An equipment financing expert, Kacin will be pivotal in developing relationships and supporting clients across the Northeast and Midwest, according to the company. He will report to Mike Christie, who became head of Sales for the Americas in March.

Commenting on his new role Kacin said: “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to help both corporate and UHNWI [Ultra High Net Worth Individual] clients benefit from the innovative and customised financing solutions Global Jet Capital offers for the business aviation market.”

Before joining Global Jet Capital, Kacin served in sales leadership and management roles for Webster Capital Finance, Terex Financial Services, Citibank, and Wachovia.

Alongside the appointment, the company is reorganising its North American sales territories.

Hannah Davis, formerly vice president of Sales for the Eastern US, will now lead the newly-formed Southeastern US region. John Arlinghaus, formerly associate sales director of the central US region, will now oversee the Western US region and Latin America.

Christie welcomed Kacin to the team: “Tom’s passion for aviation and strong equipment finance background will help us continue to provide bespoke solutions to our clients,” he said. “The territory realignment will provide better coverage of key markets allowing our team to be closer to our key partners.”

Meanwhile, in May Vivek Kaushal, CEO, Global Jet Capital said: “The business jet market has never been in a better place.” 

Global Jet Capital territory re-organisation – at a glance

• Tom Kacin, vice president, Sales for the Northeastern and Midwest US region
• Hannah Davis leads the newly-formed Southeastern US region
• John Arlinghaus oversees the Western US region and Latin America.

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The expansion represents a continuing five-year growth trend in this category. This year, the operator plans to bring its global fleet to more than 270 aircraft (excluding helicopters). So far in 2023, Flexjet has added the Embraer Praetor 600 to its North American fleet, as well as a Bombardier Challenger 350 (pictured) in its super midsized private jet offering.

“Together with the existing Embraer Praetor 500 and Challenger 350 aircraft flying in our fleet, the addition of the Praetor 600 and the Challenger 3500 has given Flexjet the industry’s leading offering of mid- and super midsized aircraft,” said DJ Hanlon, executive vice president, Sales, Flexjet. “The aircraft available to travellers within this offering present mission versatility that is unmatched by any other private aviation provider.” 

Flexjet said that the Praetor 600 is the “backbone of its growing European fleet” and its introduction to the US fleet reflects the jet’s success in Europe. The North American fleet also includes the Embraer Phenom 300 and the Praetor 500 and 600; the Bombardier Challenger 350 and 3500; and the Gulfstream G450 and G650.

Hanlon added that investment in Flexjet’s mid- and super midsized fleet in North America has been vital to meet the growing demand for coast-to-coast travel in the US. The firm also plans to invest in personnel, with the hire of 388 additional flight crew members and 338 aircraft maintenance technicians expected in 2023.

“Our ability to fly our aircraft owners on these in-demand aircraft today, and not at some distant time in the future, is further validation of our forward-looking approach,” said Hanlon.

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The service is expected to launch commercially in the fourth quarter of this year, with the completion of the network expansion into Canada set for introduction in 2024.

“Building on our nationwide network in the contiguous US, expanding into Canada will allow our customers to realise enhanced inflight connectivity in more destinations and routes where they fly,” said Sergio Aguirre, president and chief operating officer, Gogo Business Aviation. “We have been planning for this and I know our network deployment and field operations teams are ready to execute.”

Gogo 5G uses the firm’s software based AVANCE platform system, which allows for an easy upgrade path to Gogo 5G and Gogo’s global Low Earth Orbit (LEO) solution in the future. Gogo 5G is expected to deliver 25Mbps on average, with peak speeds in the 75-80 Mbps range.

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The move is part of the Embraer-CAE Training Services (ECTS) joint venture, that aims to meet the growing demand for business jet training in the US.

“With partners like Embraer, we are expanding our network and increasing capacity to meet the growing demand for business jet pilots,” said Nick Leontidis, president, Civil Aviation, CAE. “We are very happy to see our partnership with Embraer grow with the addition of a new Phenom series simulator to our training network and the first in Las Vegas.”

CAE said that the flight simulator is key to training pilots for business aviation. That is because the Phenom 300 series has been the best-selling light jet worldwide for 11 years in a row and has more than 700 units in operation, it said.

