While business aviation sales have slowed generally in China, according to many aircraft manufacturers, the pace of flight operations at Shanghai continues to increase.
Flying Colours Corp., the North American-based maintenance, repair and overhaul, completion and refurbishment specialist, has won an order for the completion of three new Bombardier Challenger 650s.
Aviation Week recently sampled the new touch-screen Pro Line Fusion cockpit in Rockwell Collins’ King Air 250 demonstrator on a flight from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Rockford, Illinois.
Plans to establish the Middle East’s second regional, biannual business aviation show are swinging into high gear in Morocco and at the Middle East and North Africa Business Aviation Association.
The Citation Latitude is the latest proof that Textron Aviation is back on its feet, largely recovered from the Great Recession and fully competing for its historic share of the business jet market. For more than four decades, Citation engineers have been business aviation’s undisputed masters of iteration and the Latitude embraces this low-risk design approach to perfection.
General aviation manufacturers now are riding the wave of the improved economy. Billings increased to $24.5 billion and deliveries exceeded 2,400 airplanes.
Business Aviation in Europe has been beset by problems ranging from political to practical—sanctions and market saturation have taken their toll. But now manufacturers are seeing some upward movement.
Following a strong bounce back to near-precrisis levels, the number of departures has been in a steady decline. Since 2011, top business aviation airports in Geneva, Zurich and at Paris-Le Bourget have lost 5-10% of their executive jet traffic.
We strapped into the left seat of TBM 900 S/N 1014 with Daher-Socata’s chief pilot Stéphane Jacques at the firm’s plant in Tarbes, France, for a two-hour evaluation flight.
Jet Aviation Basel was recently granted European Aviation Safety Agency Part-145 approval to provide line and base maintenance for the Gulfstream G650. “With more than 60 G650s currently flying…this is a significant authorization for the company’s maintenance hub supporting large-cabin aircraft in Europe,” said Erik Vandegrift, director of Gulfstream Maintenance Operations at the facility.
“We’re open for business,” says Stanley Bugeja, European Business Aviation Association board member and president of MBAA, the Malta Business Aviation Association. “Come here.” Malta, the Mediterranean island country with the lowest taxes in the EU, is “giving London a good run for its money,” Bugeja says, with a strong presence of IT, banking and insurance firms.
