Sino Swearingen adds maintenance deal to light-jet marketing push but simulator unlikely to be ready until 2008
Sino Swearingen says it is close to agreeing a maintenance deal with business aviation services company Jet Aviation as it puts support and training elements in place for the SJ30-2 long-range light jet.
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| The SJ30-2 will be actively marketed at next month's EBACE in Geneva |
The San Antonio, Texas-based manufacturer received US Federal Aviation Administration approval for its cabin interior and flight into known icing earlier this month, adding to the type certification granted in October last year. This clears the company to start active marketing of the aircraft, which will begin at next month’s European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition in Geneva.
Sino Swearingen has firmed up several elements of the proposed support package ahead of the sales drive. Mike Creed, sales director of new aircraft for the SJ30’s main non-USA distributor Action Aviation, says a deal has been agreed with Jet Aviation for a global “nose-to-tail maintenance plan”, initially dubbed the SJ30 Action Plan. “It will cost around $340/h based on US conditions and cover scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, avionics, engines, labour and parts,” he says.
However Jet Aviation says its discussions with Sino Swearingen are “not final” and it is “still evaluating” the proposal.
Sino Swearingen has also confirmed that pilot training will take place on the first customer aircraft, set to be delivered to a San Antonio company in June.
The FAA has approved the training syllabus, Creed says, and Ed Swearingen, co-founder of Sino Swearingen, says talks with “all the major simulator providers” are ongoing. But the data collected for certification is insufficient for simulator models, and the September 2007 provisional date for a full-flight simulator is “unrealistic” adds Creed, with mid-2008 more achievable.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON
Source: Flight International
