellers and installers and include next-generation air-to-ground network, advanced shipset hardware for aircraft communications, and Skytelligence, a digital platform and application layer.
Dr. Sian Proctor is a geoscientist, explorer, space artist, and astronaut. She was the mission pilot for the Inspiration4 all-civilian space flight launched on September 16 and spoke to an audience at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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