CORPORATE AVIATIONFINANCIAL TIMES SPECIAL REPORT | Tuesday May 4 2010

www.ft.com/corporate­aviation­2010 | twitter.com/ftreports

Clouds of recession begin to disperse

First came news thatthe glut of aircraftup for sale was nolonger swelling so

rapidly and the dive in usedbusiness jet prices appearedto be levelling off.

Then reports emergedthat the number of businessjet flights in the US andEurope was edging up.

Finally, the crisis thathas gripped much of thecorporate aviation industrysince the collapse of theLehman Brothers invest-ment bank in September2008 looks as if it has stabi-lised. But the sector is stillfar from being in vibranthealth.

“The good news is thatthe market has stopped fall-ing, and some of the leadingindicators offer encourage-ment,” says Richard Aboul-afia, analyst at the Virginia-based Teal Group aerospaceand defence consultancy.

“The bad news is thatthis is a three-year down-turn. The key driver, corpo-rate profits, show only lim-ited signs of a recovery.Used aircraft prices remainweak. Also, it will takesome time to reduce highinventories of available jets.We do not see deliveriesgrowth resuming until2012.”

Others share his senti-ment. Analysts at UBSInvestment Research saidin April in their businessjet update that even thoughleading indicators showedthe market had stabilised,threats remained.

“We see risk of a mutedrecovery given significantoversupply, fractionalweakness and tight financ-ing,” they said.

Ahead of this year’s Euro-pean Business AviationConvention and Exhibition(Ebace) in Geneva, some ofthe region’s biggest playersare equally cautious aboutwhat lies ahead.

At NetJets Europe, thecontinent’s largest businessjet group, Eric Connor,chairman and chief execu-tive, says he has a “quietconfidence for 2010”, after aturbulent 12-month periodthat has encompassed staffcuts, aircraft delivery defer-rals and an extensiveshake-up of the company’stop executives.

The fractional ownershipgroup has seen a 12.7 percent increase in hoursflown in the first quarter of2010, compared with thesame quarter last year, anda 60 per cent increase in jetcard sales to its customers.

“Overall, we lost 83 cus-tomers in the first quarterof 2009 and we have gained

32 customers in the firstquarter of 2010, so the dif-ference there is pleasant,”says Mr Connor.

“If I compare flight reve-nues, we are approximately13 per cent above what webudgeted and the revenueflights are above what wasin 2009 for the same period.

“We’re also beginning tosee some customers wholeft us in 2008 and 2009expressing an interest inreturning, which we take tobe positive.”

The fractional ownershipsector more broadly isunder pressure, accordingto new data published todayby Honeywell Aerospace inan international refocusingof its latest Business Avia-tion Outlook.

“Owners of fleets servingfractional shareholders andjet card purchasers havereduced demand sharply inthe current recession,” saysHoneywell. “Fractional fleetoperators still account forabout 10 to 12 per cent ofthe backlog for businessjets, but have drasticallycurtailed current new air-craft additions in the face ofnet share sales erosion.

“New jet deliveries tofractional fleet operatorswere off more than 80 percent in 2009. In the firstquarter of 2010, no new jetaircraft have been deliveredto major fractional provid-ers. Sales of new ownershipshares have continued to

deteriorate further after2009 posted a 52 per centloss. As a result, Honeywellis projecting much lowerdeliveries into this segmentas excess capacity isworked off and shareholderlevels are rebuilt.”

At TAG Aviation, theSwitzerland-based privateaircraft management andcharter company, andowner of Farnborough air-port, the most importantbase for private jet travel inthe UK, Robert Wells, thechief executive, is slightlymore upbeat.

“I’ve seen four up-and-down cycles in my businessaviation career,” he says.“Each time the recoveryhas been stronger than theprevious one, so I’m opti-mistic about the currentstate of affairs.”

Mr Wells is focusing onAfrica. “One encouragingsign recently was the firstdelivery of the new Bom-bardier Global Express XRSto a customer in Nigeria.That says a lot about howmuch room there remainsfor business aviation togrow,” he says.

Simon Pryce, chief execu-tive of BBA Aviation, theworld’s leading provider ofservice bases for businessjets, says the basic founda-tions of the industry arestrong and near-term indi-cations are positive.

But as Mr Aboulafiapoints out, there are hugedifferences within theindustry in terms of whichparts have been hardest hit.

“The most unusual aspectof the market right now isthe unprecedented bifurca-tion of market behaviour,”he says.

“The top half of the mar-ket – jets costing $25m andabove – barely felt any painlast year, with deliveriesfalling a mere 4.1 per cent.The bottom half – jets cost-ing $4m to $24m – fell by acatastrophic 42.8 per cent.The market has never seenbifurcation like this.”

