Plane Conversations

09/18/10

We departed Brisbane today -  Tim in his chartered jet, me and my family in the beautiful Cirrus.  Aircraft payloads are limited not only by weight, but also by mass.  And that was the one thing I forgot to plan on.  We have luggage for two weeks of travel – three of the bags are oversized.  But, as they say in Australia, “No worries.”  The SR22 rear seats fold down; so, with one seat folded, we were able to pack it all in and still have room for my daughter….she was pleased.

My days of study and preparation were put to the test as I filed my first Aussie IFR flight plan.  In Australia, the pilot has to contact the radar controller to get an IFR code prior to taxiing if you plan on departing in visual conditions and then getting your IFR clearance - sort of like a composite flight plan in the US.  We began the flight in visual conditions and activated our IFR portion about two hours later.  The controllers were most helpful all along the way.

As we departed Archerfield visually, I explained to Brisbane Radar that I wanted to first fly a coastal route north to look for whales and then turn south for a coastal routing past my third waypoint before picking up my IFR flight plan.  She merely said, “You can expect that.”

Off to the north we went at 1000 feet and, sure enough, we flew over more whales on their migration. We then turned south towards the Gold Coast and onwards.  The regional controllers advised us regarding traffic along the way, pretty much like they do in the US.  The further south we went, the more the wind picked up and the turbulent the air became (south westerly winds here are like the cold north westerly winds back home). At that point, I activated the IFR portion of our flight plan and climbed to 5000 feet.  After confirming our route, it was pretty routine flying except that in the US we get a full route clearance. In Australia, every controller I was handed off to on the radio confirmed only the routing within his/her sector.  I had to read that back each time.  

I am very glad that I had studied the VFR arrival procedures into Bankstown.  They expect you to fly a visual approach if the weather is VMC and, unless you request an instrument approach well ahead of time, you might find yourself holding for a long time until you get an approach clearance.  Again, the Enroute Supplement was extremely valuable in describing the visual checkpoints, as was the Visual Terminal Chart for Sydney.  ATC likes for you to fly canned arrivals - no GPS direct stuff here!  So, I came in knowing the reporting points and was able to fly directly to Runway 11L. Oh and another thing, when they have parallel runways operating, they just tell you cleared to land on the left…no numbers.

The only things that I wish were better here are the taxiway markings.  For the most part they are non-existent.  When I landed at Bankstown and requested assistance finding the FBO here, the controller didn’t know how to instruct me to get there.  I had it marked on my airport diagram; but, since there were no taxiway markings, I was a bit unsure.  One of the security trucks was listening on the radio and he gave me some directions.  All in all it was a great flight with unbelievable coastal flying (sometimes as low as 500 feet!) followed by an uneventful IFR portion into Sydney. 

Monday, I head back to the airport to fly with some of the locals to get the best sight-seeing routes of the Sydney area.  Until then, Cheers!

Click on pen to

There is an MU-2 outside my window right now and those Garrett engines are so loud that, in the words of my first grade teacher Sister Paula, I can’t hear myself think. 

Airplanes are noisy.  No kidding, right?  That’s hardly news and it’s certainly no surprise.  Since airplanes are noisy, it follows then, that places they frequent – airports – are noisy, as well.  Again, no surprise there.  What continues to be a surprise to me are noise complaints made by people who live near airports.

What would you say if I told you that I bought a terrific little house next to a railroad track and that I got it at a steal?  You’d probably question my sanity since there are sure to be really noisy trains barreling along the tracks at all hours, right?  Now what would you say if I told you that I was planning on petitioning or even suing the railroad company to make their trains quieter and to run them only during daylight hours?  Does that even make sense?  I bought a house next to a pre-existing railroad track, the existence of which I unquestionably knew, and now I demand that the railroad operate according to my preferences?  I would be laughed out of the courtroom.  Or would I?

This situation happens every day with airports all over the United States and Europe.

Developers buy undesirable land near noisy airports, build houses all over the land, and sell the houses at attractive prices.  The new homeowners, forgetting the reason they got such a good deal on the house, then demand that the airport conform to their preferences – and the city councils and courts support the homeowners.

