AERION SST ORDERS TAKE OFF
Aerion Corp. took its first order for a supersonic business jet just a few weeks ago, at the Dubai Air Show, but announced on Tuesday that it has now secured orders for 19 jets at $80 million each, totaling over $1.5 billion in commitments. "Considering our marketing effort has barely begun, this is a tremendous validation of the aircraft’s appeal," Aerion Vice Chairman Brian Barents said in a news release. The company said it expects to recruit a manufacturing partner by 2008 and have a certified jet in service by 2014. ExecuJet CEO Niall Olver, who is working with Aerion to help sell the jet, said: "Based on the homework we did prior to entering into this agreement with Aerion, we are not surprised at the number of people coming forward. This is just the tip of the iceberg." More...

DAYJET EXPANDS NETWORK
DayJet has added 28 destinations to its network across the Southeast based on what it says is strong customer demand for its "per-seat, on-demand" service using Eclipse 500 aircraft. The 28 destinations, mostly secondary airports in cities that don't have much scheduled service, can be selected as long as the start point or end point of a customer's flight is one of DayJet's five original "DayPorts" — Boca Raton, Gainesville, Lakeland, Pensacola or Tallahassee. More...

AS BUSINESS PROSPERS, SO DO BIZJET MAKERS
Business analyst Frost and Sullivan says there's no end in sight to increased corporate profits so business jet manufacturers can expect to ride the current boom for some time. In fact, corporations are so confident about future profitability, they're ordering jets in anticipation of having the money to pay for them. "Previously, the increase in demand for business jets lagged one to two years behind corporate profit increases. At present, both the demand for business jets and the increase in corporate profits rise in tandem," Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Rani Cleetez told Jets.ru. More...

FLIGHT OPTIONS GETS INTEREST IN MANAGEMENT PLAN
Flight Options now has three wholly owned private jets in its fractional fleet through a system it calls its Fractional Interchange Management (FIM) Program. Under the program, aircraft owners turn over management of their planes to Flight Options, which adds them to the fleet of more than 130 fractionally owned aircraft under Flight Options' management. The aircraft earns revenue for the owner while it flies for Flight Options and the owner has access to the company's fleet of 130 business aircraft. More...

ADAM A700 ON TRACK FOR 2008 CERTIFICATION
Adam Aircraft says it's confident its A700 light jet will be certified by the end of next year, following the FAA's granting of the first Type Inspection Authority for the program. Adam got its first type-conforming A700 in the air in the spring and the TIA means that hours flown by FAA inspectors now count toward certification. "We have steadily moved from our first flight of the fully conforming A700 this spring into FAA testing by taking advantage of the commonality with the already certified A500 twin piston as well as over 900 hours of development flying with the first two A700 prototypes," Adam President Duncan Koerbel said in a news release. More...

JETAVIVA OFFERS ECLIPSE 500 TRAINING
One of the bottlenecks Eclipse is dealing with is a backlog of training for its customers as their new jets roll off the assembly line. In a recent letter to customers, Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn said it will be sometime in the spring before the company can "close the gap between customer aircraft delivery and customer pilot training." For those who don't want to wait, jetAVIVA, a very light jet management company formed by a group of former Eclipse employees has started an independent training service intended to get owners started with their training while they wait for their spot in the Eclipse-run type rating course. More...

ROUGH FIELD CAPABILITY ATTRACTS GROB CUSTOMERS
There aren't many bizjets with short, unimproved field capability, and that's what attracted PlaneSense to the Grob spn. The fractional arm of New Hampshire-based Alpha Aviation has ordered 25 Grob spn business jets and hopes to have the first one by the end of next year. The company was founded in 1996 and found a niche fractional market by offering shares in Pilatus PC-12 turboprop singles, which can get in and out of a lot places many aircraft can't and pack two tons while doing it. PlaneSense founder George Antoniadis said some customers wanted to go faster but didn't want to give up the flexibility they enjoyed with the PC-12. More...

DID YOUR BATTERY DIE? TELL US ABOUT IT
Our sister publication, Aviation Consumer, will soon publish an in-depth report on aircraft batteries. As part of that report, the magazine would like to hear about your experiences with aircraft batteries -- good, bad or otherwise. To take part in our online survey, click here. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

MEET THE AVWEBBIZ TEAM

AVwebBiz is a weekly summary of the latest business aviation news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the internet's aviation magazine and news service.

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Publisher
Timothy Cole

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

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Russ Niles

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Features Editor
Kevin Lane-Cummings

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