A new post-March high in global business aviation activity has been recorded in the past few days with an average of 11,500 flights a day, according to WingX’s weekly Global Market Tracker. However, in the past six months, global business aviation flights are down 37 percent—a total of 844,000 flights—compared with the same period in 2019, according to the report.
The Coronavirus impact on the aviation Industry
Aug 20, 2020 - 8:53 AM
American Airlines plans to remove service to 15 small and medium-sized markets as a result of low demand and the expiration of the air service requirements associated with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the company said Thursday. Calling the move the first step toward further schedule changes “in the coming weeks,” American took the opportunity presented by the expiration of service requirements the CARES Act imposed upon its passage in March.
Aug 20, 2020 - 7:18 AM
Amid continuing Covid pandemic event cancellations, the Helicopter Association International (HAI) this week reaffirmed its intention to hold its annual Heli-Expo show next March 22-25 in New Orleans. “Our early [booking] numbers tell me there is an entire industry that is eager to come out of quarantine and get together to do business,” said James Viola, HAI president. “We know people are concerned [about Covid-19],” said Viola.
Aug 19, 2020 - 9:59 AM
Twenty-eight maintenance providers operating in 68 locations in North America, Mexico, and the U.K. have joined MRO Insider’s aircraft maintenance services mobile app since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company announced.
Aug 18, 2020 - 11:42 AM
UK-based helicopter charter provider Apollo Air Services has established a new base at Cambridge City Airport. For the company, which operates a fleet of five Leonardo AW109s, Cambridge represents its first location in the southern UK, joining bases in Carlisle, Leeds, St. Andrews, and Cardiff.
Aug 17, 2020 - 11:54 AM
Rolls-Royce is closing its commercial aircraft engine components plant in Crosspointe, Virginia, saying the severe economic fallout from Covid-19 made the move unavoidable. The company informed employees on Friday that it would phase out operations by mid-2021. Plans call to wind down the site according to workload and in-process production schedules. The move will affect 280 employees.
Aug 17, 2020 - 11:06 AM
Gulfstream Aerospace is making its cabin air even cleaner with a new plasma ionization system. An enhancement to its cabin product offerings, the plasma ionization system operates when the aircraft environmental control system is active.
It emits positive and negative oxygen ions that Gulfstream said inactivate harmful molecules on surfaces and in the air. Further, it neutralizes particulate matter—not only bacteria and viruses but also unpleasant odors from organic material such as cigarette smoke.
Aug 14, 2020 - 3:04 PM
Chicago Executive Airport (PWK) is experiencing a strong bounce back in traffic amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The dedicated business aviation gateway, which also serves as a reliever for Chicago O’Hare International, saw its largest single month of flight operations last month since July 2015, with 9,041 takeoffs and landings.
Aug 14, 2020 - 11:56 AM
Bombardier’s fifth Global 7500 flight-test vehicle, FTV5, has found a new mission: transporting face shields for medical facilities. The Canadian manufacturer recently donated 2,800 face shields to HCA Healthcare East Florida Division for distribution throughout the medical care provider’s 15 affiliates across East Florida.
Aug 14, 2020 - 11:55 AM
The entire world continues to learn new adaptations and strategies to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, and all businesses are making adjustments, including those involved in both corporate and airline flight operations.
Aviation medicine is making adjustments, too. The FAA has realized that the process of obtaining a medical certificate is hindered by the pandemic, both in regard to the routine logistics of doing so and also for the inherent exposure risks to pilots and their AMEs. So the agency has provided relief for both medical and operational certification date requirements.
On July 7, the FAA stated that the “non-enforcement of expired medical certificates is a rolling 90-day action.” Thus, the FAA clearly supports that medical certificates may be used for an additional three months.
However, the final rolling action timeline stated is that certificates that would normally expire Sept. 30, 2020 will now be in a non-enforcement status until Dec. 31, 2020. No extensions are stated beyond that date in this most recent guidance, so I recommend that affected pilots check with their AMEs now on appointment scheduling to avoid bottlenecks.
There also remains confusion regarding how to handle expiring special issuances, which have a time limit placed directly on the medical certificate. Without guidance from the FAA, this limitation makes it impossible to determine if they qualify for the three-month grace period.
