Flying by the seat of your pants has a new meaning at Lufthansa Technik, which yesterday unveiled a new concept for the main passenger-cabin interface – the chair.

Why buy when you can lease? Why tie up $50 million in a jet – a depreciating asset – when you can lease the jet, dress it as your own, fly it as your own, yet not have it on your balance sheet? Those are the questions being asked here by Colin Steven, formerly of Embraer, who is launching Veling Tayara with partners including former Embraer Executive Jets president Ernie Edwards. “In today’s environment, there are smarter ways to invest your capital than in a depreciating asset,” the company says.

A futuristic interior for a VIP helicopter is being unveiled here this week by AgustaWestland. A mockup of the design for the AW169, by fashion studio Lanzavecchia+Wai, can be seen at EBACE. After working with the most famous and prestigious fashion houses, such as Versace and Lagerfeld, on the GrandNew and AW139 helicopters, AgustaWestland decided to do something different and avant garde for the AW169, which is to be certified this year.

Rolls-Royce’s CorporateCare engine maintenance program is growing by leaps and bounds and is making a real difference to aircraft resale values, says Stephen Friedrich, VP, Sales and Marketing, Civil Small and Medium Engines. “We now have 1,500-plus aircraft signed up, and more than 70% of all new Rolls-Royce deliveries are enrolled,” he says. “We’re no longer seeing market acceptance but market demand.” Indeed, the sign-up rate exceeds the number of new deliveries as used aircraft five, 10 or even 20 years old are enrolled.

“We wanted to match the values of AgustaWestland, and felt that helicopter interiors were not a mirror of their outsides,” says Francesca Lanzavecchia of design studio Lanzavecchia+Wai, whose unique Stream design concept for an AW169 passenger cabin is displayed in model form at the manufacturer’s Booth 6629.

Mahjong in the sky? Sure. But the Chinese owner of a BBJ2 currently being outfitted by BizJet International will have bragging rights to the first fully STC’d built-in digital board for the 500-year-old game. “It will be the first of its kind,” says sales VP Ed Harris of JBRND (the former Jeff Bonner R&D), which is exhibiting here at Booth 5339.

Isle of Man, Bermuda and Cayman Islands operators are among those likely to be affected by new changes to EASA operations rules, says Aoife O’Sullivan, international aviation expert and partner at the UK-based Kennedys international law firm. The changes are a hot issue for non-EU operators, she says, who could find themselves required to meet EU Air Operators Certificate standards even if they’re not doing AOC business.

TV screens got wider, so why not bizjet windows? Boeing and Fokker Services join forces in Geneva to offer a new perk to passengers. You might wonder why someone has not done it before… but they have. The section of the Boeing Business Jet cabin at Booth 3223 incorporates the latest feature from Fokker Services: a 54.5-inch (138 cm) panoramic window created by “knocking-through” three of the standard-spacing windows.