The forecast also predicts demand for 8,500 new business aircraft worth $280 billion during that period, up a little from earlier forecasts and prompting some manufacturers to ramp up production. At the same time, customer demand has leveled off, suggesting a more balanced market is taking hold, according to the survey, which was released Sunday in Las Vegas on the eve of the big show.

“The business aviation industry is in a prolonged period of healthy growth, and we don’t see that positive trend changing any time soon,” said Heath Patrick, president, Americas Aftermarket, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies. “Business aviation continues to see more users and, as a result, manufacturers are ramping up production to keep pace with growing demand, a trend we expect to continue for the foreseeable future.”

Demand for large business jets continues to dominate the market. More than two-thirds of that $280 billion will be spent on the latest long-range wonders. But those of more modest means remain bullish on their smaller aircraft as important business tools.

“More than 90 percent of those surveyed expect to fly more or about the same in 2025 than in 2024,” Honeywell said.

NBAA-BACE formally kicks off on Tuesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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The aviation consultant’s modern jet travel platform Virtual Hangar launched its app earlier this summer as an alternative to fractional charter jet ownership and prepaid jet cards. 

While UberJets isn’t affiliated with the roadside transportation app developer Uber Technologies, the concept is similar. Users of the app can rent a private jet and pilot for exceptionally fast service to fly all over North America, with UberJets’ record pickup being 36 minutes.

“We’re a membership-based program,” John Svensen, sales strategist and logistics innovator for UberJets, told FLYING. “UberJets is powered by our Virtual Hangar technology and Virtual Hangar app. What we’re really trying to do is shift away from the traditional model of fractional ownership and prepaid jet cards. We’re an on-demand booking service with the membership account.”

Standard members pay $9,500 a year, plus a one-time initiation fee, and a corporate membership upgrade is also available. Members receive on-demand, real-time access to available aircraft and can pay as they fly, so no extra deposits are required.

Svensen described New York City-headquartered UberJets as the platform for aircraft owners and pilots to register on and offer their services. The company then rapidly mobilizes aircraft based on the specifications of where the individual member is and what they need.

Members requesting a flight through the app ping all UberJets-partnered pilots based within 150 mile radius of aircraft space in both the members’ departing airport and destination. This optimized solution allows members to only pay for the flight they’re taking without having to worry about making an extra stop somewhere.

“If you go from New York to Florida a lot, and the [aircraft] owner has a Citation Excel that goes from New York to Florida a lot, you would be assigned to an operating partner in the northeast or down in Florida where we know this person moves these aircraft well,” Svensen said.

Launching its beta program during the COVID-19 pandemic, UberJets started testing slowly and gathered information on what passengers liked and didn’t like. That also allowed the company to grow into its automation process.

“Now we’ve revamped our new Virtual Hangar app live on the app store,” Svensen said. “You can also book on the web through our website. We have a lot of members who are using this platform now, and it’s really starting to pick up speed as we continue along. Our infrastructure is now fully complete and built. It was built before, and it was working, but now we’re in total automation of everything. I can’t think of anything else in the industry right now that can say they’re a fully automated system for booking.”

UberJets uses AI technology for predictive pricing, something that’s normally challenging to pinpoint a specific number for a company without its own aircraft.

“We are predicting aircraft prices on aircraft that we don’t even have—they’re just in our platform,” Svensen said.

He said that his team was able to predict the pricing of a route from Marco Island, Florida, to Scottsdale, Arizona, down to the exact dollar using this technology.

“Virtual Hangar is a game changer for private jet booking because it’s utilizing efficient aircraft solutions in the most timely manner possible,” Svensen said. “It’s picking these optimized solutions of aircrafts heading in a certain direction and putting passengers on them. It’s a known fact in the industry that roughly 43 percent of the aircraft flying over at any given time are flying with no passengers on them. We’re trying to get rid of that.

