For Aviation’s Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, It’s Technology Versus Growth

By David Bond – Aviation Week

Commercial aviation, faced with worldwide concerns about greenhouse gases and looming regulations to reduce them, can count on advances in technology that will help to clean up its operations to a substantial degree during the coming 20 years. But growth in air travel, both an enabler and a product of the burgeoning global economy, is likely to use up the environmental gains faster than they can be achieved.

The gains will come from aircraft and engine designers, particularly the latter, as they create and produce the next generations of commercial aircraft—the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787, both scheduled to enter service within a year; the A350, Airbus’s forthcoming answer to the 787, which will lag by several years; and the airframe manufacturer’s successors to their current single-aisle families, which probably won’t reach airlines before the late 20-teens or the early 2020s.

Equally important to greenhouse-gas reduction, major improvements in air traffic management are in advanced stages of planning and early stages of development. The U.S. NextGen satellite-based air traffic management system, Europe’s comparable Sesar ATM research program and adaptations worldwide are intended to increase the capacity of airspace systems to match the growth projected for aviation in the coming decades. In doing so, the ATM upgrades will, in many cases, shorten flight times.

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Pilot shortage delays new commercial flight service to Jackson

Service halted in March by Feds because of previous carrier’s violations

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — Jackson’s McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport will go without commercial flight service through mid-November because of a shortage of trained pilots, officials said.

Commercial service at the airport was halted in March when the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the airport’s previous carrier, Smyrna-based RegionsAir, for federal training violations.

Billings, Mont.-based Big Sky Airlines was supposed to take over service in Jackson in May, but increased hiring at larger carriers left the airline with a shortage, said president Fred deLeeuw on Friday.

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Becks gets private jets all-clear

By PAT SHEEHAN
August 15, 2007

LA GALAXY have beefed up security around David Beckham as he flies to matches around the United States.

Galaxy had to get special permission from Major League Soccer officials for Becks and the rest of the LA squad to use private jets to get to games.

MLS rules state private jets are not to be used as they do not want players to be seen setting themselves apart from fans.

But the MLS made an exception for Galaxy after hearing about the problems they faced.

Beckham (right) has been mobbed by fans wherever he has appeared and the club fears the situation could spiral out of control.

Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas said: “It has to do with team security.

“We’re not just bringing one of the biggest athletes in the world, but also one of the most famous people in the world.

“Our team needs to be safe.”

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Executive Charter Services is the most trusted private jet charter company in the USA and UK.

Pittsburgh airport expands enclave for private jets

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
There aren’t many places in Western Pennsylvania that can boast about playing host to Tiger Woods, Ben Roethlisberger, Sidney Crosby, Al Gore and a host of other athletes, politicians and celebrities.
Atlantic Aviation Service’s Business Aviation Center at Pittsburgh International Airport is one of them. And the company is looking to add to its growing customer base.

Atlantic Aviation Services, joined by local politicians and Allegheny County Airport Authority officials, opened a new 30,000-square-foot jet hangar and 7,250-square-foot charter terminal and office center at the airport yesterday.

The Dallas-based firm believes the $5 million expansion, which doubles its space, will further enhance its ability to serve corporations, sports team charters, private operators and general aviation enthusiasts.

Atlantic Aviation already has lined up three corporate tenants for the new hangar, which can hold anywhere from two to 12 jets, depending on their size. Officials also are hoping the charter terminal will better accommodate the sports teams that use it, including the Steelers, Penguins, local universities and visiting squads.

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Virgin to help fliers, private jet charters connect

Demand for private jet charters is rising, and not just from the usual quarters: entertainers, sports stars, moguls and the idle rich.
The newest charter jet customers once flew commercial first class, when that meant something special.

They are, for example, business executives and professionals who can justify spending tens of thousands of dollars for a private charter jet because their entire executive team can make it to a critical meeting and back in one day — unhurried.

There’s no waiting in line to check a bag, then standing in a security line, then running for the flight only to find it is delayed. There’s no disappointment that only a snack mix will be served. There are no strangers in the next seat who talk or drink too much.

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The National Air Transportation Association, a charter jet trade group, says charter hours flown are growing 10% annually thanks to the growing number of super-rich, the improving quality of jet charters and the deteriorating quality of U.S. airline service. Charter jet revenue is rising 20% a year in part because of costlier fuel.

Charter jet prices range from about $2,500 an hour for a small twin-engine Cessna Citation jet carrying a few people to $15,000 an hour for a Boeing Business Jet, a version of the Boeing 737.

Jim Betlyon, head of CharterX, a New Jersey-based charter jet exchange, cites robust demand from Eastern Europe and Asia as well as the USA and Western Europe.

“The Russians,” he says, “are flying the pants off of executive jets.”

By Marilyn Adams

Executive Charter Services is a CharterX member.

What airlines are doing to reduce record delays

With flight delays at a 13-year high, carriers feel pressure to make improvements – and still keep ticket prices low.

New York – JetBlue has extended its flying day to allow flight schedules time to recover from delays. Southwest Airlines has created a new early-warning system to detect holdups before they snarl the whole system. And United has upgraded its technology to better communicate with delayed customers.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is also redesigning some airspace, creating alternative routes to get around thunderstorms and is in the first phase of upgrading its entire air traffic control system.

Weary summer travelers who’ve spent hours out on the tarmac may not believe it, but the airlines and the FAA are working overtime to expedite flying in America’s congested skies.

But with delays in the first half of 2007 the worst since the Department of Transportation started keeping track 13 years ago, there’s only so much they can do. Weather is the primary culprit, accounting for about three-quarters of the delays.

But nature’s unpredictably is exacerbated by other factors: record numbers of planes and passengers in the skies, financially fragile airlines operating with bare-bones staff, and an antiquated air traffic control system. In short, the system is pushed to the limit. But for each of those problems there is a solution, although none is a quick fix and each cost money at a time when the flying public continues to demand rock bottom fares.

“There is hope, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” says John Hansman, an aviation expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “When it gets bad enough, people will become willing to pay for reliability. But right now we’re at a point where airlines have to run very lean in order to make ends meet.”

That’s right. If American fliers want a better system, they have to be willing to pay for it. That means higher fares on commercial planes so that airlines can have enough staff and planes on reserve to accommodate the extra demand created by weather disruptions. That way they could more easily rebook people who miss their connections, many of whom have found themselves waiting hours this summer, if not days, to get on another flight because the jampacked airlines don’t have enough seats to accommodate them.

And for the increasing number of corporate execs who are opting to beat the system by using private jets, it means higher fees for their use of airspace so there will be more money available for the FAA to modernize its air traffic control system.

By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
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Citation XLS+ Makes First Flight

August 2007

The first flight of the Citation XLS+, completed last week at Rockwell Collins’ Cedar Rapids, Iowa facility, “was a great success,” according to Cessna Citation XLS+ program manager Kevin Steinert. The flight progressed as planned, he said, and the aircraft performed as expected with the new modifications. A Cessna spokeswoman told AIN that in addition to new Pratt & Whitney Canada PW545C FADEC-equipped engines (the XLS has PW545B engines, each rated at 128 pounds less thrust than the C) and a new Collins Pro Line 21 avionics system, the airplane also has a slight change to the nose section. “It’s going to be the same performance numbers even though the engines and nose section have changed,” she said. After completing the flight, the aircraft returned to the Cessna design and manufacturing facilities in Wichita, where it will undergo further evaluation and testing. Type certification is expected in the first quarter of next year, with deliveries to follow in the middle of the year. The XLS+ is priced at $11.59 million.

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