It is difficult to find any-

one willing to forecast anearly return of the boomtimes, when business jetdeliveries surged to morethan 1,000 in a single yearfor the first time in 2007,and rose again to more than1,300 in 2008.

Last year, that numberwas 870, according to theGeneral Aviation Manufac-

turer’s Association’s annualindustry review released inFebruary.

According to the Ascendaerospace consultancy,annual global business jetdeliveries will not go above1,300 again until 2016.

But such forecasts needto be put in perspectivegiven the nature of the

boom that preceded thebust, says Gary Crichlow, asenior analyst at Ascend.

“I think the market isstill having difficulty get-ting its head round realis-ing 2008 was the peak,” hesays.

Mr Crichlow remembers“Crisis what crisis?” head-lines in 2008. “Over the past

couple of years we haveseen that the business avia-tion market is like anyother industry,” he says.

“The party ended quiteharshly. But, two years on,we are seeing it’s the sameold economic cycle. Thefundamentals that under-line the business jet indus-try haven’t changed.”

A sector savaged by the downturn isfinally seeing a return to stability, if notto the best of health, reports Pilita Clark

InsideJet prices A split in themarket is overshadowingoptimism, writesJeremy Lemer Page 2

NetJets The giant ofEurope is braced for abumpy ride, saysPilita Clark Page 3

Flight Lines A newcolumn devoted to factsand stats as well as themore unusual aspects ofbusiness aviation Page 3

Test Flights Rohit Jaggitest flies the CessnaCitation CJ4 and theEmbraer Phenom 300(above) Page 4

On FT.comHelicopters Bell ispledging to be moreaggressive in building upits business, writesRohit Jaggi

Source: Ascend aerospace consultancy

Total annual forecast business jet deliveries

Forecast deliveries

Very light jetCessna Mustang, Embraer

Phenom 100, HondaJet

Medium Challenger 300,Challenger 605, Embraer

Legacy 600/650, Falcon 2000/900, Citation X, Gulfstream G250

LightCessna CJ3/CJ4,

Embraer Phenom 300

HeavyGulfstream G450, G550,

G650, Global Express XRS,Global 5000, Falcon 7X

Light/mediumLearjets, Embraer Legacy 450

Entry levelCessna CJ1+/CJ2+,

Beechcraft PremierI/II

BizlinerBBJ family, ACJ family

NorthAmerica

2005

2005

2005

2010

2010

2010

Europe

Rest of world

9,853

1,410

1,766

11,631

2,587

3,036

Business jet fleets

Slow climb: business jet forecasts and fleet size

2008 10 12 14 16 18 19

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

2008

2009

2010

Actual

2010-2019

2,929

2,184

2,135

1,718

1,698

910

359

Funding woes bring highambitions down to earth

Many fledgling aviationventures hatched duringthe heady days of the bub-ble economy have failedduring the recession. Thosestill flying have been forcedto rein in their ambitionsand restructure to survive.

High hopes were placedin particular on the start-upof low-cost private jet busi-nesses – sometimes dubbedair taxis – seeking to exploitthe arrival in the marketfor the first time of four-passenger very light jets.These ventures have provedto be among the most vul-nerable, however, assources of capital dried upand demand shrank.

The latest notable casu-alty is Ireland’s JetBird, themost ambitious ventureplanned in Europe.

Its failure to get off theground has come as a seri-ous setback for its founderand chairman, DomhnalSlattery, a leading Irish fin-ancier, and has robbedEmbraer, the Brazilian air-craft maker, of its mostimportant customer inEurope for its new range of

Phenom 100 very light jets.JetBird appeared the

most promising of the ven-tures setting out to makeprivate jet travel moreaffordable at prices up to 50per cent below those ofexisting charter operators.

However, Stefan Vilner,chief executive of JetBird,says the business has been“put into hibernation”,after the launch was aban-doned at the last moment.

The pilots, hired andtrained to fly the Phenoms,have been made redundant.The initial six aircraft built

by Embraer for JetBirdwere never delivered andare being sold to other oper-ators in North America.

By contrast, Blink, a UKventure founded by twoyoung former investmentbankers, Peter Leiman andCameron Ogden, whichbegan revenue operationsin June 2008, is still flyingand reports a recovery indemand in the early monthsof this year.

“We have seen a signifi-

cant improvement sinceDecember,” says Mr Lei-man.

Inevitably, growth hasbeen much slower thanoriginally forecast, andBlink has been forced todefer deliveries of its cho-sen jet, the Cessna Mus-tang, due during 2010.

Mr Leiman says thatBlink is planning to resumecapacity expansion in 2011,however.

