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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 2580.PDF
BUSINESS AVIATION EXPANSION KATE SARSFIELD / LONDON PrivatAir carves out role in aircraft management Charter operator aims to draw on US sister company's experience as it looks for growth Switzerland's PrivatAir is expanding its business aviation services portfo lio with a move into aircraft man agement. The Geneva-based com pany will take delivery of its first managed aircraft, a Bombardier Global Express, in January. "This will kick start our first seri ous venture into management," says PrivatAir chief operating officer Europe and Middle East Dave Kin- son. "We plan to build on the exper tise of our US sister company, which has maintained a management business for years." The new offering will provide a fresh and potentially lucrative rev enue stream for PrivatAir and allow the company to tap the growing demand for aircraft charter in Europe. "We want to grow our char ter business as well," Kinson says. The two businesses "will feed each other", but will not entail a huge financial risk for PrivatAir, which specialises in widebody business jet PrivatAir last month received a BBJ2, which it will operate for Swiss transport with a VIP charter fleet of two Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) and a single 757. Two Airbus A319s that are operated as corporate shuttles under a five-year deal with Airbus, have limited availability, Kinson says. The company also operates two A319LRs and a BBJ on business class transatlantic shuttles under a wet-lease agreement with German flag carrier Lufthansa. Last month PrivatAir took delivery of a BBJ2 that it will operate from 16 January under a similar agreement for national carrier Swiss. Kinson says PrivatAir is also seeking a range of business jet types from mid-size cabins upwards to span the demands of European travellers. "We want a fleet that can cater for the short European hops as well as long-range trips," he says. DELIVERY BRENDAN SOBIE / SINGAPORE Global Wings ready for VIP launch Japan's Global Wings is poised to take delivery this week of its first business jet, a new Bombardier Learjet 45XR, and plans to launch VIP charter services in the second half of January. Global Wings chief executive Tak Masamura says the aircraft is scheduled to fly on 8 December from North America to China, where it will be based. Industry sources say Air China will operate the Learjet 45XR on behalf of Global Wings. It is the first Learjet to be registered in China and will be offered for domestic flights in China by the Hong Kong office of Bombardier Flexjet. Masamura says Global Wings will rely on Flexjet outside Japan and South Korea. In Japan it has hired 14 people to staff offices in Kobe and Tokyo and in Seoul it has a partner selling charters to poten tial South Korean customers seek ing to fly to China. Demonstration flights are planned for China, Japan and South Korea in January and February. Global Wings ordered two Learjet 45XRs early this year. A delivery date for the second aircraft has not yet been specified, but Masamura says Global Wings aims to operate this aircraft on its own, starting in late 2005 or early 2006. In July, Global Wings began the process of applying for a Japanese air opera tor's certificate (AOC) and prepara tions to set up an operating base at the new Kobe airport when it opens in the second quarter of 2006 Flight International, 20-26 July). Masamura said last week that the AOC should be secured by the end of 2005 and Global Wings is considering initially basing the air craft at another airport before Kobe opens. Possibilities include Komaki near Nagoya and Osaka Kansai. Komaki is trying to position itself as a business jet hub ahead of the opening of a new airport near Nagoya early next year. But Kobe, the new Nagoya airport, Osaka Kansai and others have also recently launched campaigns to attract business jet traffic. Airport access issues, high han dling costs, expensive landing fees and regulatory barriers have until now impeded the launch of busi ness jet charter operations in Japan. But conditions are expected to gradually improve and industry sources say other Japanese compa nies are preparing to launch busi ness jet charter operations as early as next year. INVESTIGATION Challenger 600 crashes A Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed on 28 November on take-off at Montrose, Colorado in weather conditions conducive to icing, the US National Trans portation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed. The NTSB says it has established no de-icing was carried out on the airframe, and reports that the accident killed three of the six people on board. The accident occurred at when the chartered Global Aviation aircraft "attempted to take off" for its intended destina tion of South Bend, Indiana, the NTSB reports, explaining that the aircraft "impacted a fence and terrain off the departure end of runway 31 at approximately 09:55", and it broke up and caught fire. At the time of take-off the airport weather was reported as 2.3km (1.4 miles) visibility in light snow and mist, with the tem perature -1 "C, with a few clouds at 500ft and overcast at 900ft. Two months ago the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch final report on a January 2002 Challenger 604 fatal take-off crash at Birmingham found the primary cause to have been frost on the wings of the aircraft, which caused the left wing to stall at such a low angle of attack that the stall warning sys tem did not trigger. No pre-flight de-icing had been carried out on the airframe. On 21 November a Yunnan Airlines Bombardier CRJ200LR crashed in cold weather just after take-off from Baoutou air port, China, killing all on board (Flight International, 30 November-6 December). IN BRIEF EMBRAER PREDICTS Embraer estimates an overall demand for 7,560 business air craft in the next 10 years. The super mid-size business jet seg ment is expected to reach 1,485 units and business jets in the large segment should reach 945 units in the same period, it says. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7-13 DECEMBER 2004 25
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