EUROCOPTER is restructuring to shave $299.4 million in annual costs and streamline operations. The restructuring plan includes the shrinking of inventories to preserve cash, and employees are also being shifted between jobs. Business process also are being targeted to simplify the company’s activities.
AIRPLANEMANAGER.COM launched the latest version of its aircraft scheduling and management program, which enables users to quickly compare a flight’s passenger list in AirplaneManager.com against the most current Transportation Security Administration no-fly list at any point in the scheduling process. AirplaneManager.com also offers a new fuel-finder tool that searches a database of contract fuel providers and fixed-base operations for requested departing and arriving airports and fuel pricing quotes.
Cessna posted a $32 million profit in the third quarter, thanks to aggressive moves earlier this year to cut labor costs, consolidate facilities and shelve the Citation Columbus program. But the Wichita airframer’s profits were down $206 million from a year ago as deliveries of Citation jets were nearly half of the volume that they were last year and the company encountered costs associated with idle capacity and temporary plant shutdowns.
Signs of life are emerging in the used business jet market, while new order interest is rising slightly and flight activity has increased during the past six to eight weeks, according to a new report from Credit Suisse. The report was based on visits to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers at the recent National Business Aviation Association annual convention in Orlando, Fla.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION has tapped ARG/US as a vendor partner for the association’s new Safety Management Systems (SMS) training classes. The training program will include two workshops: Introduction to SMS, designed to cover the basics of aviation safety and SMS concepts, and The SMS Toolkit, designed to address the SMS implementation and development process.
RONALD WOLF was appointed vice president for AerSale, Inc. Wolf previously was vice president of quality for Volvo Aero Services. He also has served with AAR and AeroTurbine.
CESSNA AIRCRAFT has qualified its Citation Sovereign for an exemption from FAA Extended Operations (ETOPS) requirements when flown between Los Angeles and Hawaii under Part 135. To qualify for the ETOPS exemption, Cessna demonstrated the aircraft could remain within 180 minutes of a suitable airport when flying with an engine out. Cessna conducted an analysis to determine that the Sovereign was able to travel 1,022 nautical miles within 180 minutes after an engine failure. That distance is just more than halfway between L.A. and Hawaii.
FAA’s final rule to standardize production approval and parts marking requirements removed a controversial proposal seeking marking on detail parts. The agency last month issued the final rule that standardizes quality-control system requirements for manufacturers, updates exports requirements, and standardizes production approval language, as well as parts-marking and identification changes.
“NEXTGEN is not a Big Bang,” says National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen about implementing the next generation air traffic management system. “It’s not flipping a switch on something new. It’s about making lots of little steps that collectively will be transformative.” Bolen encouraged Washington leaders to consider ways to make the most of equipment already on airplanes, such as the GPS technologies, to help implement NextGen.
DEBBIE MARTIN joined Signature Flight Support as sales manager. Martin formerly was director, customer relations for a fixed-base operation on the West Coast. She also has served as a regional sales manager for Multi Service Corp. She will be based in Vancouver, Wash.
Honda Aircraft Company has completed major structural assemblies for the first conforming HondaJet and expects to fly the aircraft in early 2010, the company said. The company also has selected the new Garmin G3000 avionics suite for the aircraft. The selection is a second major win for Garmin’s new flat-panel, touch-screen-controlled G3000, with Piper also announcing its selection for the PiperJet (BA, Oct. 26/189).
WHILE 45 percent of fixed-base operations have confirmed drops in their traffic this year, 68 percent have noticed a recent pick-up in activity, according to the latest Credit Suisse Business Jet Market Update. Another 45 percent have noticed an uptick in business in the past two months, the report said. “An overwhelmingly majority of respondents, 88 percent, were more optimistic with regard to future flight activity and business trends,” the Credit Suisse report added. See article on Page 202.
HAWKER BEECHCRAFT signed an agreement with airborne communications provider Aircell to offer Aircell High Speed Internet or SwiftBroadband systems for Hawker 750 and 900XP business jets beginning in 2010. Aircell products are currently offered on Hawker Beechcraft’s entire family of turbine business aircraft, from the King Air C90GTi through the Hawker 4000. Aircell has shipped more than 7,000 systems worldwide and has about 600 airline aircraft equipped with the company’s new air-to-ground Internet service.
