I just returned from our nation’s capital in Washington DC. I was recently attending the Points of Light Institutes’s Tribute for President George HW Bush and landing at Dulles I noticed the lack of many corporate jets. It seems that the economy makes it difficult to find the leaders of the country using private business aircraft. It may be the location that I landed or it may be that they are all traveling in other places or it could be that corporate jets are not welcome in that part of the world.
We all of course remember the tongue lashing the leadership of the car makers received when they took their private business aircraft to the capital when they were asking for the bailouts they received when the economy headed down. It may be that corporate jets are still a black mark or not well received. The National Business Aviation Association continues to combat these types of thoughts. It would be interesting to see if the trend continues or if we will see more private jets at airports in and around our nation’s capital.
There did seem to be no shortage of private helicopters flying in and around the city. I think it may be related to the way the traffic patterns are in the DC. I for one would have loved not to be caught in traffic on the highways and in the city.
It seems we continue to be dealing with the world in turmoil with the problems in the middle east, the economic troubles that ave hit our industry and now we have the issues coming out of Japan with the latest in the earthquake that has devastated the country and its people. I wanted to take a moment and ask that everyone give some aid or assistance to the people of Japan as they all try to dig out of the rubble that was caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. One company that I have worked with in the past is helping do all they can by helping to Save The Children.
This week I was contacted by the folks at Save The Children with the situation as they have been briefed about the children of Japan:
“We estimate that up to 100,000 children are displaced. Many children are staying in over 2,000 evacuation centers, some of which have no electricity or running water. Aftershocks still continue, as well as risks of further earthquakes and tsunamis. Children are in urgent need of psychosocial support so that they can deal with the events they have and continue to experience.”
Obviously, many people are faced with challenges and they are going to be facing these challenges for some time. We are seeing that the people of Haiti are continuing to have those same challenges now more than a year after their devastating earthquake. Japan has better infrastructure but they still have to recover and that takes effort, and of course donations.
I would love to have Save The Children meet their goal of $5Million for the relief and program for the children of Japan. You can do this very simply by going to the site and providing your support. You can also do this very simply by texting “JAPAN” to 20222 using your cell phone. This will allow you to donate as little as $10 to their efforts.
Take a moment and give your thoughts and well wishes to those in Japan dealing with the devastation and if you can give them some monetary support.
It was only a few years ago that Embraer was a minor player in the corporate jet industry with only a 3 percent share. It is making great strides recently in the business aviation industry having gained that number to nearly 20%. The company that is based in Brazil is taking the line of mid-size jets it manufactures in the Legacy 450 and 500 jets, the Phenom light jets and the Legacy 650 jets, Lineage 1000 jets to new levels that they hope will help them gain their goal of a 30% share of the business jet market.
Recently, the company opened a new final assembly facility in Melbourne, Florida, and the CEO of the company, Fred Curado indicated that he was very happy with the manufacturer’s position in the industry of business jets. In fact, he recently revealed that he hopes to expand further.
“I do see Embraer one day venturing into the ultra-long-range, large-cabin business jet segment,”he told AIN in an interview. He stated in that recorded interview, their line would compete “with the [Bombardier] Globals and the larger [Dassault] Falcons,” he said.
These are good signs of growth for the industry and it will be interesting to see if Embraer expands to the levels it seeks in the business aviation industry.
First of all, we here at Corporate Jet Insider and L&L International would like to say we are sending all our best wishes and thoughts to all the people having difficulties in the middle east no matter where you may be and we hope that everyone remains safe. The recent event sin the middle east have had sweeping effects on many industries and certainly have not missed business aviation.
We have been hearing good things from the business aviation world in the middle east as orders have been remaining steady and in some cases have increased n the middle east. Where the difficulties are now being seen is in the problems with oil prices. Oil is now over 100 dollars a barrel and this is having the same effects as it is for auto industry and the costs of goods. Jet fuel prices as also jumping and this is trickling down to the use of corporate travel and the use of business jets. We will be watching the industry and see how this may change in the short and long term. Our thoughts as stated are that we can overcome the middle east problems to make for a more stable business aviation industry.