Airports don’t exist in a vacuum - I know that - and we all need to “go along to get along.”  However, there must be some consideration for the airports which were in existence prior to development and the economic contributions of those airports.  For instance, Atlanta’s DeKalb-Peachtree airport started it’s life in 1941, operated as a Naval Air Station as well as a general aviation airport and is currently the second busiest airport in the state of Georgia with 246,002 operations recorded in 2009.  Housing development in the area saw massive increases in the 1950s, after the airport was established.  At this time, the airport has a “voluntary” curfew between the hours of 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM.  I emphasize voluntary because it is clear from the airport’s own literature that the county would make the curfew mandatory if only the FAA would let them.  Exemptions are made for medical flights but, any other flight operating at the airport during curfew hours will receive a letter inviting the operator “without compromising safety.. [to] review its operating practices and perhaps modify its procedures to keep this from happening again.”  Basically, they invite the operator not to come back during curfew, reserving the right to invite the the operator not to come back at all.

Perhaps the most aggressive noise abatement policies are in Santa Monica, California, and in Naples, Florida, which were among the first (if not the first) to prohibit certain types of aircraft from operating into their fields at any time of day.  Naples, which is a public airport operated by the City of Naples Airport Authority, has its hands full these days dealing with an anti-airport group.  The situation has become emotionally charged and really contentious there.  The airport receives federal funding, yet the neighbors want to dictate how and when the facilities may be used.   Try doing that with an interstate or railroad. 

The Mu-2 is gone, but my ears are still buzzing; so, I sympathize with people who live with the noise.  However, because I know that airplanes are  noisy, I didn’t buy a house right next to an airport.  And I don’t have sympathy for the people who did, then proceeded to complain about a situation they entered into voluntarily.

Click on pen to

Yesterday we examined internal costs aircraft operators incur and how those are covered in customer quotes.  Those costs are a little bit subjective and may vary from one operator to another within a region and will certainly vary between regions, simply because the costs of living in those regions vary.  Today we will take a look at costs incurred by aircraft operators over which they have little or no control.

Landing and/or Handling Fees- Landing fees are generally assessed by the airport or port authority operating the airport the aircraft operator uses.  These landing fees are based on aircraft weight and may be waived in the event of a Life Flight, but otherwise, landing fees are collected for every aircraft that lands at or takes off from an airport.  The fees vary widely and are sometimes not billed until months after the flight.  Handling fees are generally assessed by the ground handler, which may also be called a Fixed Base Operator or an FBO.    These fees also vary widely.  For light jets, we typically pay around $275 per landing; however, at Boston’s Logan Airport, Miami International and Chicago O’Hare, we have paid as much as $900 per visit.  These fees may be waived with a substantial fuel purchase.

International Fees – Some other countries charge for use of their airspace, whether we land in that country or not.  Other countries charge for flight planning, landings, customs processing, and agricultural fees, among others.  These fees are set by the country involved and are not waived.  These are sometimes also not billed to the aircraft operator until months after the flight.

Fuel Surcharges – Just as automobile gasoline prices fluctuate, so do aircraft fuel prices.  If fuel prices jump for some reason like a storm, oil spill, vacation season, an operator may elect to charge a fuel surcharge to make up for the increased costs rather than recalculate their entire rate structure.  This allows for the charge to be eliminated when fuel costs decrease again.  If the rates increase, but do not decrease after a period of time, the fuel charge may be absorbed into the hourly aircraft rate.

Insurance Surcharges- I have seen these surcharges only once and only for a brief period of time.  After the attacks of September 11, 2001, aircraft insurance rates rose – although, as CS&A’s Tom Chappell informed me in January, not as a result of the attacks.  The general aviation industry was grounded, re-regulated and losing money.  In response to these dramatically and unexpectedly increased costs, many operators introduced different kinds of surcharges.  This insurance surcharge was one of those, but I haven’t seen it used in a long time.

Even operators who issue hard quotes for your trip will exclude some items that are difficult to predict.  Among them are de-icing or inclement weather hangar fees, special catering requests, and flight phone usage fees. 