Johann Bordais, president and CEO, Services & Support Embraer added that in addition to the flight simulator in Nevada, there are six Phenom-series simulators operating in Dallas, Texas, at its London Burgess Hill facility and in Guarulhos, south-eastern Brazil. 

“Offering additional capacity for pilot training is part of our strategy to provide the best services to the market,” said Bordais. “This new Phenom series simulator is also a milestone in our long-term relationship and we are pleased to be part of the new CAE Las Vegas Training Center.”

The 50,000sq ft (4,600sq m) training centre officially opened yesterday (April 4th). Located in Clark County near Harry Reid International Airport, the centre has the capacity for eight full-flight simulators and will train 2,500 pilots annually

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Based in Brazil, Vidal will lead sales in South American territories including Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, while Hooper will direct aircraft sales in the US West Coast, including Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Hooper began his career in 1996 as a sales representative for JSSI’s Canadian operations. He held various aircraft sales roles after that, later becoming president of Promark Aviation Services from 1999 to 2019. More recently, Hooper was director of Aircraft Sales and Acquisitions at Executive Aircraft Services, before joining Jetcraft in December last year.

Vidal started her career as an engineer for Dassault Aviation in 2001, staying with the firm until 2011 when she became sales director of Executive Aviation at Synerjet Brazil. In 2014, Vidal moved to Bombardier where she acted as Sales Director in Brazil until last year.

“With more than 40 years combined experience in business aviation, Gerald and Laurence bring extensive local and industry knowledge to Jetcraft and will ensure we continue to exceed client expectations across the Americas,” said Dan Kilkeary, senior vice president, Americas Sales, Jetcraft.

He added that Jetcraft’s market insights have shown high demand for pre-owned business jets in the regions.

Vidal’s experience, at a glance

• 2014 – 2022: Sales director, Bombardier
• 2011 – 2014: Executive Aviation Sales director, Synerjet Brazil
• 2001 – 2011: Flight test installation manager/flight line engineer, Dassault

Hooper’s experience, at a glance  

• 2020 – 2022: Director, Aircraft Sales and Acquisitions, Executive Aircraft Services
• 2019 – 2020: Pilot, first officer, Transair Hawaii
• 1999 – 2019: President, Promark Aviation Services
• 2014 – 2018: Manager, Heli-One
• 2010 – 2012: Aircraft sales, LJ Aviation
• 1996 – 2003: Sales representative, Canada

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The culprit is thought to be a computer outage, causing the vital Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) safety system to fail. The FAA’s latest update blamed the chaos on a damaged database file. While there is little evidence the FAA was directly responsible, it does raise questions about whether this could signal further problems to come. The recent turmoil on Capitol Hill surrounding the election (eventually) of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House of Representatives has done little to allay concern. (The aviation industry is still waiting for Congress to approve the latest FAA administrator.)

It’s not just flights that fell victim to this week’s travel chaos. Scott McCreary, shareholder and Practice Group leader, McAfee & Taft, says the disruption may have also impacted deals. “Obviously, if you can’t move an aircraft and you had a transaction scheduled to close, it’s going to affect the deal,” he tells Corporate Jet Investor.

McCreary thinks the FAA is going through a particularly unlucky period. “The FAA was given a mandate to upgrade its technology and computer systems and other systems, and then Covid hit,” he says. “They likely didn’t hire as many people as they normally would have during the last two or three years, thinking that the CARES [Civil Aircraft Registry Electronic System] changes would be in place, and then you had Covid and the natural attrition of the staff, and with retirements, they got behind.”

The CARES act was intended to upgrade the FAA’s technology to make its operations easier and more efficient. This week’s outage can’t definitively be linked to CARES changes, but it’s clear that a lack of labour is a major issue.

The NBAA has blamed the outage on outdated technology, stating: “The NBAA has been urging the FAA to enhance the resiliency of the NOTAM system since 2018 and ensure that there are strengthened backup capabilities in the event of an outage.”

While conspiracy theories such as cyber-attacks float around the internet, explanations such as lack of staff, funding and resources seem more realistic.

Jack Gilchrist, founding director and shareholder, Gilchrist Aviation Law, highlighted other issues linked to the FAA recently. Last month the administration surprised the industry with new rules designed to protect privacy that blocked public access to ancillary records for aircraft ownership. The system has already been known to be antiquated and this new development is only slowing transactions further, with sources telling CJI that they haven’t heard back from the FAA about document requests in the past three weeks.

