Last year the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (ABACE) in Shanghai was reborn on a wave of growing confidence in China as an emerging market for business aviation goods and services. It drew 156 companies to the 43,000-sq-foot exhibit floor.
For the last few weeks I have found myself uttering words that I never thought I’d hear myself say: “I’m going back to China next month.” That follows last year’s even more incredulous “I am going to China.” Before being informed that I would be on AIN’s on-site convention edition staff for last year’s relaunch of the Asian Business Aviati
Is the FAA’s billion-dollar-a-year NextGen program devolving into a patchwork of technology demonstrations, refined routings to discrete airports and reduced aircraft separations over mainly water? Is the agency’s promised comprehensive overhaul of the National Airspace System chasing its predecessor grand vision—Free Flight—into oblivion?
The long-anticipated launch of a 160-seat CSeries has placed Bombardier in some rarified company. As of last week, Airbus and Boeing can no longer claim a duopoly in the market segment occupied by the A319 and 737-700.
“When I first started flying, I realized this was a lot easier than I thought, despite what the men said. In my humble opinion, girls make great pilots, and the best engineers.” – Patty Wagstaff.
Methinks the lady is onto something, but she already knows that.
If there is a drawback to the Internet, then it is the overwhelming amount of information being created and disseminated. Anyone interested in anything can find more articles, blogs, e-newsletters, YouTube videos, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, Instagram photos, Pinterest pins etc. about any subject, more than one person could possibly consume in a lifetime. For those who work on aviation safety issues, this presents a problem.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has changed the rules and as of April 25 will allow small blades and sports implements such as golf clubs and lacrosse sticks to be carried on board by airline passengers. The rules would allow passengers to carry knives with blades shorter than 2.36 inches and narrower than half an inch, as long as they don’t have lockable blades. The existing rules prohibit most sharp objects, with the exception of scissors that are four or fewer inches in length, and also sports equipment. The TSA wants the rule change to harmonize U.S. security practices with those of other countries, which would make security screening more efficient. I’m not so sure about that.
If I had to sum up the benefits of business jets in just one word, I might pick “convenience.” According to Wikipedia, “convenient procedures, products and services are those intended to increase ease in accessibility, save resources (such as time, effort and energy) and decrease frustration.”
It’s already clear that this year will be a big one for Business Jet Traveler and I just want to keep everyone in the loop.
Since when is an Emergency AD used to ground an aircraft fleet, as it has been in the case of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner? First off, let me be clear that if anything good can be said of the Boeing Dreamliner nightmare it’s that no one had to die before the FAA would take definitive action to ground the 787 until its battery fire problems could be investigated properly.
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