Aircraft deliveries at Embraer remained stable in the third quarter, with the Brazilian airframer reporting a total of 62 units. While the 41 business jet deliveries in the quarter was unchanged from a year ago, the group achieved a small uptick in commercial aviation, increasing output from 16 to 20 aircraft.

Third-quarter deliveries by Embraer’s executive aviation division included three Phenom 100EXs, 20 Phenom 300Es, 11 Praetor 500s, and seven Praetor 600s. The overall tally was higher than in the second quarter, in which the company delivered 38 business jets. Over the first nine months, the company has delivered 102 business jets; it expects to hand over 145 to 155 Phenom light jets and midsize Praetors by year-end.

“Embraer’s continued delivery strength reflects the unwavering demand for our industry-leading business jets and the trust our customers place in our brand,” Embraer Executive Jets president and CEO Michael Amalfitano told AIN. "With 41 executive jets delivered in the third quarter—led by the Phenom 300E, the world’s best-selling light jet for 13 consecutive years—we are not only sustaining momentum but accelerating growth. We’re also seeing a notable rise in demand for Praetors from corporate flight departments, underscoring their confidence in our engineering excellence and relentless focus on innovation and efficiency.”

Coming from Athens in the East to Lisbon in the West, European industry leaders converged on the Swiss city Basel three weeks ago for AIN’s inaugural Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit in Europe. We’ve run these events for a couple of years, and to say that the circumstances faced by operators on either side of the Atlantic are different would be an understatement.

For a start, all but one of the senior pilots and managers in attendance at CALS Europe were not with a traditional corporate flight department, as is commonly the case at our U.S. events. Most were from aircraft management and charter businesses, and what immediately became apparent in discussions is how resourceful and entrepreneurial they have to be to thrive in what can be a very challenging market.

Many of the participants were well into decades-long careers that had seen them responsible for multiple aircraft types. They told jaw-dropping—and profoundly off-the-record—stories about the extraordinary array of clients they have served, including multiple kings, princes, duchesses, and world leaders. Oh, if walls had ears.

The week before CALS Europe, Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace closed four airports, and the following week saw similar security threats in Denmark and Norway. These and many other threats, including GPS spoofing, were topics addressed in the security roundtable discussion that formed part of the CALS agenda.

Charter operator Hop-A-Jet Worldwide Jet Charter has filed a class-action complaint against Bombardier and its Learjet subsidiary, Turbine Engine Specialists, as well as GE Aerospace and Duncan Aviation, in relation to the Feb. 9, 2024 accident in Naples, Florida that killed two Hop-A-Jet pilots. The pilots made an emergency landing in their Bombardier Challenger 604 on the southbound lane of highway I-75 while on approach to Naples Airport (KAPF) after they reported a dual engine failure. Two passengers and a Hop-A-Jet flight attendant survived.

According to the complaint, “This Federal Class Action is brought: (1) to help organize and consolidate all actions resulting from this GE disaster, (2) provide an avenue for Hop-A-Jet (and plaintiffs) to recover any and all of their direct damages (that are now in the hundreds of millions of dollars) from those responsible, and (3) finally require GE to provide adequate notice to all purchasers of these specific family of GE engines, so another tragedy can be avoided.”

The complaint alleges that the Challenger’s GE CF34 engines suffered from a defect known to GE: “The cause of the catastrophe was a ‘non-recoverable dual rotating compressor stall’ arising from corrosion to the variable guide vane systems of the CF34-3B engines powering the aircraft.”

GE and Bombardier issued statements about the lawsuit indicating support for the families involved and that they are aiding in the investigation. 

France’s Defense Procurement and Technology Agency has ordered five more Dassault Falcon 2000 Albatros aircraft for its Maritime Surveillance and Intervention Aircraft program. The contract, announced yesterday, completes a 12-aircraft commitment, of which the first seven were ordered in December 2020.

Dassault Aviation delivers the Albatros version of its Falcon 2000LXS business jet equipped with a multifunction radar installed beneath the fuselage, as well as a high-performance optronic turret, observation windows, search-and-rescue equipment, and a dedicated communications system. The 2000LXS, of which several hundred units are already in service worldwide, has a range of around 4,000 nm.

The French aircraft manufacturer produces the Albatros in partnership with Safran, Thales, and the Naval Group. Dassault’s Mérignac facility in the west of France completes the integration work before each aircraft is put through their paces at its flight-test center in Istres.

“From the Falcon 20 operated by the U.S. Coast Guard to the Falcon 900 and Falcon 2000MSA with the Japanese Coast Guard, and the Falcon 200 Guardian and 50M in service with the French Navy, we have extensive experience with maritime surveillance,” said Dassault chairman and CEO Éric Trappier. He added that multiple countries have shown interest in the platform for roles that include homeland and maritime protection, as well as pollution, trafficking, and fisheries control.