“We want the most efficient aircraft solutions [and to] put people on these repositioning flights so we’re not dealing with any round trips.”

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Why Are Rates  Down?

The change in federal interest rates comes after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in September to address inflation.

The committee’s long-term goals are to achieve higher employment numbers and bring inflation down to 2 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index report shows annual inflation for all items in the U.S. is averaged at 2.4 percent as of September. September, August, and July each saw 0.2 percent inflation increases for all items each month.

In the FOMC meeting, the committee decided to lower the federal funds rate by 0.5 percent to 4.75-5 percent

“The Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and

agency mortgage‑backed securities,” FOMC’s news release on the rate drop stated. “The Committee is strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2 percent objective.”

The next set of FOMC meetings are scheduled for November 7-8.

What Does This Mean for Aircraft Buyers?

Lower interest rates typically means better payment plans on big purchases, aircrafts included.

The 0.5 percent drop can mean hundreds of dollars saved in monthly payments, depending on the amount of an individual’s down payment and the term of their loan.

FLYING Finance’s Aircraft Finance Calculator can be used to determine an affordable payment plan for prospective buyers. This tool allows users to configure their ideal purchase price, loan term, down payment, and adjust for the lowered interest rates to calculate what their monthly payment would be.

For example, a 20-year term for an aircraft purchased for $1 million with a $200,000 (20 percent) down payment at a 6.75 percent interest rate would cost $6,083 per month. These same values at a 7.25 percent interest rate would cost $6,323 instead—$240 more per month.

Additional resources on aircraft purchasing are available at FLYING Finance.

The post Aircraft Affordability Takes Off as Federal Interest Rates Drop appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Chamblee, Georgia-based fractional charter jet operator had widespread employee layoffs after entering into an aircraft management services agreement with competitor flyExclusive (NYSE: FLYX) on September 3.

Thursday’s class action was filed by law firm Kwall Barack Nadeau PLLC and attorney Arthur Schofield in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. In their complaint, prosecutors state Volato employed approximately 260. At least 233 of these employees were laid off August 30 after receiving an email notifying them of their termination.

The WARN Act mandates employers with over 100 employees provide a 60-day notice in advance of plant closings or mass layoffs. The complaint alleges that because these employees were let go as part of a plant shutdown or mass layoff, they were entitled to receive such written notice.

On its website, Kwall Barack Nadeau states that Volato’s actions have left the terminated employees without the compensation and benefits they were entitled to, creating financial distress for many. The plaintiffs seek to secure compensation for unpaid wages, accrued holiday pay, accrued vacation pay, accrued sick leave pay, and other benefits lost due to Volato’s failure to provide notice.

“This case is about holding Volato accountable for the harm it has caused its employees,” said Ryan Barack, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, in a statement on the law firm’s website. “Employers are required by law to provide notice before significant layoffs, and Volato’s failure to comply with the WARN Act has had a devastating impact on its workforce.”

Volato’s poor quarterly financials earlier this summer were reminiscent of issues that faced Jet It, another fractional charter jet operator that failed a year prior due in part to supply chain issues that rocked the industry in 2021 and 2022.

Volato did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

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In a SEC filing on Tuesday morning, the AMS includes an option for Volato to merge into a wholly owned subsidiary of flyExclusive. This option expires one year from the date of the agreement and allows an option for flyExclusive to purchase Volato during that time.

This comes as Private Jet Card Comparisons reports widespread layoffs at Volato. A source familiar with the situation at Volato confirmed such layoffs and provided FLYING with a letter of termination they received from the company.

• READ MORE: Volato to Drop 5 Leased Jets, Furlough Pilots

“In light of market conditions this year, Volato has been actively seeking ways to improve its operating costs and increase efficiencies,” the letter stated. “As part of that, Volato has been undergoing talks with several private aviation companies and has recently signed a letter of intent (LOI) with flyExclusive. The LOI outlines an immediate move to combine certain operations through cooperative agreements. This strategic move is expected to strengthen our position in the market and provide new opportunities for growth. However, as we transition through this period, it has become necessary to adjust our workforce to better align with our current and future operational needs.”

