First VLJ Air Taxi Service Launches in Austria |
Posted By Joe Leader,
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
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GlobeAir today launched the first VLJ air taxi service in Austria with the delivery and celebration of their first Cessna Citation Mustang in Linz, Austria. The evening event featured the arrival of the first Austrian flagged VLJ and a spontaneous flight over upper Austria flight was awarded to one lucky guest.
"On behalf of all of the Air Taxi Association, both in Europe and in the United States, we congrtulate GlobeAir on this incredible milestone," Air Taxi Association President Joe Leader stated. "We are proud of the milestone that GlobeAir has reached by receiving their first VLJ aircraft delivery, and are excited about the future Cessna Citation Mustang fleet being deployed over the course of this year."
The air taxi service has more information available here, which includes a lifelong "founding-flyer" special status and lifetime rebate for subscribing to their bonus program.
Tags:
Air Taxi
Cessna Citation Mustang
Europe
GlobeAir
VLJ
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Blink Builds Industry-Leading Flight Operations Team |
Posted By Peter H. Leiman,
Monday, March 03, 2008
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Douglas Gass has joined the Blink Team as Flight Operations Director and Chief Pilot. Gass will lead the team in aircrew selection, pilot training and development of flight operations in conjunction with Blink's operational partner TAG Aviation.
In addition, Blink has hired Redvers Blake as General Manager of Flight Training and Graham Howard as General Manager of Fleet Standards. They will assist Gass in delivering best-in-class flight operations and training. Douglas brings exceptional experience in pilot training and aviation knowledge to Blink. He joins us at an incredibly exciting time as we build towards our May 2008 launch – a year ahead of any competitors.
With the largest fleet order of Cessna Citation Mustang Very Light Jets and $30 million of equity funding, Blink is one of the most well-funded air-taxi operators in the world. Blink has built the core foundations of a flight operations department that we expect to be the envy of business aviation globally.
Tags:
Blink
Cessna Citation Mustang
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AccelJet Moves Forward |
Posted By Einar Arnarsson,
Friday, February 22, 2008
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AccelJet's website is nearning completion as a result of our relationship with Coastal Technologies. We are accelerating the launch of AccelJet, possibly using the Cessna Mustang aircraft. We are currently seeking networking opportunities with individuals who have contacts at Cessna or are aware of earlier positions that we could acquire.
Tags:
AccelJet
Cessna Citation Mustang
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London Executive Aviation Receives Cessna Mustang |
Posted By Patrick J. Margetson-Rushmore,
Friday, February 22, 2008
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London Executive Aviation recently received its first Cessna Mustang. LEA is the first operator in Europe to have a Cessna Mustang online and operational. We are expecting two more Mustangs in April and an additional two more in May. By year's end, we plan on having 10 Mustangs added to our fleet.
The LEA launch party for the Cessna Mustang was held on January 28, 2008 at Farnborough Airport. Media across the UK covered the event. Visit www.flylea.com to watch a video from the event and learn more about LEA.
Tags:
Cessna Citation Mustang
LEA
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European Projections and the Great Lavatory Debate |
Posted By Mark Fava,
Friday, February 01, 2008
Updated: Monday, February 04, 2008
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The European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, EUROCONTROL,
with 38 member nations whose mission is to harmonize and integrate air
navigation services in Europe in order to create a safe, uniform, air
traffic management system, announced this week the formation of a
European "VLJ Integration Platform." The Platform will study the impact
VLJs and air taxis will have on the overly congested European air
traffic system. More interesting predictions of the numbers of VLJs are
contained in the press release announcing
the formation of the Platform. The formation was predicated by a
EUROCONTROL study that indicated 440 VLJs are on order for Europe with
230 projected to be delivered by 2010.
"The
majority of VLJs are expected to be used for air-taxi type work." The
press release also states that over 100 VLJs per year will join the
European skies with aproximately 700 new VLJs by 2015, each with 2-3
flights per day. The European market will face some challenges not to
be faced in the United States with more regulation and restrictions on
air taxi operations. In most European countries, IFR flying requires 2
pilots and 2 engine aircraft. The first European air taxi operators will likely be BIKKAIR and Blink. Both are funded. Both have shunned the Eclipse 500 in favor of the Cessna Citation Mustang.
Bikkair located in Rotterdam states it will be flying up to 1200
European locations. Blink, headquartered in London, has ordered 30
Mustangs and projects to be operating by May. On its website, Blink has
a time and cost calculator whereby
you can project time and costs savings between Blink and commercial air
travel. For example, it projects a Blink trip between London and Munich
will save a "senior executive" 1 hour and 33 minutes and 930 EU
($1,382.05). The
Mustang has several distinguishing factors from the Eclipse. It's
somewhat more expensive, larger, and from an operational perspective,
it has been cleared by the FAA for flight into known icing conditions, a certification the Eclipse has yet to achieve. Nor has Eclipse received EASA certification
to operate in Europe, but it expects to do so this year. Others
attribute value to the fact that the Mustang is manufactured by Cessna. A Lavatory? The
Mustang also has a single, side facing, non belted bench lavatory seat.
It sits right out in the open between a rear facing passenger seat and
the copilot seat against the starboard bulkhead. I'm not too sure how
much use it will get. You can see it if you look very closely in the picture above. While many have debated whether a lavatory is essential
for consumers to embrace the new air taxi platforms, a lav is wholly
irrelevant for a true air taxi service. This is not a business jet
operation. It is not a traditional charter. This is an air taxi
operation. Dayjet, SATSAir and Imagine Air have already confirmed that
lavs are simply not an issue. Pogo's Cameron Burr stated in a May 2006 article
that Pogo was likely to choose the Spectrum 33 or the Embraer Phenom
100 as its platform because those aircraft were slightly bigger planes
with fully enclosed lavs. At that time, Burr stated : "Survey after
survey has shown that women won't get on a plane without a lavatory."
In a July 2006 article,
Bob Crandall, the retired chairman of American Airlines who is now
chairman and chief executive of Pogo, agreed: "The absence of a
lavatory is going to be a problem." Pogo has since chosen the non-lav Eclipse as its launch platform later this year. It's wholly irrelevant.
Tags:
BIKKAIR
Blink
Cessna Citation Mustang
eclipse
Europe
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