Business Aviation

In Europe, manufacturers of business aircraft have to be creative to thrive in an often uncertain market.

RATP Group, the company running Paris’ public transport system, has signed agreements with Airbus to study the use of urban air mobility systems in the city.

The FAA on May 16 announced changes to operating rules for recreational drones.

Aircraft manufacturer Pilatus posted 2018 sales revenue of 1.092 billion Swiss francs ($1.08 billion).

ASL-JetNetherlands has announced the signing of a contract with Liège Airport in Belgium for construction and operation of a hangar and bizav terminal.

An urban air traffic management (UATM) system is needed to bridge the gap between conventional air traffic control and future autonomous ATM, EmbraerX says.

The CEO of urban mobility startup Volocopter will join UK Parliament member Grant Shapps to open the 2019 European Business Aviation Association Conference & Exhibition.

Assembly of the first production AW609 civil tiltrotor has begun at Leonardo Helicopters’ plant here, but certification could slip into 2020.

Dassault Falcon Service’s Fixed-Base Operator (FBO) at Paris-Le Bourget airport has been awarded an International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH) Stage 1 certificate, a key milestone in its commitment to guarantee the safest and most reliable handling services in the industry.

With a focus on range and speed, Lilium’s eVTOL concept targets metro and intercity markets.

Jet Linx Aviation, a private jet management company, continued its expansion efforts with the acquisition of Elliott Aviation’s private jet management business.

DOT plans to distribute $779 million in supplemental funding for infrastructure grants to 127 airports across all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Brazilian jet maker Embraer, which is spinning off most of its commercial aircraft business to Boeing, missed Wall Street’s expectations for the first quarter of 2019.

Stephen Dickson, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for FAA administrator, defended the FAA’s practice of delegating certain safety and certification functions to manufacturers, telling lawmakers the agency’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program has “allowed regulators to get much more efficiency and add more safety value than just throwing extra resources at it.”

Over the next 10 years, Europe’s business aviation fleet is expected to grow from 3,725 aircraft today to nearly 5,020, a compound annual growth rate of 3.4%.

The Dassault Training Academy recently graduated the 1,000th trainee from its Falcon Practical Training Course.

Ron Draper was appointed president and CEO of Textron Aviation in October.

Inventories of used business aircraft for sale declined across the board, except for piston aircraft, during the first quarter of 2019, while sales were down 25%, JetNet says.

The number of April business aviation departures in Europe declined 3.1% compared to a year ago to 66,165 flights, but is similar to March activity, according to WingX Advance data.

TAP Air Portugal’s Airbus A321LR took its first commercial flight May 11, operating from Lisbon to Prague.

Mitsubishi Aircraft said a stretched redesign of what was formerly dubbed the MRJ70, a regional jet follow-on to the company’s in-development MRJ90, is a “realistic possibility” and expects to release new configuration details over coming weeks.

EBACE 2019 will open May 21-23 in Geneva as European business aircraft manufacturers are experiencing varying levels of success.

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is close to the assessment phase of a study for a new commercial aircraft.

The FAA has yet to develop a plan for modernizing its Civil Aviation Registry—despite being required to complete upgrades by October 2021—according to a new audit report from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Bristow Group has joined a growing list of offshore helicopters operators to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a bid to restructure its operation.