Business and GA: November 2005 Archives

One of the big announcements here at NBAA yesterday was the naming of Embraer's new light jet and very light jet as the Phenom 300 and Phenom (See Flight Evening news on www.flightinternational.com). Now it gave the editors on Flight Evening News an easy headline - Phenom-enal - but where did the name come from? Embraer boss Mauricio Botelho says the name reflects the quality of the aircraft's design, but designating aircraft today is a tough challenge: you either go down the rather boring but safe number route (Embraer 170, Boeing 787, Gulfstream 550, Airbus A380...which normally relate to some aspect of the aircraft's size, sequence in terms of product lines etc) or you have to think of a name: Avanti, Javelin, Eclipse or whatever. It's harder in business aviation, because, like cars, you are trying to convey an image, a lifestyle choice with the moniker, and most of the obvious ones from the animal kingdom - Hawk, Falcon, Puma - are taken already. I used to work in the automotive sector and the classic attempts by the Japanese manufacturers in particular to give their models global, English-sounding names as they began to break into the world market in a big way in the 1970s and 1980s was a constant source of amusement. To some Japanese marketing director the Nissan Cedric van no doubt conveyed a macho, no-nonsense appeal to the builders' merchants and plumbers who were its target market. Today, things are much more sophisticated and the Japanese and everyone else (including Embraer) employ international brand consultants and market researchers to come up with this sort of stuff. Still, someone told me that in Vietnam, Phenom means something very different. Perhaps someone familiar with the language can help.

US business aviation service companies - for decades stay at home joes who were happy to make the most of the Continent's ample opportunities - suddenly seem to be waking up to the fact that business aviation is stirring in Europe too. Landmark Aviation is the latest. The now snappily-named former Garrett/Piedmont Hawthorne/Associated is one of the US's biggest fixed base operation and business aviation maintenance companies. After buying three FBOs in Canada, it now says it is looking seriously at a purchase in Europe, with France, Switzerland and the UK the most likely locations. It would have to be a fairly big acquisition though to justify appointing a senior management team in Europe, says vice chairman Dean Harton. Otherwise it would be impossible to run from the other side of the Atlantic. The rise of the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva - the NBAA show's smaller sibling - over the past five years has shown US companies that Europe is not a fringe region for the adventurous, but evolving into one of the most promising growth markets for business aviation services.

Once again, Flight is here at the National Business Aviation Association show www.nbaa.org in Orlando, Florida, producing Flight Evening News, our innovative concept in bringing today's news to air show visitors today in the form of an evening tabloid newspaper. It's a frenetic and exhausting task: journalists' stories from the morning's press conferences and other nuggets of information which they pic up around the convention hall and static park are collated, laid out together with live pictures, and sent to press at lunchtime. Four hours and a whirl round the presses of Orlando's most efficient printer later, NBAA visitors have the newspaper in their hands, either when they leave the convention centre or static park, or picking it up in their hotel that evening. Our competitors' newspapers - carrying much the same stories - don't hit the halls until the next day. We shouldn't gloat but we like to use the slogan: "Today's news today…everything else is yesterday's news". You can read breaking news from NBAA - including Bombardier's new Challenger and a new name for the Hawker Horizon - on www.flightinternational.com over the next three days.