The letter further stated that the step was part of Volato’s strategy to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs as the company anticipates the delivery of new aircraft and the successful completion of its merger with flyExclusive.

Terms of the AMS

Tuesday’s agreement will see flyExclusive manage flight operations, sales, and expenses of Volato’s fleet, which consists of 13 fully fractionalized aircraft, eight leased aircraft, and four managed aircraft. The goal under the AMS is to transfer aircraft to the flyExclusive certificate, which will occur over the coming months in coordination with the FAA.

“As a fully integrated operator, flyExclusive is well positioned to offer synergistic value to Volato’s clients and deliver enhanced value for our overall growing customer base,” said Jim Segrave, founder and CEO of flyExclusive, in a news release from the company. “Over the years, we’ve made strategic investments to remove industry bottlenecks and grow and maintain a leading, consistent customer experience. We’re proud to welcome Volato’s customers and look forward to offering them access to our growing fleet of light, midsize and super-midsize jets.”

In addition to managing Volato’s retail and wholesale business, flyExclusive will execute flights for Volato’s customer base of approximately 184 fractional customers and 265 block customers until they are moved over to FLYX agreements. 

The release states that this agreement will significantly increase the FLYX direct-to-customer facing business in the United States. FlyExclusive expects approximately $75 million in revenues from Volato—excluding aircraft sales—to transfer to FLYX. FlyExclusive states in the release that it is confident these flights can be executed with minimal additional overhead. 

The AMS will also provide flyExclusive with access to Volato’s technology through a software license agreement.

“FlyExclusive is a proven operator with a robust platform and unwavering focus on the customer experience,” said Volato CEO Matt Liotta in the release. “This agreement provides mutual benefit to both of our companies and, most importantly, our customers benefit by increased flight and service options with the reliable and high-quality service they have come to expect from best-in-class operators.”

Volato did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

The post Volato Lays Off Employees During Transition appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The NJASAP represents NetJets’ 3,430 pilots and recently signed a new contract with the world’s largest private jet operator. 

In a news release published on Monday, the NJASAP alleged the two pilots were terminated because of their role in negotiating the five-year agreement, which was overwhelmingly ratified in April. The union also said the termination decision was “unlawful, unjust and in retaliation for the $1.6B in improvements the pilots negotiated during midterm bargaining that concluded earlier this year.”

NetJets said it had no comment on the matter. 

The terminated pilots included the NJASAP vice president and strategy group chairman. According to the union, they were both captains with 23 and 18 years at the company, respectively. The two pilots had “unblemished professional records,” NJASAP president Captain Pedro Leroux said in the release. 

“Choosing to terminate two high-ranking union leaders is not simply another hurdle to resetting the landscape, but a move reflective of a strategy that is not sustainable in the long term,” Leroux said.

This move is the latest in an ongoing back-and-forth between NetJets and its pilots union. In June, the company sued the NJASAP for defamation over safety and pilot training claims. 

The post High-Ranking NetJets Pilots Union Leaders Handed ‘Unprecedented’ Termination appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Bravo, according to Signature, is a free hospitality program catering to specialized needs of the smaller jet operators. Perks include “significant jet-A fuel discounts,” according to the company.

“We have worked closely with small and medium-sized operators to craft a program that’s designed for their unique set of needs,” Derek DeCross, chief commercial officer of Signature Aviation, said in a statement. “With no membership fees and no contractual commitments, Bravo by Signature delivers better pricing, recognition, member support, and partner benefits, and we will continue to collaborate closely with our Bravo member community to refine the program to meet their evolving needs.”

According to Signature, the program was in development for the past year and piloted by 800 small and medium-sized jet-A operators.

