The Melbourne (Florida) Airport (MLB) Authority has approved the lease on what will be a hybrid FBO/hotel, which is expected to begin construction by early next year. According to real estate developer and manager AD1 Global, the five-story Hyatt Place will include an integrated full-service FBO on the ground floor, which will give Melbourne International Airport its third aircraft service provider when the facility opens in 2022.
The FBO, which has yet to be named, will provide its own line service. Along with the existing two service providers on the field, it will operate its own refuelers that will draw from the airport’s 200,000-gallon fuel supply.
The hotel will have 140 rooms and a rooftop bar/restaurant that will offer expansive views of the airport and surrounding environment. With an approximately $20 million price tag, the facility will occupy three acres of a 12-acre parcel on the south side of the airport just west of the commercial terminal.
“Between Embraer, Northrop-Grumman, L3Harris, and now Aerion Supersonic, the need for a hotel has been there for quite a while, but the FBO component of this really makes so much sense for our airport because of who our tenants are,” Mark Busalacchi, MLB’s director of marketing and business development, explained. “Private jet activity at the airport is increasing, so it’s just a great fit.”
AINsight: 5 Incentives To Finance Business Aircraft
The business aviation industry has encountered intense downdrafts this year connected to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ironically, the same forces have increased certain charter flights, spurred newcomer acquisitions of whole and fractional shares in aircraft, and highlighted the value of business aviation.
Concurrently, the August 27 issue of JetNet iQ Pulse revealed significant untapped interest in borrowing or leasing (financing) to make aircraft acquisitions, stating: “Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and amongst respondents with an opinion, about two-thirds indicate that they plan to use some sort of financing to acquire their next new aircraft.”
Most customers in the U.S. have at least five incentives to finance their next (or first) aircraft: cheap money, no to low cash outlay, tax write-offs, lessor/lender competition, and customized lease and loan structures.
Though cash is king, up to 70 percent of potential business aircraft owners or operators intend to finance the acquisition of their next new aircraft. The same should roughly be true for anyone interested in acquiring a used aircraft.
Such financing can afford these potential customers cheap interest/rent rates, no or low cash use, and an immediate opportunity to buy or lease aircraft. For the business aviation industry, any boost in transaction volume this year, prompted by an expansion of financing, would be most welcome and perhaps generate a little optimism for a better 2021.
Leading Edge CEO Sees Preowned Bizjet Market Improving
Used aircraft sales have rebounded to 2019 volumes at lower prices while the U.S. presidential election could stimulate business jet purchases, according to an investor note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch based on a call it held with Leading Edge Aviation Solutions CEO Joe Carfagna.
Sales activity at Leading Edge started to swing higher in July and has returned to pre-Covid-19 levels, Carfagna said. Pricing, however, is down between 10 and 20 percent from a year ago, with the biggest declines coming from large business jets. “Still, preowned business jets are leaving the market faster than they are coming in and the tightening of supply should help pricing to recover,” the note added.
What’s more, the note explained, business jet sales could be stimulated following the November 3 election. Carfagna explained that the re-election of President Trump could ease buyers' worries over tax law changes, thus amplifying aircraft sales. Likewise, a win by challenger Joe Biden could prompt “a short burst of sales from the same crowd” seeking to make purchases ahead of any tax law changes.
Also, the profile of the current business jet buyer is an individual who is moving up in aircraft size and ownership level such as from fractional shares to full ownership. Those buyers are looking for more control of their aircraft, Carfagna said.
Key House, DOT Leaders Addressing SAF Virtual Summit
The Virtual 2020 Business Aviation Global Sustainability Summit, scheduled for September 14 and 15, will feature participation from key Washington, D.C. figures, including House aviation subcommittee chairman Rick Larsen (D-Washington) and ranking Republican Garret Graves (Louisiana), the Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF Coalition) announced today. Also scheduled to address next week’s summit is acting U.S. undersecretary for transportation policy Joel Szabat.
Announced in August, the SAF Coalition-sponsored summit replaces a live event originally slated for March in Washington, D.C., but that was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The summit will address ways to accelerate the market for renewable jet fuels, including sessions reviewing the current SAF situation, short-term supply strategies from fuel providers, long-term regulatory perspectives, and operators' overview. Other participants include additional government officials, manufacturers, producers, providers/FBOs, and operators.
