Business & Commercial Aviation

For the vast majority of maintenance technicians, earning the Airframe and Powerplant certificate is the key that opens the door to a career that is both challenging and rewarding.

BCA shares news of the latest products and services for the business aviation industry.

Constant Aviation has expanded its aircraft-on-the-ground mobile team coverage in the central U.S. with the addition of Denver and Rifle, Colorado.

Ed Bolen believes total control of the ATC system is the force majeure behind the airlines' long-held wish to create and dominate an air traffic control corporation supported by user fees. For several decades, some of the big airlines have tried to seize control of the ATC system and the revenues that fund it, the NBAA president and CEO told BCA. "We believe that they want to use that control for their exclusive benefit."

Piper Aircraft has received a type certificate for its single-engine M600 from Transport Canada, so the company now can deliver the aircraft to the Canadian market.

In the world of business aviation, getting there safely and efficiently is the product of many partnerships, most notably those of schedulers, dispatchers and pilots.

The price for admission into today's FAA-run ATC system is a tax schedule that varies by category of activity. The airlines pay through a combination of taxes—the Passenger Facility Tax, per-takeoff fee and a 4.3 cents/gal. fuel tax. General aviation is divided between turbine and piston, with the former taxed 21.9 cents/gal. and the latter assessed 19.5 cents/gal. of avgas.

Jet-A and avgas per-gallon fuel prices—January 2017

UK-based BBA Aviation and Gama Aviation have joined their U.S. aircraft management and charter businesses, with a combined fleet of 200 aircraft.

FlightServ, an independent fixed-base operation, opened Jan. 1 at the Trenton-Mercer Airport in New Jersey. The FBO was founded by a team from its sister company, Aviation Charters.

In the closing weeks of 1966, three successive items appeared in influential newspapers damning private and business aviation for freeloading on the U.S. taxpayer. “Fly now, pay never,” was how The New York Times reported it.

Three recent government reports—one commissioned by the architects for FAA change and two by the stalwarts of the status quo—will fuel battles over ATC privatization efforts.

LifePort, a Sikorsky company, has received FAA airworthiness certification for its Patient Loading Utility System for Pilatus PC-12/47 and PC-12/47E aircraft.

Austro Engine GmbH, a division of Diamond Aircraft Group, has reached 1 million flight hours for its AE300 jet fuel aviation engine.

JetSuiteX has begun selling seats for charter service to and from Santa Monica, California. Flights begin Feb. 6 to Las Vegas, San Jose and San Diego County airports.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving Flytenow, an online flight-sharing service that wanted the high court to overturn lower court decisions that supported FAA's prohibition of the activity.

AirFlyte has changed its name to Rectrix MRO. The rebranding stems from the 2013 acquisition of AirFlyte by Rectrix and reflects the company's corporate MRO services and presents a united brand.

The FAA has issued new rules that make it easier and cheaper for certain recreational general aviation pilots to gain required medical certifications to fly.

Indicative of the community's growing importance to China, business aircraft operators have joined to form the Beijing Business Aviation Association.

In December, FAA issued its final rule on the new Part 23 which is intended to reduce the time and cost to certificate aircraft under 19,000 lb.

Executive AirShare, the Lenexa, Kansas-based fractional aircraft provider, has moved into hangar and office space at Col. James Jabara Airport in northeast Wichita from Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in west Wichita.

Piper Aircraft has taken a firm order for 50 Piper Archer single-engine aircraft from China Air Shuttle. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2017.

Air Methods Corp. has acquired three Airbus H145 helicopters for hospital-based air medical transport, to replace older aircraft now in service.

Italian helicopter maker Leonardo-Finmeccanica is finding eager buyers among the Chinese. The company reports that it has sold more than 180 helicopters of various types to operators there.

328 Support Services GmbH and Duncan Aviation have partnered to deliver and certify a full cabin completion on a Bombardier Challenger 604.