German politicians on Friday called for drones that have disrupted operations at Munich Airport to be shot down, as authorities across Europe are under mounting pressure to act in the face of a spate of similar incidents. A meeting of EU interior ministers to be held in the German city on Saturday is expected to focus entirely on security threats posed by the drone incursions.

Drones caused at least 15 scheduled flights to be diverted from Munich Airport between 10:20 p.m. local time on Thursday and 5 a.m. on Friday morning. At least 17 outbound departures were canceled.

The incursions followed a similar pattern to disruptions at multiple airports in Denmark, Norway, Germany, and Belgium. On Thursday night, a swarm of 15 drones was sighted flying over the Elsenborn military base near the German border.

Security forces have been reluctant to shoot down the drones over safety concerns at public airports. While the Russian military is widely suspected of being behind some or all of the airspace disruptions, police in Norway detained eight Chinese nationals for allegedly flying drones near Svolvær Airport, and three Germans were arrested following an incident at the Mo i Rana Airport near Røssvoll, Norway.

A newly released Capstone Memorandum report from the U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General (OIG) analyzes what it considers were the successes and failures of the FAA’s planned NextGen ATC modernization program. That program, launched more than 20 years ago, is officially being scrapped in favor of the Trump Administration’s new modernization program. 

Launched in 2003, NextGen was one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in U.S. history—an estimated $36 billion effort to modernize the nation’s aging ATC system. Since 2006, OIG has issued 50 reports addressing NextGen and related programs and made more than 200 recommendations. 

The memorandum outlines the background of each delay or failure in reaching equipment and other program milestones and the associated cost overruns. However, the FAA maintains that NextGen “is still expected to deliver a positive return on investment to taxpayers, returning between $36 and $63 billion in projected benefits by 2040, in return for the $15 billion spent so far.”

Nevertheless, the FAA’s efforts have not delivered the vision of a transformed and modernized ATC system, the OIG concluded. “As such, there are a number of key lessons learned from more than two decades of NextGen planning, development, and implementation that the FAA can leverage to benefit future modernization efforts,” the report says.

Corporate Jet Investor Miami returns November 4 to 6 for its 13th year, with more than 550 business aviation leaders expected to attend. The conference offers speakers, panels, and networking events for North America’s operators, brokers, OEMs, financiers, MROs, and other industry professionals. 

Besides 2.5 days of sessions, the agenda also includes networking opportunities, including a golf tournament and The Dealmakers Dinner. Among the first-day sessions will be a look into the business aviation cycle led by AE Industrial Partners’ Shawn Vick, investment drivers highlighted by Jefferies’ James Palen, and market risk analysis with VanGas Aviation Analytics’ Don Speith and Bloomberg Intelligence’s George Ferguson.

Day-two speaker sessions and panels will address long-term trends, AI’s role in transactions, and regulatory issues, including ATC modernization and ICAO, with speakers Kurt Edwards from IBAC and NBAA’s Ed Bolen. Other highlights include Vista’s Leona Qi discussing fleet strategy and Wheels Up’s George Mattson outlining steps toward profitability.

The final day will include sessions on jet sharing, in-flight connectivity, fractional growth, preowned market value, and 10-year forecasts with guests from Seefeld Group and Honeywell. Early-bird pricing ends tonight at midnight, CJI said.

Jettax Holdings, a company co-founded by aviation attorney and Lapayowker Jet Consulting founder Stewart Lapayowker, is acquiring the tax and consulting firm Aviation Financial Consulting (AFC) in a transaction that will bring together two established practices in the business aviation sector. The acquisition, expected to close in early 2026, will provide additional capacity to enable AFC to serve the growing private aviation market and formalize a long-time collaborative relationship.

Lapayowker and AFC owner Glenn Hediger have worked alongside each other for nearly three decades to provide aviation legal, accounting, and tax expertise to shared clients, they said. “We have worked together so well and so often that this just made good sense. We consistently challenge each other’s thinking in ways that benefit our clients. There’s no doubt this will be a rewarding and enjoyable collaboration,” Lapayowker and Hediger said in a joint release.

Following the acquisition, AFC will continue to function as an independent operation. “It will be business as usual. What will change is AFC’s ability to expand capacity, attract top talent, and further enhance the high level of service our clients have come to expect,” Hediger said.

Lapayowker added: “I welcome the opportunity to invest in Glenn’s 35-plus years of experience in this industry. I am confident that our shared vision and natural rapport will grow AFC many times over.”

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