The company said participants in Bravo will be provided with significant jet-A fuel discounts and benefits, backed by Signature’s best price commitment, ensuring access to the top available non-negotiated rates at Signature’s U.S.-based private aviation terminals.

Membership also includes Gold Status benefits in the Signature Status program and access to dedicated email support. Pilots in the Bravo program are also eligible to earn points through membership in Signature’s Tailwins program.
Signature has more than 200 locations in 27 countries on five continents.

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A Form 10-Q—a quarterly financial report submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission— filed by Volato on August 14 showed the company spiraling into the red, recording a net loss of $34.3 million for the six months ending June 30. The same form stated Volato has a negative working capital of $18.2 million and an accumulated deficit of $98 million as of June 30. Net cash used in operating activities for the six months was $7.4 million.

“These above matters raise substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the form stated. “During the next [12] months, the company intends to fund its operations through a combination of issuing debt and equity as well as the sale of aircraft at a premium to cost.”

Additionally, the form stated that management believes that its current cash position will allow Volato to continue as a going concern and to fund its operations for at least one year from the date the financials were made available.

The filing also stated that on June 18 Volato received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) advising the company that it is not in compliance with NYSE American continued listing standards, requiring it to have stockholders’ equity of at least $2 million if it has reported losses from continuing operations and/or net losses in two of its three most recent fiscal years.

Section 1003(a)(ii) of the Company Guide also requires a company to have stockholders’ equity of at least $4 million if it has reported losses from continuing operations and/or net losses in three of its four most recent fiscal years.

Volato stated in the form that the company has submitted a plan to the NYSE American LLC on July 18, outlining actions the company will take to regain compliance by December 18, 2025.

“The notice does not affect [Volato’s] ongoing business operations or its reporting requirements with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission,” the form stated.

‘Rightsizing’

In a company letter from Volato CEO Matt Liotta obtained by FLYING, Liotta explained the decision to “rightsize” the company’s fleet and crew by removing five leased planes and furloughing some of its pilots.

“This is not a decision we take lightly, and it is the first time we have taken such a step,” Liotta stated in the letter. “However, I want to emphasize that this decision is based on our need to align with both the timing of new HondaJet deliveries, in which we have full confidence, and the pace of demand growth.”

In that statement, Liotta referenced Volato’s 2023 purchase of 25 HondaJets from Honda Aircraft company. These jets were slated to be delivered by 2025, but Liotta said delayed deliveries of the new aircraft and lower than expected sales have put financial pressure on Volato.

He also said demand for Volato’s services, while up, aren’t as high as anticipated.

“This situation requires us to make some difficult but necessary adjustments,” Liotta said.

He went on to say that Volato had been working closely with Honda to increase the availability and utilization of Volato’s fleet.

“…We’ve made substantial progress that allows us to fly individual planes more efficiently, meaning we can meet our flight hour needs with fewer planes,” Liotta said. “This not only strengthens our financial position but also benefits our fractional customers by delivering more revenue share to them—a true win-win.”

After attempts to renegotiate Volato’s more expensive plane leases, Liotta said that the company was unable to reach acceptable terms and decided to end those leases. By flying more hours per plane, he said the company aims to enhance its profitability and attract more interest in its fractional ownership program.

“This decision is about managing our business wisely and positioning Volato for long-term success,” Liotta said. “By rightsizing our fleet and crew now, we’re setting ourselves up to navigate these challenges effectively and prepare for future growth. Thank you for your continued dedication and resilience. We will get through this together and come out stronger on the other side.”

Volato lost over $17 million last quarter and currently has $5.8 million in cash. Volato did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

Jet It Déjà Vu

Readers may recall FLYING parent company Firecrown owner and CEO Craig Fuller’s article last summer detailing the demise of Jet It, another fractional ownership charter jet operator. 

“Jet It generated revenue through several major sources— fractional-owner hourly fees; monthly maintenance fees; up-front selling of aircraft fractional positions; and off-network charter flights,” Fuller, who was also a Jet It fractional owner, wrote in the article analyzing its business model.