De-Ice or Inclement Weather Hangar Fees- If your trip takes you to Milwaukee in December, it’s a pretty safe bet that it will snow while you are there.  If it does snow, your aircraft will have to be de-iced to removed the precipitation or it will have to be put in a hangar to keep the snow off of it or to melt the snow.  Regardless of which method of snow removal is used, you’ll have to pay for it.  As of today, de-ice fluid costs about $15 to $18 per gallon to apply.  Some airports have special de-ice pads with a run-off system that collects the used fluid; however, others charge another $0.82 or so per gallon in EPA fees to clean it up.  That gives us a total of nearly $16 to $19 per gallon and since you can easily use a couple hundred gallons in a single procedure, the total bill can climb quickly into the thousands of dollars.  Compare that to hangar rental at between $100 and $500 per event and it’s no stretch to guess which method we prefer using whenever possible.

Special Catering- Most business charter customers use our service because of the expediency we offer.  In line with getting the most done in the least amount of time, many of them would rather eat their meals in-flight than waste that time on the ground having lunch.  Ordering catering for your aircraft is not normally a difficult thing and it’s something that we are all happy to do.  However, catering for aircraft is not inexpensive.  I once had a caterer in South Carolina charge me over $250 for two dozen doughnuts.  I was just certain that the charge was a mistake, but, no.  When I called to get the error corrected, the caterer informed me that this was simply what two dozen doughnuts cost.  I think that he may have actually said that with a straight face, too.  If you are budget conscious on catering, be sure to mention that to your charter operator or broker.  There are solutions which allow us to lower those costs for you.  Your presentation might not be as fancy, but if I have to choose between having a coronary when I get my bill or having an edible orchid on my plate, I’ll choose the healthy heart every time.

Flight Phone Usage – Some charter aircraft are equipped with flight phones.  Passengers do use them from time to time and, since we pay by the hour for their use, that’s how we charge it out.  As of today, the phones on our aircraft are about $2 a minute to use.

Several times over the last few months, you’ve heard us say that charter aircraft operators are not in the business to make a boatload of cash.  If they are, then they are going to be sorely disappointed; the margins in this industry are just not that big.  Now that you know what the line items on your quote or on your invoice are, you are better educated and more equipped to compare quotes between companies and to understand what all of those items mean.  If you see items listed that you cannot identify, just ask your operator or broker to explain it to you.  We love our industry and our product; so, we are more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

Click on pen to

Yesterday, I gave you a few questions to ask that will help you get the best value for your charter dollar.  So, you’ve gotten your quote, but what are all of those line items?

If you got a quote from a charter operator who gives hard quotes, the quote would probably include some of the following: aircraft charges, daily minimum adjustments, high-density airport fees, short leg fees, daily crew charges, wait time, crew overnights, landing and/or fees, international fees and, depending on fuel prices, you might see fuel surcharges.  At one time, it was not uncommon to see insurance surcharges.  If you got a quote from a charter operator who invoices based on actual flight time, it might include most of the preceding, but would exclude high-density fees and perhaps some of the others.  Let’s look at these line items more in depth.

Aircraft Charges – Whether an operator owns the aircraft they charter out or they manage aircraft belonging to others, there are clearly hourly costs associated with the operation of the aircraft, i.e. engine maintenance, fuel, and crew salaries and training costs.  Those costs are figured into the hourly operating cost, which is used to determine your aircraft charges.  Years ago, operators commonly charged by the mile flown; however, flight times over miles vary depending on weather and ATC, charging by the flight hour is a more effective way for operators to make certain their costs are covered.

Daily Minimum Adjustments – Until recently, the industry standard for average daily use of an aircraft on a single charter was two hours per day during non-peak dates.  During holidays, the daily minimum usage requirement could be as high as four hours; however, since the market has softened, these minimums are sometimes waived.  The purpose of the minimums is to prevent an owner’s asset from being committed to a non-revenue producing situation.  For instance, if a charter customer from Miami takes a Lear 45 to Cleveland for a week, that trip involves eight calendar days; however, it generates only about 5.2 hours of revenue.  In a perfect world, the operator would be able to charter the transient aircraft out of Cleveland; however, in reality, that happens very rarely.  This means that for six calendar days, the aircraft is unavailable to produce income for its owner.  So that the asset is used to its greatest potential, the daily minimum charges, ensured that this did not happen. 