According to Gilchrist, the new rules at the FAA have been less than helpful. He says: “The new procedure for requesting ancillary records from the FAA has not been optimal. It has been our experience that requests are not responded to promptly or consistently, despite following the procedures detailed by the FAA. As it remains, the current state of things is far from a sustainable solution.”

While the jury is still out about the cause of the grounding of flights this week, the FAA certainly has a case to answer about how it is resourced and how it is performing.

The industry needs reassurance that the FAA will be properly regulated and resourced in the future, not just so it can prepare for what is to come. McCreary reckons the current issues the administration is having are just growing pains which will be resolved and help the industry in the long term, saying: “I do think the FAA has a plan and they’re implementing it. A lot of this will be solved hopefully this year, and I think the implementation of the new technology is really going to help the industry.”

Let’s hope this Friday 13th brings the FAA some much-needed good luck.

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TRAQPak’s analysts predicted the fall based on the European market’s dip in December, which was down 15.8% from December 2021. Globally, flight activity slowed in December with a decrease of 5% from December 2021, while monthly activity dropped 1.8% from November 2022.

In Europe, large cabin jets accounted for the biggest drop in activity levels, down 36.6% from December 2021, followed by mid-size jets (down by 11.5%) and small cabin jets (down 1%). The only aircraft type that saw any increase in activity in the period was turbo prop aircraft, with a small growth of 0.6%.

Elsewhere, predictions for this month were more optimistic, with a 2.3% increase in flight activity predicted year-over-year in North America for January 2023. This follows a smaller drop in activity for the region in December, down 6.2% from December 2021. Despite this, overall activity in North America remains up 12.7% from December 2019.

Fractional activity remained relatively consistent in the region, with a 1.3% decrease year-over-year. In terms of activity of aircraft types in North America, all were negative, with mid-size cabin jets performing the worst year-over-year (down by 9.1%). This was followed by large cabin jets, which recorded a 5.7% fall in activity, small cabin jets down by5.5% and turbo props with a decline of 3.7%.

By region within the continent, the largest monthly decline occurred in New England, with a drop in activity of 15.5% from November 2022, representing the region’s fourth month of decline in a row. Activity in the Caribbean increased by 26.2% in the month, while Canada decreased by 3.9%.

Across Africa, Asia, Australia and South America there were just over 60,000 business aviation flights during December, up 9.3% from November. These markets appear to be strengthening as activity was up significantly for the fourth month in a row.

Meanwhile, the fall in European business aviation contrasts with the level achieved last June,  the region’s busiest month on record in June, according to Argus’ TRAQPak report released in last July.  Year-on-year, the market in Europe increased by almost a third between June 2021 and June 2022.   

See the business activity statistics by region below.

Business aviation flights – at a glance:

Business aviation flights across Europe

Business aviation  flights across North America, December 2022 vs December 2021

Business aviation  flights across Africa, Asia, Australia and South America 

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As chief operations officer of the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), Baltus was responding to plans from France’s minister delegate for Transport Clément Beaune to ban or restrict the use of private jets in France.

It would be easy to dismiss such plans as bitter fruit – the populist politics of envy. But that would be to dismiss genuine concerns about the use of private jets in Europe and North America. In May restrictions were proposed on private jet arrivals at East Hampton Airport, New York. There was even talk of banning larger private jets. Previously a ban, or punitive taxes, were suggested on private jet landings in Massachusetts.

Canada has gone a step further. The country is adding a 10% tax on the purchases of luxury aircraft, cars and boats from next month.

The motivation behind such suggestions is easy to discover. Take for example, Kylie Jenner’s much-criticised 17-minute, 40-mile flight in the Los Angeles area. Setting aside whether this was a repositioning flight (that would have taken place regardless of its celebrity passenger), such flights focus real concern about the environmental impact of private flights, in particular, and aviation in general.

Baltus’ letter to us opposing the proposed ban represents a master class in marshalling careful and well-considered arguments in favour of private jet aviation. “Bullying the smallest segment of the aviation sector representing 0.04% of the global CO2 emissions because it’s an easy target and the crowd demands a sacrifice won’t solve anything,” he wrote to us. “On the contrary, it will further deteriorate European economies and the lives of the citizens we serve and employ.”

