Air Transport

Congress was informed of the US airlines’ concerns about very-light jets at a 17 November hearing on aviation safety. “Looking ahead, we see the possibility of new risks emerging,” Air Transport Association vice president, operations and safety, Basil Barimo, told the Senate commerce, science and transportation committee.

He said the imminent intro­duction of VLJs that “will operate in the same airspace as large commercial jets, but at a slower speed” raises questions:

• Training – how will the Federal Aviation Administration ensure that VLJ pilots, particularly private pilots, obtain and maintain the skills to operate safely in commercial airspace? Are and current pilot certification standards appropriate?
• Maintenance – are current main­tenance standards for privately owned aircraft appropriate for VLJs? And will FAA maintenance surveillance ensure their safety when operated privately as well as by air taxi operators?
• Airports – are the second- and third-tier airports where these aircraft are expected to operate fully prepared to respond to a safety incident?
• Safety oversight – the scheduled airline industry, which in fiscal year 2006 will pay 82% of the total FAA budget, “should not subsidise safety oversight of the VLJ sector”.
• System capacity – “Much of the growth in demand for air traffic services anticipated by the FAA is from VLJs and other small aircraft operators. air traffic services must expand to accommodate this growth safely,” Barimo said.
• Eurocontrol warned in February that the light-jet sector, if successful, will put a “large, still unexpected, traffic demand” on air navigation service providers that have not considered VLJs in their long-time planning.

A study by MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation, meanwhile, forecasts VLJs will increase congestion at key US business-aviation hubs, like Teterboro in New Jersey. Although the aircraft will be able to operate from smaller runways, the destinations of the mainly business travellers using VLJs will be the same big cities now used by light business jets, the study concludes.