News

The FAA needs to do more to ensure that pilots dependent on substances such as drugs and alcohol are properly evaluated by aviation medical examiners, the NTSB said on Monday. A number of aircraft accidents have occurred when the pilot’s substance dependence was relevant to the cause, according to the Safety Board. The NTSB said […]

The FAA confirmed this week that it is not interested in eliminating the requirement that private pilots must hold a third-class medical certificate. Despite recent rumors to the contrary, the FAA said that “out of a concern for the potential safety impact of the change given the large number of private pilots, and in the […]

One month after the official launch of the Falcon 2000LX program, National Air Services of Saudi Arabia has entered into a pre-purchase agreement for a half billion dollars worth (20 aircraft) of the winglet-equipped twinjets. The order is currently firm for four aircraft with an option for 16 more. Dassault says finalization of the deal […]

The new Falcon 2000DX flew for the first time on June 19 at Dassault Aviation’s facility in Bordeaux, France. The 2 hour 15 minute maiden flight took the jet to 41,000 feet and a maximum speed of Mach 0.89. Dassault Falcon President and CEO John Rosanvallon said the aircraft offers an “atttractive price point and […]

With its first fully conforming aircraft in flight testing since April 9, and a firm order for 50 A700 light jets place by Hainan Zhong Hang Tai general Aviation Airlines (a China-based operating entity of Ameritech Aerospace), Adam Aircraft has also recently finalized a $105 million round of financing. The company plans to use the […]

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation to expand its roughly 60 percent market share of turbine business in India has appointed (effective July 1) InterGlobe General Aviation Private Limited as its exclusive representative for Hawker products in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Myanmar, the company announced last week. Speaking for InterGlobe, Rahul Bhatia, the company’s managing […]

Cessna last week announced at the Paris Air Show that NetJets has ordered $1 billion worth of its aircraft in the form of 96 Citations (50 Encore+ aircraft, 9 Citation X and 37 XLS+ jets). NetJets currently has 304 Citation business jets under management here and in Europe. NetJets Chairman and CEO, Richard Santulli praised […]

Iridium plans to launch an onboard boradband service within the next 18 months to compete directly with SwiftBroadband’s 432kbit/sec. service. Iridium will wade in, starting with a product for the maritime market (a 56-150kbit/sec service) that the company would follow with a similar product for land and aeronautical applications in 2008. Iridium’s subscriber base in […]

The Department of Treasury earlier this month published a notice of proposed rulemaking relating to the use of business aircraft for entertainment, affecting “taxpayers that deduct expenses for entertainment, amusement or recreation provided to specified individuals.” The notice will help clarify the definition of entertainment and would apply to any taxable year beginning on or […]

The Air Taxi Association (ATXA) formally announced its formation with the combined backing of European and American air-taxi providers and hopefuls. “The Air Taxi Association represents the next evolution in air travel, one that is complementary to our incredible worldwide aviation infrastructure,” said ATXA President Joe Leader. Dayjet, Earthjet, ImagineAir, JetBird, JumpJet, Linear Air, TaxiJet […]