High-Density Airport Fees- Depending on ATC, when on approach to O’Hare Airport in Chicago, LaGuardia or JFK in New York City or other high-traffic airports, an aircraft may have to hold in the traffic pattern for some time.  For an operator that invoices trips just as they are quoted, this ATC hold may result in additional flight time and associated costs not covered in the estimated flight time.  By averaging out the hold time aircraft using those high-density airports experience, the operator is able to assign excess costs associated with those airports.  Those costs are used to calculate high-density airport fees.

Short Leg Fees- Every engine start-up and shut down is an engine cycle.  Every take-off and landing is a landing gear cycle.  Scheduled aircraft maintenance is sometimes based on the number of hours flown.  Other maintenance is based on the number of cycles, regardless of the amount of flight time between the start-up and shut down or take-off and landing.  Long flight legs spread the costs over more flight time, while short flight legs compress the costs.  Thus, the cost of a short leg in terms of associated maintenance costs is higher than that of long legs.  To cover those associated costs, short leg fees may be assessed.

Daily Crew Charges – Instead of including crew salaries in basic aircraft charges, an operator may opt to charge them as a separate line item.  In this case, a charge will be assessed for each calendar day the crew is required, whether they are flying or sitting transient.

Wait Time- This charge is based on the amount of time a crew sits on the ground at a destination.  It is normally charged only on trips which may be completed within a single duty day.  This charge covers crew per diem, meals and other expenses.

Crew Overnights- Sometimes, this may appear as Crew RON, which means Crew Remain Overnight.  This charge also covers crew per diem, meals and other expenses.  Typically, if an overnight charge is assessed, additional wait time charges will be waived.  Some operators use a standard rate for this while other vary the rate depending on the location since hotel rooms and rental cars in Chattanooga, Tennessee, are surely less expensive than those in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during ski season.

To this point, the line items we have discussed have been based on aircraft and crew associated costs.  Just as costs of living vary around the country, so these costs also vary.  For this reason, you would not expect to find a Lear 35 operator in Montgomery, Alabama, to charge the same hourly rate as a Lear 35 operator in White Plains, New York.  Now we will look at some fees that are charged to the operator by other vendors.  These fees are outside the control of the operator and are the subject of our next blog – Unbundling Charter’s External Costs.

Click on pen to

Photo by Mark Blanks

In just a few days, the aviation world will come together to experience the largest display of aeronautical hardware, services, and performances in North America at EAA’s annual AirVenture Oshkosh event. I have been blessed to attend AirVenture for the past two years and I now find myself sorely disappointed that I will not have the same opportunity this year. However, this provides me the perfect opportunity to reflect on my love of, some may say my addiction to, aviation and the way that I see others who experience the same passion of this singular activity.

I have attended many different airshows and have worked at an airport for most of my adult life. Yet, there is still something about watching an old warbird taxi by that makes my heart flutter and I often find myself hearing an old radial engine coming to life in my dreams. However, all of my love for aviation becomes insignificant when I watch a young boy tug at his father to point at another fascinating aircraft or a young girl ask her father to hold her higher so that she can see. What exactly is it about aviation that inspires so many? From the small boy to the old man, there is something inexplicable that strikes a common cord among mankind. So, what is aviation?

There are many explanations that could be offered to describe why people are so fascinated by aviation and flying. I could argue that taking to the sky is symbolic of man conquering a realm that for thousands of years was available only to creatures born with wings. Or, I might launch into a discussion of the freedom that flight provides and how we are able to experience the world in a completely unique fashion. Further still, I could provide examples of how aviation makes the entire earth accessible and allows us to interact with people and cultures from across the globe in a single day. However, none of these explanations could even begin to explain the glint in a child’s eye when they take their first plane ride.

I encourage you to take a window seat on your next business flight and ponder over the experience of flight. Better yet, fly on a private airplane and truly enjoy the freedom that you have to go where ever you want without any kind of hassle. And even better still, take a kid flying and watch for that spark in their eyes and then you will see what aviation is. The spark IS aviation.

Photo by Mark Blanks

Click on pen to

Robert Cook in his July 8 Wheels Up post  writes about the challenges and opportunities of regional airports as they look to their future in the nations transportation system.

I would posit that the best and maybe only hope for these airports’ future viability is general aviation and business aviation.

Over the next five years airlines are not going to step in and save the day for these airports. The reality is that the number of airports being served by the airlines will most likely dwindle.

It would require a major strategy shift and change in the economic models of the airlines in this country to prove me wrong.   