France has a great aviation and technology heritage with great business aviation manufacturers like Dassault, Daher, Airbus and Airbus Helicopters, Baltus wrote. “These companies are developing the sustainable aviation of tomorrow through all types of technological improvements such as SAF, electric aircraft, etc.” Private aviation like the airlines have pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Plus in Europe alone aviation generates €87bn ($86.98bn) of economic output in Europe and about 400,000 highly skilled jobs.

Such arguments have already won support from many respondents to CJI’s social media platforms. Charles Pace, director for Civil Aviation at Transport Malta vented the frustration of many respondents. Ian Petts, head of Yachting & Aviation at Equiom Group, spoke for many with the comment: “Great to see our industry mobilising against these vote-buying populist politicians who have not done their homework.”

Meanwhile, perhaps we can find inspiration in Woody Guthrie’s 1940 hit tune Worried Man Blues. “It takes a worried man to sing worried song,” crooned Guthrie.
“I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long.” That might just be true for private jet aviation – if the sector can find a united and compelling voice to answer its many, and increasingly, vocal critics.

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Vista said its growth was primarily due to a 43% year-on-year increase in its subscription members. VistaJet’s subscription programme reached an all-time high, with a 25% increase in members, contributing to a 76% growth in gross programme hours sold in the first half of the year compared to the same time last year.

“Contract sizes continue to grow as clients add hours to fulfil their flying requirements around the world,” said Thomas Flohr, founder and chairman, Vista (pictured). “Vista’s trusted brands, shared economy model, asset light offerings away from full or fractional ownership and proprietary technology create superior client value and elevated end-to-end experience.”

Regionally, North America accounted for approximately half of VistaJet’s programme revenue, with sales more than doubling due to existing clients adding hours and new client sign-ups. Europe’s flight activity and revenue more than doubled year-on-year, making it the group’s fastest growing region despite geopolitical uncertainty. Activity in Asia picked up with a 77% increase in hours sold, while a 60% rise in hours sold in the Middle East was driven by existing clients buying more hours.

During the first six months of the year, Vista added over 100 aircraft to its fleet through its acquisitions of Air Hamburg and Jet Edge, bringing its total fleet up to more than 350 in comparison to around 200 in 2021. “With these investments, Vista clients have access to a larger team of experts, and a greater range of aircraft and availability,” said Flohr. “Air Hamburg expands our scale in Europe and the Middle East, while Jet Edge significantly scales up Vista’s US presence.” Flohr previously told Corporate Jet Investor exclusively that he is “continuing to look at other opportunities for acquisitions”.

The half-year results follow a record-breaking year for the group in 2021, where Vista’s subscription solutions and services increased by 59%, and an increase in year-on-year flight hours of 64%, representing a 57% rise on pre-pandemic levels.

Last month, VistaJet expanded its members-only experience offering, Private World, by partnering with a total of 595 travel and brand companies.

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“90% of our enquiries are coming from that part of the world,” he said.

Ittihadieh attributed the surge in demand to two factors: first, the tax benefits buyers stand to have even if President Trump does not get re-elected and second, “because people have realised that the world has not come to an end“. They can still travel, with precautions, and therefore it is not a boom and not a bust either, according to him.

“I think there is a tax benefit with the 100% used and new depreciation. They can get it on new [aircraft], but the used depreciation may or may not stay, depending on whether President Trump gets re-elected,” he said.

He does, however, believe that the US markets will go down if President Trump does not win the election. “The country will get a debt and we will see a dent,” said Ittihadieh.

He encouraged those in the industry to have a longer-term view rather than a quarter-by-quarter one: “The world business economy needed a reset and we got it.”

Meanwhile, in Asia, China will be a key player “if corridors are opened“. Also, he believes there will be an entrance of a new audience for business aviation. “We will see them starting to use it truly as a business tool,” he said.

In his opinion, it is going to take 5 years to restore global activity to the levels seen in December 2019. “If America is on fire, our business is on fire. But if it is simmering, then so is our business.”

Freestream has partnered with the Zeitz Foundation’s 1 Million Trees Program to offset the carbon footprint of its aircraft over the next 10 years. Ittihadieh also placed his confidence in hydrogen-powered flight as the future of sustainable aircraft.

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