Next week's virtual summit will be held from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. ET on Monday and 10:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
FlightSafety To Support U.S. Navy’s TH-73A Training
FlightSafety International has been awarded a contract to provide TH-73A aircrew training services in support of the U.S. Navy’s advanced helicopter training system. The TH-73A is a military variant of the Leonardo AW119.
The contract calls for FlightSafety to provide contractor instructional services and availability on 18 level 6 and level 7 flight simulation training devices, image generators, visual databases, projectors, and two central control stations. They will be used to support hover, formation flight, night vision device, and shipboard operations training, as well as course rules familiarity.
FlightSafety will also install, operate, and maintain the training devices and provide curriculum support. The training will be performed by both contract instructors and Navy Training Air Wing Five instructor pilots. Delivery of the training devices and related equipment is scheduled to begin in 2021 and will continue through 2028. FlightSafety currently has operations at 21 U.S. military bases.
NBAA Endorses FCC Recommendation of Drone C-band Use
NBAA is backing a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recommendation that a portion of the C-band radio frequency spectrum be reserved for drone use rather than the more heavily used L-band. At the request of Congress, the agency evaluated the potential use of both bands for drones and reported that it did not recommend using the 960- to 1164-MHz portion of the L-band.
“The extensive use of the 960- to 1164-MHz band and the critical nature of the systems currently operating in the band require careful consideration before any new systems or technologies are introduced,” the FCC said. "It is essential that incumbent navigation systems are protected and that new systems that are introduced into the band do not cause harmful interference.”
The FCC also suggested exploring the flexible-use spectrum in other bands, saying it might offer a low-cost option.
“NBAA is supportive of the FCC’s efforts to provide unencumbered, consistent access to bands for UAS communications,” said Heidi Williams, NBAA director of air traffic services and infrastructure. “We are encouraged by FCC’s link to the work being done on standards development through RTCA and others, and we encourage the FCC to align its recommendations with those efforts.”
European Bizav Assesses Its Regulatory Headaches
While EASA’s shift towards performance-based regulation has allowed greater flexibility for different aviation sectors, EBAA legal experts say the change has yet to spare business aviation from having to adapt to rules developed mainly with large airlines in mind. During EBAA’s September 10 webinar on “Rethinking regulation in business aviation,” Guilia Mauri, co-chair of the lawyers' committee of the group’s Associate Member Advisory Council (AMAC) and a partner in Brussels-based law firm Kadrant, said the regulatory environment continues to be burdensome, and especially so for smaller companies.
For instance, Joel Hencks, managing director of regulatory compliance consultancy AeroEx, argued that training regulations still do not take account of key differences, such as the fact that most business aircraft operators do not have their own simulators and instead send pilots to third-party training providers. He also complained that national variations in how EASA rules are implemented still persist and that smaller operators, in particular, are not getting the right guidance from officials who do not appreciate that they don’t have the time or the expertise to fully comprehend every aspect of regulations.
The threat posed by illegal charter flights was high on the webinar’s agenda. Mauri warned that ambiguities in areas such as aircraft interchange agreements in fractional ownership programs continue to cause confusion over the boundary between legal and illegal operations.
Web Manuals Targets Aviation Startups with Free Service
Web Manuals is offering its document management service for free to aviation startups as the industry wrestles with the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sweden-based digital documentation services developer has announced. The free service, available through December 31, includes access for five readers or reviewers, two editors, and one compliance library with up-to-date aviation rules, as well as complimentary onboarding that will allow new customers to immediately begin digitizing documents.
“Web Manuals was once a fledgling technology startup bringing something disruptive to the aviation industry, and innovation is still at our core,” Web Manuals founder and CEO Martin Lidgard said. “We see that the aviation industry needs support in recovering from the pandemic and therefore offer our freemium package to startups who have registered since March 2020. In this way, we want to help build the aviation businesses of tomorrow.”
Photo of the Week
It’s not every day that the heaviest aircraft ever built, the Antonov An-225, stops by the airport. AINalerts subscriber Marty Moses snapped this photo of the six-engine An-225 on a stopover at Maine’s Bangor Airport (BGR) during a cargo mission. Thanks for sharing, Marty!
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