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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0099.PDF
Business aviation cheap are living in a false economy. The money they spend on operating costs could be used as a deposit on a new aircraft." The trend towards efficiency is also lead ing to more outsourcing. The DGAC has been issuing new FAA-harmonised air oper ators' certificates (AOC) for several weeks, after years of delay. The red tape involved could prompt several in-house operators to contract the running of their fleets to third parties. Zambrano Villarreal, who last year transferred the six-aircraft fleet of Mexican cement giant Cemex to the Swiss aircraft management company Execujet, predicts a growing willingness to accept the hands-off approach in return for cost savings. Most business aircraft on the Mexican register are operated by owners' in-house flight departments. Amstat records 305 operators in Mexico today, a number that Zambrano Villareal thinks will fall to around 35 as flight departments realise the complexity and cost involved in meeting the new AOC rules and instead use man agement companies. Aerolineas Ejecutivas (ALE), the country's largest business jet operator, concurs. ALE is seeing a growing market for charter from its base at Toluca, where companies would pre viously leave their aircraft dormant on the apron when not in use. Guillermo Villan- ueva, operations manager at ALE, says the company last year flew 700h more than expected and its fleet of 25 managed aircraft eclipsed its own 20 Hawker 800s and Beechjets for the first time. ALE's managed fleet is to grow by six aircraft this year as Mexico City-based companies consider the operating economics. "People are renewing their fleets after 4,OO0-5,000h and relegating older types to secondary missions," he says. ALE, with Raytheon, is also pushing frac tional ownership in Mexico through Mexjet. The first such scheme in Mexico uses Beechjet 400As and Hawker 800XPs from ALE's managed fleet in a block charter programme from Toluca. The idea is that, as the programme gathers momentum, true fractional ownership could be launched, possibly in conjunction with US operator Flight Options. ALE hopes to see the migration of operators of old types to the scheme, which allocates one aircraft for around 10 owners. Fractional ownership The move towards such programmes repre sents a shift in perception of business jets from a status symbol to a business tool, sim ilar to the shift that began in the USA a decade ago. Yet the change cannot happen without a cut in the bureaucracy involved in operating a business jet in the country, says FEMPPA, the Mexican aircraft owners' and pilots' association. The association has so far lobbied for sev eral changes in this direction. For example, landing fees, previously payable only in cash The Mexican at banks, are to be levied in local currency by market is airports; a 15% sales tax on aircraft operated becoming by individuals is being reconsidered by the more authorities to avoid abuse of the civil AOC sophist- register; and local banks are taking on the icated, with risk of aircraft financing, a process usually new aircraft, organised by international lenders. such as the At the same time, the Baja Bush Pilots, a Bombardier Chandler, Arizona-based association of US Learjet 31A private pilots, has worked with Mexican (top) and authorities to distil the country's flying Dassault regulations into a 24-page English Ian- Falcon 2000, guage booklet. above) Other obstacles are more permanent, entering Toluca Airport is visited by almost every corporate business aircraft in the country and is home fleets to around 40% of the Mexican fleet. But at an elevation of around 8,500 ft (2,600m) and with temperatures varying between 0°C (-32°F) and 40°C, the airport represents a natural challenge to aircraft manufacturers, who use it as a proving station. Like Mex ican business aviation itself, operators have learned to operate in Toluca's harsh condi tions and look forward to prospering. • www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 21-27 JANUARY 2003 29
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