The flaws in this model emerged when Jet It—-contractually obligated to guarantee fractional owners aircraft availability within 72 hours advance notice—was required to go into the charter market and purchase aircraft time at the charter market’s clearing rate. Fuller stated that these rates were often five times the rate that the fractional owner was paying Jet It for the same service.

Additionally, a key driver of Jet It’s cash flow was in selling fractional aircraft positions—especially during the start of the pandemic.

“In the early days of COVID, as interest around personal aviation exploded, so did cash flow opportunities for Jet It,”  Fuller wrote. “In fact, it is likely that the company relied too heavily on this source of cash to fund its operations.”

Fuller wrote that in 2021, and 2022 supply chain issues started to impact Honda Aircraft Company, and Jet It could not source as many airplanes to sell to members. This caused cash flow from new fractional sales to dry up, severely impacting Jet It’s business model.

Jet It closed down on May 24, 2023.

The post Volato to Drop 5 Leased Jets, Furlough Pilots appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In a response letter to CrowdStrike attorney Michael Carlinsky, Delta attorney David Boies states that the software company has no basis to suggest the airline was responsible for the faulty software that crashed systems around the world.

“When the disaster occurred, dedicated Delta employees across the company worked tirelessly to recover from the damage CrowdStrike had caused,” Boies states in the letter. “Their efforts were hindered by CrowdStrike’s failure to promptly provide an automatic solution or the information needed to facilitate those efforts.”

• READ MORE: GA, Private Aviation Dodge Worst of Cyber Outage Impact

Among several points addressed by Boies in his letter, he notably asserts that CrowdStrike showed no sense of urgency for the damage it caused, and the cybersecurity company’s offers to assist Delta were too late. Boies states that CrowdStrike’s offers of assistance during the first 65 hours of the outage simply referred Delta to CrowdStrike’s publicly available remediation website, which instructed Delta to manually reboot every affected machine.

“While CrowdStrike eventually offered a supposed automated solution on Sunday, July 21 at 5:27 pm ET, it introduced a second bug that prevented many machines from recovering without additional intervention,” Boies states.

As for CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz’s offer to support Delta CEO Ed Bastian, Boies said that Kurtz offered this assistance on the evening of July 22, and it was unhelpful and untimely.

“When made—almost four days after the CrowdStrike disaster began—Delta had already restored its critical systems and most other machines,” Boies said. “Many of the remaining machines were located in secure airport areas requiring government-mandated access clearance. By that time Delta’s confidence in CrowdStrike was naturally shaken.”

• READ MORE: CrowdStrike Disputes Negligence Claims in Letter to Delta Attorney

Additionally, Boies addressed claims that Delta’s IT technology was not up to par for handling the disaster.

“Delta rejects CrowdStrike’s misplaced attempt to shift responsibility for its failures to Delta’s ‘IT decisions and response to the outage,’” Boies states. “First, those ‘decisions and response’ had nothing to do with the cause of the outage. Moreover, for the last several years, including prior to and following its recovery from the Faulty Update, Delta’s operational reliability and customer service has led the airline industry. Delta has achieved its industry-leading reliability and service due, in part, to investing billions of dollars in information technology.”

Boies ends the letter demanding CrowdStrike “accept real responsibility for its actions” and compensate the airline for damaging its business, reputation, and goodwill.

Delta Details Financial Impact

The letter comes after Delta detailed its previously reported $500M loss in revenue due to IT outages in an 8-K form published on Thursday.

The report states that the incident caused around 7,000 flight cancellations over the course of five days, leading to $380 million in customer refunds, $170 million in expense reimbursements and crew-related costs, and $50 million in estimated fuel expenses. This has impacted the airline’s projected year-over-year September quarter 2024 capacity growth by approximately 1.5 points.

