New 'very light jets' giving rise to an 'on-demand' air charter industry
31 Oct 2007
Displays of the new aircraft drew lots of curious aviation buffs at a recent trade show in Hartford, Connecticut, for private pilots and aircraft owners. Many of them already owned small propeller-driven planes, but said they just couldn't afford the $1.6 million to $3 million (Rs6.5 crore to Rs12 crore) needed to buy one of the little jets.
Notwithstanding the cost, almost everyone in aviation circles agrees that VLJs are the fastest growing segment in the aviation industry; not only because they're attractive to people who want to upgrade, but because of the potential new cottage industries that new on-demand air-taxi services could spawn.
Linear Air of Concord, Massachusetts, already has one of the mini-jets and four more are expected to arrive in the next few months. The company plans to expand its fleet to 15 by end 2008.
It already offers charter flights on eight-seat Cessna Caravan turboprops, but Linear Air president and CEO William Herp says the new jets - which will carry two pilots and three passengers - are lighter and faster. The company plans to start using its new jet as soon as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gives the go-ahead, expected sometime this year.
A start-up company, called Pogo Jets, has planned an initial public offering (IPO) to raise money to order more than two dozen of the jets, so it can launch its air taxi service in 2009.
Pratt & Whitney Canada, a division of the Hartford-based United Technologies Corporation, manufactures the PW600-series engines used by a large number of VLJ makers. The engines are small enough to fit in the trunk of a family sedan. They can be built in eight hours each, and can power a little jet for more than 1,600 km on a single tank of fuel, depending on weather conditions.
It is the mini-jet market that has helped Pratt & Whitney's (P&W's) Canada operation become its fastest-growing segment. The company expects to deliver more than 3,000 VLJ engines to customers this year.
The Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Eclipse Aviation, which uses P&W engines on its new Eclipse 500 VLJ, is presently the frontrunner of the VLJ pack. Priced at $1.5 million and up, the Eclipse 500 was certified by the FAA in 2006. These are the jets that Linear Air has on order, and which Pogo Jets hopes to acquire.
With more than 2,600 orders for its new jets, Eclipse is sitting pretty. More than 50 of the planes already have been delivered to buyers. Deluxe versions can be equipped with leather seats, an entertainment system with satellite radio, as well as other 'must-haves'.
The slightly larger Citation Mustang personal jet, produced by general aviation giant Cessna, also received the FAA's approval in 2006. Cessna has been building Citation business jets since 1973, and its Mustang VLJ - which can seat four in what the company calls "sports sedan-styled" interiors - drew interest almost immediately after it was announced in 2002.
While most air-taxi services favour the smaller Eclipse jets, well-heeled industry leaders, companies and wealthy individual plane owners have gravitated to the Cessna Mustang, for which demand is so robust that it's outpaced supply. But it comes at a price. A Citation Mustang ordered today, costs between $2.5 million and $3 million, for a late-2010 delivery.
