The entire 10,000 feet of the south parallel runway at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is now available for use, following the completion of a 16-month reconstruction program. The $21 million project doubled the runway's thickness to 20 inches, and includes crushable concrete to prevent aircraft overruns. Now in widespread use, this Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) successfully stopped an American Eagle Saab 340 that landed long at New York's La Guardia airport earlier this year.
In a $66.4 million transaction, Worldwide Flight Services, a leading provider of ground services to the industry, purchased Miami Aircraft Support and Aerolink International.
Charter provider and FBO Jet Aviation has agreed to acquire privately held Jet East for an undisclosed sum. Dallas-based Jet East manages 17 aircraft, offers factory-authorized service for Citations and Learjets, aircraft sales and FBO services. The company's Love Field facility includes five hangars and more than 100,000 square feet of ramp space. Switzerland-based Jet Aviation says it is planning future U.S. expansion and is considering locations on the West Coast and in the Chicago area.
Community Air -- the California-based start-up company that planned to put up to 32 Pilatus PC-12 turboprops into scheduled service -- says its major investor has backed out, placing the future of the company in doubt. Husband and wife founders John and Susan Mayginnes have laid off all employees, and in a letter to the DOT, said ``we are pursuing funding with other investors, which may result in a buyout of [our] majority shares.''
The newly created Georgia Business Aviation Association (GBAA) is making what it calls a ``special effort'' to recruit smaller flight departments at remote airports. The Atlanta-based group counts 200 eligible flight departments in the state, with the goal of having 100 members before the end of the year. Brian Ross, the GBAA's chairman and president, says the group will focus on state and local issues affecting its membership. He says some of the larger flight departments in the state instigated the group's formation.
Construction of offices and two 15,000-square-foot hangars is expected to be completed this month at Leading Edge Aviation at Vandenberg Airport. With the opening of the airport's new 5,000-foot runway in 1998, and its own increased capacity, the facility hopes to become ``Tampa Bay's executive airport.''
If you're a chief pilot or flight department manager, you've probably been privy to financial discussions between your company's Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Operating Officer or Chief Executive Officer. If you haven't been present, you may want to be there next time because such discussions can have a direct bearing on the future of your flight department, especially in this era of lean budgets and seemingly endless restructuring in some companies.
Based on its membership's forthright comments in a mail-back questionnaire, the National Air Transportation Association is revamping the structure and pricing of its annual convention. ``We surveyed the membership on ways that we could improve the convention, and it came back strongly that members don't want to be away from their jobs for so long during the busy season,'' said Alan Darrow, NATA's vice president of finance and administration.
Midcoast Aviation (Cahokia, Ill.) -- Staff changes are as follows: At the Little Rock, Ark., operation, William Walton came aboard as director of major modifications, and Mike Ables is manager of major modifications sales. At the St. Louis Downtown-Parks operation, Jervin C. Carter was promoted to director of engineering for all avionics and structural engineering functions.
One of the leading avionics themes of the 1990s was the rapid transformation from heavy electro- mechanical analog displays to large, lightweight, colorful digital displays. Industry observers now say that the major theme for avionics in the next decade will be the full integration of affordable and practical data-link delivery technologies and applications into those same cockpits.
Raytheon Aircraft is relocating its parts inventory from a company-owned facility in Salina, Kan., to a state-of-the-art support facility in Grapevine, Texas, as part of an effort to improve responsiveness in its product support business. ``We used to think that if we can design an airplane, we ought to be able to handle logistics, but our effort turned out to be sub-optimum,'' said Chairman Art Wegner in a recent meeting with B/CA editors. Ryder will manage the new facility, and encompasses its five acres under one roof.
Business aviation influentials will commingle among the peach street-names, pecan confections and planes in Atlanta during the 52nd Annual NBAA Annual Meeting and Convention on Tuesday, October 12 through Thursday, October 14 at the Georgia World Congress Center. Carrying the theme ``Approaching the Millennium,'' this year's event will feature ``almost 4,200 exhibit booths, representing about 940 exhibiting companies,'' according to John W. Olcott, NBAA president, ``along with the most information-packed three days members can absorb.''
Mesaba Airlines is sending all of its managers and supervisors for leadership development training in an alliance with the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.
Aviall entered into a joint sales and marketing agreement to sell wheel and brake overhaul services on behalf of Aircraft Braking Systems Europe Ltd. to customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Cessna Aircraft Co. (Wichita) -- Richard H. Butler was named the new Citation regional sales manager for the Northeast Region. Two staff members received promotions: Ron Alberti to senior vice president of manufacturing and Ron Chapman to senior vice president of customer services.
FlightSafety Boeing is the first non-European company to receive Type Rating Training Organization (TRTO) approval from Europe's Joint Aviation Authority (JAA). The certification allows the Seattle-based training venture to provide European airline and corporate customers with JAA-approved Boeing 737 type ratings. The initial approval is for Boeing 737-300 to -800 models, but expansion to include other types is planned.
This past summer, the FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to extensively revise FAR Part 145, which governs aircraft repair stations. As individuals and organizations have studied the 31-page document, expressions of concern have been growing. These include objections to imposition of new ways of doing business, increased cost, limitations on ownership changes -- even stock sales, FAA oversight responsibilities and an apparent end to the ability of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to overhaul and repair products they make.
Jet Quest (Boca Raton, Fla.) -- The top officers of this new company specializing in the sales, marketing, acquisition and brokerage of corporate aircraft are Don Richards, president, and Robin Richards, vice president.
Operators that plan to continue flying their Gulfstream IIs and IIBs overseas well into the future not only need to outfit their airplanes with hush kits, they need to make sure their airplanes comply with reduced vertical separation minimums (RVSM) for flying on transoceanic routes. By 2000, G-II and G-IIB operators are expected to be able to purchase from Honeywell and Garrett an RVSM package that does not involve any major changes to the airplane's pitot-static system and will permit the autopilot to operate smoother in the altitude-capture mode.
Million Air Cleveland is the first FBO to complete the National Air Transportation Association's (NATA) Safety 1st testing requirements for line-service knowledge and professionalism. A special ceremony was held at Burke Lakefront Airport to present certificates to line service staff. ``The program was designed to improve safety on the ramp, which is a goal that all aviation service providers should strive to accomplish,'' said Coyne.