In the absence of the DOT’s  Essential Air Service Program, most of the 100 plus airports receiving the subsidy, by way of the airlines serving them,  would lose their commercial air service. That’s roughly 20% of the airports in the US that have airline service due to government subsidy.   

As I hear from representatives of airports about what they believe they need to serve their constituents, they all seem desperate for scheduled airline service.

I sometimes wonder if we forget the true purpose of traveling by airline – to save time!

Business travelers have not forgotten the purpose of air travel. If it doesn’t save them time they don’t buy it, they drive, or just don’t travel at all.  

If marginalized air service to a regional airport doesn’t meet the market that demands time saving and convenient travel then why waste valuable resources to develop it, only to end up with a losing proposition?

Just like the airlines, business and general aviation do not meet the needs of every traveler. Business aviation cannot provide the same low cost service that Southwest can provide. What it can provide is efficient travel solutions to the small, medium and large businesses that will create the jobs in communities served by regional airports.

The prosperity of the communities and the small or regional airports that serve them depends on job creation and being connected to the market, both domestically and internationally.

A regional or small airport’s success should not be measured so much on having cheap airline seats to tourist destinations, or inconvenient scheduled service. Success should be measured  by having  viable and efficient ways for the community’s businesses to connect to their vendors and customers.

Maybe the small and regional airports should consider ways to develop alternative air travel by promoting and investing in the development of general and business aviation solutions.

Click on pen to

So is there a typical trip in business aviation? Not really.  But they do all share a common demoninator: trips using business jets save time over other modes of travel.

I was able to experience this again first hand last week, when our CFO, VP of Maintenance and I took one of our aircraft to go see a good client and friend in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  As we planned the trip, we looked at the options of how to best get there. Our options included driving,  an airline flight out of Nashville and connecting through Dallas, or taking one of our aircraft. By car, our travel time would have been about nine hours.  By airline, it would have been about four and a half hours.  In either case, the trip would have required us to stay overnight to make our meeting times.  The airfare on the airlines is between $1100 and $1300 per person round trip; so, three of us could have cost close to $4000, or about $4400, including hotel rooms and additional meals. Nashville to Fayetteville is not a low fare market.   

We have access to our charter aircraft and small flight school aircraft that I can pilot; so, we even had to decide which aircraft to take if we chose to fly ourselves. In a Cirrus, the flight would be tow hours, thirty minutes, while in a twin-engine turboprop the flight time would be an hour, fifty minutes.  Because the Cirrus was not available, we scheduled the turborop.  

We departed at 6:35am which meant I had to get to the airport at 6:20 - no early arrival required and the plane would not have left without me had I been a few minutes late.

We arrived in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at 8:30 am. Our client picked us up at the airport and we drove to his office, about ten minutes away. After a two hour meeting covering a wide range of business issues,  we drove to look at the other airports in the region. We took a little time to stop off at a legendary local restaurant, Herman’s, and enjoy a plate of their famous ribs. After lunch, it was time to go home; so, with business concluded, we were back on the aircraft at 1:30 pm and back in the office at Smyrna at 3:30 pm. We had accomplished a fill day of business on the road and arrived home with a couple of hours left in the day to wrap up more issues.

Our two hours in the aircraft each way provided the additional benefit of discreet and secluded time with my colleagues to catch up on issues of the day. A lot of business gets done in the secluded cabin of business aircraft.  

The day after the trip I was back in the office, rested from a night’s sleep in my own bed, and ready to take on the world again – certainly not the same feeling I have after two or three days on the road shuffling though the airline system.

These type trips happen thousands of times every day in this country; but, when I experience it myself, I am reminded again what business aviation is all about.  The rate on the Cirrus would have been $2800.00, saving us $1600.00.  The rate on the turbo-prop to a retail customer would have been about $5200.00.  With the savings or with the extra $800.00, we gained a full day in the office for three senior executives who were well-rested and productive upon our return.  That extra day is worth it at twice the price.

Click on pen to

I was fresh out of Mississippi State with a liberal arts degree and no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, managing a gift shop until I could make up my mind.  Then, a customer changed my life.  She worked for American Eagle Airlines and they were looking for a new agent.  Thus, I fell into a career.