“An operational disruption of this length and magnitude is unacceptable, and our customers and employees deserve better. Since the incident, our people have returned the operation to an industry-leading position that is consistent with the level of performance our customers expect from Delta,” said Bastian in a statement included in the 8-K form.

Bastian doubled down on previous litigation threats, stating in the form that Delta is pursuing legal claims against CrowdStrike and Microsoft to recover at least $500 million in damages caused by the outage.

Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft have denied Delta’s allegations of negligence for the software update that caused airline disruptions nationwide on July 19. Both companies also claimed that Delta had refused free assistance from their IT teams to help with the airline’s ongoing issues throughout the week of the outage.

Class Action Lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Transportation warned airlines were legally obligated to provide passengers cash refunds shortly after July’s IT outages. Law firms Sauder Schelkopf and Webb, Klase & Lemond filed a class action lawsuit this week on behalf of Delta passengers whose flights were canceled due to the outages.

The complaint alleges that nearly every airline had managed to recover and resume normal operations by the end of the week, except for Delta, which continued to cancel flights.

“On Monday, July 22, it was reported that Delta canceled more than 1,250 flights. These cancellations accounted for nearly 70 percent of all flights within, to, or from the United States that had been canceled on Monday,” Sauder Schelkopf’s website states. “No other U.S. airline had canceled one-tenth as many flights.”

Additionally, the class action lawsuit alleges that Delta failed to give some affected passengers automatic refunds for canceled flights and oftentimes conditioned its offer of partial reimbursements to passengers on a waiver releasing Delta of all legal claims passengers have against Delta.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AirlineGeeks.com.

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“Restoring trust starts with meeting our commitments, whether that’s building high-quality, safe commercial aircraft, delivering on defense and space products that allow our customers to meet their mission, or servicing our products to keep our customers running 24/7,” Ortberg’s message said. “It also means meeting our commitments to each other and working collaboratively across Boeing to meet our goals. People’s lives depend on what we do every day, and we must keep that top of mind with every decision we make.”

Boeing’s reputation took a tumble in the wake of the 2018 and 2019 737 Max crashes that were attributed to a design flaw, resulting in a 20-month FAA grounding of the aircraft and the January 2024 loss of a door plug during an Alaska Airlines flight.

The latter has been the topic of two days of hearings before the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy noted that the agency still needs to determine how the jet (Alaska Airlines Flight 1282) left the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, missing four crucial bolts that held the door in place.

• READ MORE: NTSB Hears Testimony of Boeing Retaliation for Workers’ Mistakes

Ortberg will be based in Seattle, stating that it is important to be close to the place where the bulk of Boeing’s aircraft are made. William Boeing, the founder of the company, chose the Puget Sound because the first airplanes were made of spruce, and the area was rife with spruce forests. When aircraft manufacturing turned to metal, Boeing adapted, creating Washington factories in Everett, Renton and Seattle.

In 2001 when Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago, and later Virginia, many industry experts suggested the aerospace giant’s focus had shifted from turning out quality products to increasing profit, even if it meant cutting corners. They also predicted that having the headquarters so far from the main factories would result in a degradation of product quality.

Ortberg announced he would be spending his first day on the job on the factory floor in Renton, “talking with employees and learning about challenges we need to overcome, while also reviewing our safety and quality plans.”

Ortberg, who brings more than 30 years of experience to his new role, vowed to be transparent with Boeing employees.

• READ MORE: Boeing Names New CEO to Lead Through ‘Consequential Period’

“Soon I’ll be visiting many of our sites and I look forward to meeting with teammates around the world,” his message to employees said. “In speaking with our customers and industry partners leading up to [Thursday], I can tell you that, without exception, everyone wants us to succeed.”

In addition to winning back the trust of the air traveling public, Ortberg will be faced with improving Boeing’s financial situation. The 737 Max crashes and door plug accident have sent the company’s stock prices into a nosedive.

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