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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 2073.PDF
NBAA SHOW REPORT CHARTERS Jet Aviation enters card market Programme includes introductory level scheme to allow customers to assess requirement without overspending Jet Aviation has entered the block charter-based jet card market with the US launch of its Privileged Travel programme. The move comes as established players seek to widen their share of the fastest- growing sector of business aviation. Jet Aviation's programme differs from competitors' concepts by offer ing an introductory-level card that entitles the user to 1 Oh of occupied flight time. The card allows cus tomers to access their level of use while making a limited financial commitment, says Jet Aviation. Once clients determine how much flight time they need they can apply the unused balance to the com pany's 25h and lOOh cards. Jet Aviation uses around 160 air craft from its charter and manage ment fleet to support the pro gramme. When a customer books a flight, Jet Aviation says it deducts the value of the occupied hours, depending on aircraft type, from the card's balance. The cards carry no expiry date and the balance of one card can be transferred to another. Jet Aviation is hoping to emulate the success of other jet-card charter programmes in the USA, which have expanded the business avia tion customer base for both manu facturers and operators. Cessna CitationShares founder and chief executive Steve O'Neil says the suc cess of the 25h Vector Card, launched in July, has been "phe nomenal" with nearly 100 cards sold to date, a renewal rate of around 70% and a conversion to fractional rate of 30%. "We don't want to grow the programme too quickly," O'Neil says. He suggests that without a large business air craft fleet to support the growing demand from card and fractional customers, the quality of service could be compromised if growth is not well managed. "We have to strike a balance between a respectable level of growth and providing an excellent service to our customers." CitationShares, a 75:25 joint venture between Cessna and Tag Aviation, operates a fleet of 52 business jets. A further four aircraft, including the first Citation Sovereign, will be added to the fleet by the end of the year and a further 25 aircraft next year, including the first Cessna Citation CJ3 light jet. Flight Options, which also launched its Jet Pass card member ship programme in July, says the scheme has grown more rapidly than expected, although the Cleve land Ohio-based company declines to release numbers. "We wanted a 10% market share within six months," said the company's chief executive John Nahill at the show. "But we have achieved that in our first 60 days." The company oper ates a fleet of more than 215 aircraft, and claims to have the world's largest fleets of Raytheon King Airs, Beechjet 400As and Hawker 800s. Sentient Jet, which pioneered the block charter-based jet card concept, said at the show that it has sold over 800 cards since it began five years ago. The Norwood, Massachusetts- based company, the second-largest card provider after Marquis Jet Partners, expects to exceed 1,000 card sales within weeks. Bombardier Flexjet says it has had a disappointing start with its card programme launched last year with operating partner Delta Air Elite, and is now sharing the mar keting effort to drum up sales of the 25h card. UNVEILING Mooney reveals limited edition versions of Ovation and Bravo Mooney has unveiled the Freedom versions of its Ovation 2GX and Bravo GX high-performance piston sin gles. Features include the Goodrich WX500 Stormscope system, which is compatible with the standard Garmin G1000 panel. Usable fuel capacity has been increased from 337 litres (89USgal) to 385 litres. ENHANCED VISION Bright future beckons for vision system makers Enhanced and synthetic vision sys tem (EVS/SVS) manufacturers are stepping up the dramatic market penetration first signalled at last year's NBAA with announcements from CMC Electronics, Max-Viz and Thales. CMC's SureSight I-series EVS-1R infrared sensor is to be integrated with the Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics HGS-4860/5860 head-up display (HUD) and offered on the Dassault Falcon 2000EX, 900DX/EX and 7X, as well as on Boeing Business Jets and Next Generation 737 airliners. First systems are to be delivered in early 2006. Transport Canada approval for the SureSight sensor is expected in November, with certification of its first application - the Bombardier Enhanced Vision System - due in January 2005. Bombardier is flight testing the EVS, which combines the CMC sensor with a Thales HUD, and will install the system as stan dard on the Global Express XRS and as an option on the Global 5000. Max-Viz is starting development of the third-generation EVS-3000 and hopes the combined IR/mil- limetre-wave radar (MMW) system could be fielded as early as the end of 2005. The company is working with Reno-based integrator Sierra Nevada, and plans to use a "really practicable" MMW sensor devel oped by Irvine, California-based Waveband, as well as a digital ter rain database. Cessna is offering the Max-Viz EVS-1000IR sensor as a situational- awareness aid on the Citation Excel and XLS, with certification expected in the fourth quarter. The first Citation X with dual-band EVS-2000 will be delivered later this year. 24 19-25 OCTOBER 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.com
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