After customer service training in Dallas, I returned to Columbus, Mississippi, for training on how to safely work the ramp.  To this day, 20 years later, I still walk around rather than under wings and I never walk in the prop arc.  The first thing I was told is that “you walk into a moving prop once.”  I didn’t need to be told again.

The job really was fun and a great challenge with instant feedback – the flights either departed on time or they didn’t.  Bags were either loaded correctly or not – you knew right away.  The only real feedback delay came from customer complaints or compliments.  Often, irate passengers would let you know with a quickness that they were unhappy; however, there were always those who were more of a slow simmer rather than a rapid boil.  Those passengers would wait to file a complaint with Consumer Relations. 

Each station had a report card and was rated on several elements of our operations including: baggage handling, on-time performance, and customer relations.  If a bag was mishandled, after some documentation a station was assigned responsibility and penalized.  If a flight was more than five minutes late departing from the gate because of ground handling problems or late passengers, the station was penalized. Stations were also penalized for any customer complaint unless irregularity in the customer’s claims could be documented (like with statements from airport security, which I actually had from time to time, but those are different stories).  At every station and with every team that I worked, we took these challenges seriously and did our level best to either raise or maintain our station scores.  At every station, we had the youngest group of agents and the smallest aircraft at the airport; so, we caught a great deal of ribbing from other ticket counters and sometimes from our passengers.  We saw our youth and aircraft as yet another opportunity to show that we could be better.  We worked hard and enjoyed helping to build our airline. 

It was called Nashville Eagle when I hired on, but was changed to Flagship Airlines before I left.  It didn’t matter what it was called, I loved it.  I loved the sense of community, of working together to build something we could be proud of.  Concourse D at the Nashville International Airport was home to all Eagle flights and it grew to be busy and congested, sometimes even between banks.  It was an exciting place to be.  Then, almost overnight, AMR shut it down.

Just like that, it was gone.  All of the outstations closed: Tupelo, Columbus, Tuscaloosa, Lexington, Paducah.  Everything we’d worked for years to build was dismantled in a matter of weeks and I never really understood why.  There were rumors: an ego contest between the Powers That Be, traffic within the Eagle system was good but too few passengers were connecting to American flights.  Whatever the reason, Concourse D became a wasteland.

Now, as I walk through the Nashville airport, still not entirely sure what I want to be when I grow up, I look to where the escalators descended to that old concourse, grieve a little for the airline that used to be and recite my employee number to myself – just in case anyone ever asks for it.   

Click on pen to

How soon will China open up to General Aviation?

Mike Vaughn works with our company in Government Sales and Business Development. Mike has extensive experience doing business in China, having made over 30 trips to mainland China in the past 12 years. He is presently in China working on an aviation project for a client that our company is involved with. .

Mike sent in the following report from China about an Aviation Law Forum he attended in Beihang a few days ago. His report is below in italics:  

I attended the Beihang Aviation and Aeronautical University Law School and DePaul University Law School 2nd Annual forum on Aviation Law in China May 12, 2010 as an invited guest of Dr. Sun Xinqiang, Vice Dean, Beihang. It was held in a new auditorium on campus with about 200 in attendance. From the US side, were DePaul Law professors and a Deputy Undersecretary for Transportation, and representatives from the US State Department.

In the audience were special guests, including the head of legal/regulatory affairs for FedEx, United Airlines, and Delta Airlines.

Forum speakers from the China side included the top leaders of CAAC and in the audience were officials from CAAC and the PLA Air Force, so the forum was well represented by both sides.

Another speaker from the Australian based Aviation institute gave a presentation on the growth, traffic and capacity of airlines operating in the greater Asia region (Japan, China, Korea, and south east Asia) from a historical and trends perspective.

China has become the second largest market for airlines in the region in a very short time (10 years) and will become the largest market in the next 10 years.

One topic of note was a discussion about routing through Japan and the decision by the Japanese government to locate the Narita airport away from Tokyo to position Japan as an international gateway. In retrospect, Japan made a mistake because travelers still want to have access to pleasure destinations and urban activities. The location of Narita away from Tokyo (2 hours away) has resulted in a decrease of travelers to Tokyo as a destination. Now they are trying to move gateway flights to the new airport near Tokyo but this would cannibalize business from Narita.

