In the entry-level super-midsize category, is the Legacy 450 better value than the Citation Latitude? Digging deeper into design details, performance numbers and everyday capabilities can provide some answers.
Avinode’s Business Jet Charter Market Forecast is predicting the recovery of the U.S. market to continue in 2015, with a 3.5% increase in flights over 2014. All U.S. regions will see charter market growth next year, it predicts. The South will be strongest, with an increase in flight numbers of 4%, closely followed by the West, where volumes will grow by 3.6%. The Northeast will see a 3.3% increase in activity, while the Midwest will record growth of 2.5%.
Growth through acquisition is the current modus operandi among the larger FBO chains. Landmark Aviation’s recent FBO acquisitions also fill a void in its domestic and international network.
Wilson Air Center is doing a brisk business at its four U.S.-based FBOs, particularly at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (KCHA), where it is the sole FBO on site since TAC Air sold out in January 2014 to the Airport Authority for $12 million.
Back in the day when business aviation watchers asked “Why not use Beech King Airs on legs of less than three hours?” – they were talking about air taxis. That revolution never happened. But now, Kenny Dichter, who founded Marquis Jet and was the innovator of the 25‐hour fractional jet card, has done just that.
The Middle East Business Aviation Association’s current priorities are the continuation of policy drafting and procedures for business aviation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, says MEBAA founding chairman Ali Al Naqbi.
Gleaming new engines are a common sight on the display stands at NBAA, but it isn’t often showgoers get to see the complete components of a turboprop laid bare, let alone one being put together from scratch on the convention floor.
Swiss-based Vertis Aviation, part of the independently owned 28 East Group, is making its NBAA debut, promoting its portfolio of ultra-long-range jets.
Lufthansa Technik is introducing a Fly Away Kit for the VVIP and special-missions market. It is integrated into a modified LD9 unit load device (ULD) and ensures the availability of important spare parts by allowing them to be stowed aboard the aircraft that might need them.
Lufthansa Technik is answering the challenging market for corporate and business jets not only with innovative design and layout concepts, but also by forming a new company. Inairvation, headquartered at Edlitz-Thomasberg, Austria, is a 50:50 collaboration between LHT and List Components and Furniture that intends to change the way business jet cabins are produced.
Some months ago the German manufacturer presented a unique new concept for individual seating in VIP jets and simply called it “chair.” Although promising unrivaled design variants, it mounts on a modular concept that, instead of seat tracks, has a conical pod on which numbers of ribs form the frame of each chair.
Greenpoint Technologies is exhibiting at NBAA 2014 for the first time as part of its new parent company, Zodiac Aerospace, but focus will be on a 1/20th scale BBJ 787-9 mockup with the new Azure interior.
In the first half of 2014, Airbus Corporate Jet Center (ACJC) delivered three ACJ319 executive aircraft, and launched its ACJ319 Elegance concept, an interior configuration that figures prominently here (Booth 5009 and Static Display).
Flying Colours Corp. has signed a multimillion-dollar joint venture agreement with China’s Sparkle Roll Technik Co., Ltd. (SRT). With a hangar facility set up at Linyi City in Shangdong Province, it will focus on private jet cabin modification and aircraft maintenance. The first project, beginning this month, will see eight B- Bombardier CRJ-200s converted to VIP configuration.
London Biggin Hill Airport is nine miles from the UK capital’s Canary Wharf business district, and just a seven-minute helicopter ride from the Battersea Heliport.
Wednesday, Ed Bolen, NBAA president and CEO, presented 92-year-old RA Bob Hoover with the association’s 2014 Meritorious Service to Aviation Award, an honor befitting him who General James Doolittle lauded as “the greatest stick and rudder man who ever lived” and who has inspired millions of young people with his air show performances. Previous winners include Capt. Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon; the Tuskegee Airmen; Clay Lacy; James D. Raisbeck; and Serge Dassault, among others.
Associated Air Center (AAC) comes to NBAA 2014 riding a wave of success, with aircraft crowding its 295,000 sq. ft. of hangar space at Dallas Love Field, where projects range from C checks and major refurbishment to widebody green completions.
It was a little more than a year ago that MAZ Aviation, a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based consulting firm, stepped into what was shaping up as a court battle and acquired Gore Design Completions, a major player in the completions and refurbishment industry.
Quest Aircraft Company has moved to expand its reach in China under an agreement that would give it a sales presence in the short term and ultimately provide for the manufacturing of its Kodiak single-turboprop aircraft there.
Sabreliner, an iconic name in business jet aviation since the late 1950s, is making a comeback with ambitious plans to expand beyond maintenance and repair to provide aircraft rebuilds, refurbishments and engine overhauls.
Israel’s Elbit Systems is making further inroads into business aviation cockpits with novel, wearable head-up displays (HUDs) and a fusion of sensor images and synthetic vision in its latest enhanced vision systems (EVSs).
Rockwell Collins says it will certify its first aftermarket version of Pro Line Fusion late this year for the Beechcraft King Air, one year later than originally projected when the flight deck was launched at NBAA in 2011 for Pro Line 21-equipped aircraft. Adam Evanschwartz, director of business and regional aircraft marketing for Rockwell Collins, says the extra time resulted from “scope enhancements” to the cockpit, improvements that Rockwell Collins came upon during the flight-test campaign.
