Buisness aviation news

As the summer comes into view, especially with the Olympics in France, we would expect to see an uptick in international arrivals into Europe. Sure enough, total transatlantic bizjet flights from the US to Europe are up by 5% this month, and into France up by 26%. We’d expect the high-end tourist demand to be a strong stimulus for the European charter market, lifting a sector which has otherwise sagged this year.

Bombardier and F/LIST have announced the opening of a contemporary, 700-sq. ft. Material Lounge at Bombardier’s London Biggin Hill Service Centre located at the London Biggin Hill Airport. The new Material Lounge is the largest, most comprehensive portfolio of interior materials, fabrics and components that Bombardier has housed at one of its international service centres. It is also the first time that F/LIST, the Austria-headquartered pioneer in the production and generation of innovative luxury interiors for exclusive business and private jets and residences, has created a dedicated space showcasing its product portfolio outside of its headquarters.

ArcosJet, the exclusive authorized dealer for private sales of the Lilium Jet in the UAE, Israel and Cyprus, is seeing high customer acceptance of the eVTOL concept and technology and expects the emerging new market niche to provide the strongest impetus for the development of related technologies, services and businesses in the near future. The announcement was made at the Revolution.Aero industry conference, which is taking place June 18-19 in London.

ExecuJet MRO Services South Africa, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dassault Aviation, is poised to set a new record this year for airframe heavy maintenance checks.

Textron Aviation announced the successful flight of its second Cessna Citation Ascend flight test article (P1) as certification momentum builds for the newest Citation business jet. The milestone flight follows the Ascend prototype, which completed its first flight in 2023 marking the P1 aircraft the first conforming production flight test aircraft. The Citation Ascend business jet was unveiled during the 2023 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE), and the aircraft is expected to enter into service in 2025.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. announced the clean-sheet Gulfstream G500 and Gulfstream G600 have each surpassed 100,000 flight hours.

MySky, the leading spend management platform powering business aviation, has announced the launch of its conditional AI-powered Smart Quoting engine, offering fleet-level insight and full automation to provide charter operators with new levels of efficiency.

Despite the slowest start to June in the last 2 years, US bizjet activity remains robust, with activity significantly ahead of comparable June 2019. In contrast, the European summer is looking weaker, with just a 3% foothold over June 5 years ago. The D-Day anniversary lifted business jet arrivals into airports in the Normandy region of France. At the start of the party season in Ibiza there is a noticeable absence of bizjets from France and the United Kingdom.

Bombardier Defense announced that German automobile association, Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC SE), has placed an order for a Bombardier Challenger 650 aircraft through its daughter company Aero-Dienst. The aircraft will be configured as a dedicated air ambulance for Aero-Dienst, ADAC’s main aircraft operator, and is scheduled for delivery in 2026. The aircraft will be used to provide medical transportation to ADAC’s customers around the world. With the signing of this agreement, Bombardier Defense continues to expand its footprint in Germany and on the European continent.  

Lilium N.V., developer of the first all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) jet and global pioneer in regional air mobility (RAM), today announced an expansion of its partnership with Luxaviation Group, one of the largest business aircraft and helicopter operators worldwide.  

Global bizjet activity was flat in week 22, as it was for the month of May, and is trailing 2023 by just 1%, which very much reflects the mood at EBACE, tending towards normalisation after the turbulence of the post-Covid years. There is a good deal of underlying variability, with Europe a 7% above 2019, demand still hot in the Mediterranean, but tapering well below 2019 levels in Central Europe.

Aero-Dienst GmbH, the Nuremberg full-service provider for business aviation and air ambulance services, will expand its range of maintenance services at Vienna Airport starting at the end of June 2024, when it will begin doing line maintenance for Phenom 300 business jets made by the Brazilian Embraer company.

Textron Aviation announced that the 400th Cessna Citation Latitude business jet has rolled out of production at the company’s factory in Wichita, Kansas, and is expected to be delivered later this year. Employees recognized the milestone with a special celebration at the company’s headquarters in Wichita.

Business aircraft are spending less time for sale than ever before, according to the latest edition of the Pre-Owned Business Jet Market Forecast by Jetcraft, the global leader in business aircraft sales, acquisitions and trades.

This week saw a marked drop-in flight activity in some key geographies, notably California, Germany, Saudi Arabia, China and Morocco. It was notable that the blue riband event for European bizav, the Monaco Grand Prix, drew 15% fewer bizjet visits than in 2019.

Satcom Direct, the business aviation solutions provider, at EBACE 2024, launched a new portfolio of pricing plans for customers equipping the SD Plane Simple Electronically Steered Antenna (ESA). Operators and owners equipping aircraft with the low-profile, advanced technology ESA can choose from several options, including an industry first three-year plan, that offers a fixed monthly fee of US$15,000 with no initial capital outlay.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) published the First Quarter 2024 General Aviation Aircraft Shipment and Billing Report. The results for the first three months of 2024 when compared to the same period in 2023, show deliveries were flat for piston airplanes and piston helicopters, decreased for turboprops and turbine helicopters, and increased for business jets. Total aircraft billings were up 3.2% at $4.7 billion.