The Chinese will raise the Japan gateway routing issue with the US government in the next round of negotiations with the US for new gates and routes to China. Also, Air China can only fly between Japan and they are not allowed to continue on to the US via Japan, so they are positioning an argument based on reciprocity for equal gate access to the US.  

While the round table discussions and forum speakers were addressing airline issues and open sky topics primarily, general aviation was an underlying topic, especially as it pertains to flight ceilings and civilian vs. military uses of airspace.  

Right now, general aviation is limited to a 3000 foot (1000 meter) ceiling and all general aviation flights must have pre-approval of flight plans cleared by the military, then scheduled by the local CAAC tower. It causes unreasonable delays and is a deterrent to the expansion of general aviation.

The China officials and China aviation law experts said they were drafting new airspace rules and aviation policies designed to open up China aviation in the next five years.  

All in all, the forum was a success compared to other “cooperation summits” I have attended over the past 12 years since I have been coming to China.

 The opportunities for general aviation in China will be big if, or hopefully when, the airspace gets opened to general aviation traffic. The demand for general aviation is already there based on the economic development and geography of the country. Thanks to Mike Vaughn for sending in this report.

Click on pen to

Over the years of growing our business I have had the opportunity to meet many airport directors in communities looking for ways to improve air service to their airports. My brother runs an airline in the western US that provides service to many communities through the Essential Air Service (EAS) program funded by the DOT. He has probably been through 100’s of presentations from airports and their support organizations – chambers of commerce, economic development boards and city governments.

All of these airports and the communities they serve want good air service. Why?

They consider air service as a necessary ingredient for business and economic development. When you can connect to the rest of the world by air you can bring business in to your community and create jobs and prosperity. When you are disconnected from the rest of the world you lose out and no one wants to lose out. 

Over the past two years the situation has not gotten better for small airports.

In fact it has gotten worse because airlines have pulled out of many small markets either entirely or they have reduced service to the point that it no longer offers any convenience to the business traveler. Because of the geographic and demographic rules of EAS subsidies, many small airports don’t qualify for the subsidy. They are just a little too close to another airport with airline service but too far away to be convenient. Or they are not quite large enough as a market.  

So far no one has come up with a real solution that fixes the problem of the demand for convenient air travel at a reasonable price in small markets.

Small airlines like Cape Air are doing a good job of filling some of the holes but there are still a lot of airports looking for solutions. Charter companies like my company are glad to pick you up at a small airport and take you anywhere. Our problem is price. We are still too expensive for the average traveler.

As I have sat in on meetings over the years I usually hear the field of dreams story. “Build it and they will come” or in this case “show up and fly and we will fill up your aircraft with happy paying passengers”. If that was the case then why aren’t the airlines showing up and fighting for those passengers?

One of the major issues I see is that no one can really tell you or I today where people really want to go. At best, over the years, consultants to the airline and airports put together a marketing study based on DOT statistics showing Origin and Destination (O&D) traffic flow between cities based on airlines published data. With some statistical tweaking the consultant shows that a quantity of people in a community are flying to or from some close by hub airport and they would all rather leave from the home field if they just could. Those stats rarely translate into a reality for the airline or the home airport because the stats don’t correctly indentify the traveler’s true intentions.

So the question to ask is how we identify the true intentions of travelers, to really know when and where they want to go, and what it is worth to them for someone to meet their intentions.

If, in a perfect world with perfect knowledge at our fingertips, we could reach that point of knowledge could we then meet those intentions with the fleet of aircraft available in this country?

Change gears with me now and think about what is happening in the world of social media: 400 million and counting on Facebook, people tweeting every minute of the day, geo-location technology that knows where I tweet or text from, linked in profiles, and applications like TripIt that tell everyone where I am going and how I am getting there. In the past few weeks Facebook has gotten slapped for their use of the information they have been collecting on all of us, but at the end of the day I predict that we will not slow down telling everyone else everything about us. Privacy or no privacy we seem more than willing to let the world know just about anything.  

How could communities and small airports use the power of this information from Social Media to match traveler’s intentions to the supply of travel services? Could they build their very own communities online with the purposes of sharing travel intentions between travelers?  If so they could have the real knowledge of who, where, when and how much as opposed to the statistics that don’t seem to mesh with reality?

Something to think about isn’t it!

Click on pen to