EMBRAER has begun construction on its first U.S. assembly facility. The new plant, located at Melbourne, Fla., International Airport, will be dedicated to final assembly of Phenom 100 and 300 light jets, primarily for delivery to customers in North America. The facility complements Phenom manufacturing and assembly work that will be done in Brazil. The new Florida facility will have the capacity to turn out eight aircraft a month, but company officials have not yet determined a production rate.
TURBOMECA Arriel 2S1 engines [Docket No. FAA-2009-0568; Directorate Identifier 2009-NE-20-AD] – This proposed AD would require operators to upgrade the engine’s digital electronic control unit (DECU) software to Version 11.01 in order to implement modification TU 109, as specified in Turbomeca Mandatory Service Bulletin No. 292 73 2109, Ver. E (dated Sept. 17, 2008). Also, operators would be prohibited from flying an Arriel 2S1-powered twin-engine helicopter with one engine upgraded to modification TU 109 if the other engine is not upgraded to modification TU 109.
ROLLS-ROYCE DEUTSCHLAND BR700-715A1-30, BR700-715B1-30 and BR700-715C1-30 engines [Docket No. FAA-2009-0045; Directorate Identifier 2007-NE-53-AD; Amendment 39-16041; AD 2009-21-04] – Remove certain high-pressure (HP) compressor drum assemblies from operation before they reach their life limits. This AD, which resulted from an MCAI issued by an aviation authority of another country, was published after it was discovered that a repair scheme for the HP compressor front drum assembly damping grooves can impact the life of the HP compressor front drum assembly.
FAA has requested comment on proposed Advisory Circular (AC) 20-XY, Certification Guidance for Installation of Non-Essential, Non-Required Aircraft Cabin Systems & Equipment (CS&E). The AC provides primary certification guidance on meeting airworthiness requirements for nonessential CS&E installations. FAA developed the AC in coordination with industry, the agency said, adding it incorporates RTCA guidance. Comments on AC 20-XY are due Nov. 27 to [email protected]. Include FAA AC 20-XY in the subject line.
GENERAL AVIATION MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION President and CEO Pete Bunce was encouraged that a recent industry meeting with House aviation subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) indicated growing support for providing incentives for aircraft owners to install NextGen equipment in their aircraft. One idea under discussion is the use of low-interest loans to help offset the costs, Bunce noted.
WEST STAR AVIATION’s facility in East Alton, Ill. was selected as an installation center for the Aviation Partners, Inc. (API) blended winglet on Falcon 2000 series aircraft. The high-mach blended winglets increase range on the Falcon 2000, saving fuel and cutting emissions. The East Alton, Ill. facility joins West Star’s Grand Junction, Colo. facility as an API blended winglet installation center. The Grand Junction facility installs the winglets on Hawker 800 aircraft and has completed 30 installations thus far.
AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGIES OF AUSTRALIA N22B, N22S and N24A airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2009-0987; Directorate Identifier 2009-CE-054-AD] – This proposed rule, which would supersede an existing directive (AD 2006-21-12), would require operators to modify flap actuation linkages, per the instructions of Nomad Alert Service Bulletin ANMD-27-53 (dated Feb. 20, 2008).
Business & Commercial Aviation magazine Editor-in-Chief Bill Garvey has won this year’s Dave Ewald Platinum Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Business Aviation Association. In his remarks announcing the award, NBAA President Ed Bolen singled out Garvey’s op-ed – Mile-High Office – in the Jan. 31 issue of The New York Times that defended the use of business jets. In his op-ed, Garvey made the case for why “business jets are a force for good” during a time when bashing the industry had become a sport.
Stratford, Conn.-based Gama Aviation Inc. has signed a deal with Signature Flight Support to establish a new base at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport as the company continues to grow its managed fleet of business jets. The Teterboro base includes 30,000 square feet of hangar space and 4,000 square feet of office space. The base has added a Dassault Falcon 2000 and a 16-seat Gulfstream IV that features an interior layout that accommodates large groups. Gama has made Signature its preferred FBO services provider.
The Light Business Aircraft (LBA) conferences will now be held jointly between the National Business Aviation Association and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association under a memorandum of understanding signed last week during the NBAA’s 62nd Annual Meeting and Convention in Orlando, Fla.
The Paris, the original small passenger jet that predated the JetStar, Sabreliner or Lear 23, is staged to be reborn at the hands of the MS760 Sales Corporation. The company has acquired the type certificate, has ambitious plans to re-engine the jet and may even restart production. First flown in 1954 by French pioneer Morane-Saulnier, the MS760 twinjet became a military trainer, light attack aircraft and speedy transport that served with mostly military customers for nearly 50 years.