It expects to add three tofive aircraft a year to itsexisting fleet of seven, as itgradually takes delivery ofthe 30 Mustangs it hadplaced firm orders for inmid-2007. All should bedelivered by 2014, accordingto the present plan.

Mr Vilner, previouslychief commercial officer ofSterling Airlines, theformer Danish low-cost car-rier, says JetBird missed anumber of planned launchdates last year, but wasfinally forced to abort thestart of operations becauseof its inability to raise suffi-cient equity capital.

Funds promised by aninvestor from Saudi Arabia,and announced as a donedeal in September 2008,failed to materialise and leftJetBird at risk of failing tomeet key covenants in theaircraft financing deal ithad prepared with United

Air taxisOne start­up hasfailed even to getoff the ground,says Kevin Done

‘We were readyto launch butfinally we wantedto preserveshareholdermoney’

Continued on Page 2

2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES TUESDAY MAY 4 2010

Corporate Aviation

ContributorsPilita ClarkAerospace Correspondent

Rohit JaggiAircraft Columnist

Jeremy LemerUS BusinessCorrespondent

Jan CienskiWarsaw and PragueCorrespondent

Kevin DoneFT Contributor

Rohit JaggiCommissioning Editor

Steven BirdDesigner

Andy MearsPicture Editor

For advertising, contact:Liam Sweeney on+44 20 7873 4148 orliam.sweeney@ft.com

Fundingwoesdashhopes

Technologies, parent com-pany of Pratt & Whitney,maker of the Phenomengines.

The Middle East investorwas supposed to inject€10m to secure a stake of9.3 per cent, joining Mr Slat-tery, the leading share-holder, whose Dublin-basedClaret Capital had previ-ously led the initial fundraising that had brought in€21m in December 2007.

JetBird was planned to bethe first pan-European oper-ator of very light privatejets.

It was one of the mostambitious ventures plannedby Mr Slattery, formerlymanaging director of thestructured asset financebusiness of Royal Bank ofScotland, who made his ini-tial fortune in aircraft leas-ing.

It placed a firm order in2006 for 50 Phenoms withoptions for another 50, andhad 15 due for delivery byDecember last year.

“Things never work outthe way you thought,” saysMr Vilner. “We were readyto launch, but finally wewanted to preserve share-holder fundsy until otherinvestors were ready to putequity in.”

The aircraft financingdeal had included cove-nants on the minimum cashrequirements for runningthe business and “we werenot comfortable we couldmeet these requirements”,says Mr Vilner. “Wedecided it was too risky.”

The JetBird business planwas based on reaching asignificant scale quickly,and breaking even with afleet of 18-19 aircraft.

Staffing has been cutfrom 34 prior to the plannedlaunch, to eight, who areconcentrating on trying tofind equity backing and onnegotiating a revised dealwith Embraer.

The Brazilian aircraftmaker says it is “currentlydiscussing a new purchaseagreement for aircraft deliv-eries in the future”.

JetBird is not takingdelivery of aircraft, says MrVilner.

“We want to go out anddo a thorough equitysearch. It is difficult rightnow. There are very fewparties wanting to invest inprivate aviation. We wouldrather preserve our cashand keep a low profile.”

Mr Slattery has decided toconcentrate his efforts forthe moment on more lucra-tive prospects back in hisold field of aircraft leasing.

Mr Leiman, one of the co-founders of Blink and aformer UBS investmentbanker, has reasons forgreater optimism.

Blink was the first inEurope to test the verylight jet model, and afternearly two years of opera-tions it is still flying.

It has gained its own airoperator’s certificate and islearning to handle oftenextreme seasonality.

It is experimenting withonline pricing and booking,and in the London marketit is working principallyfrom low-cost Blackbusheairfield on the Hampshire/Surrey border in preferenceto the much more expensivenearby Farnborough.

Mr Leiman says the big-gest problem facing Blink isbuilding awareness of thebrand. “It is expensive. Itdepends on cash on the bal-ance sheet and the returnon the spend. That is thereal question.”

Continued from Page 1

Fast­growing group thinks big to stay in profit

Despite the unfortunate timingof placing one of the biggest sin-gle orders for new business jetstwo years ago, only weeks beforethe sector was engulfed by theglobal recession, Thomas Flohrhas survived.

The Swiss entrepreneur stillchooses to keep the veil firmly inplace over VistaJet’s financialperformance, but he says thegroup was “one of the very fewaviation companies anywhere inthe world that was profitable in2009”.

Unsurprisingly, growth was alot slower than originally fore-cast, but he says VistaJet reve-nues and traffic still rose 20 percent in a year when severalrivals were either wiped out bythe economic and financial crisisor forced to restructure.

From a tentative beginning in2002 owning a secondhand Lear-jet 60, Mr Flohr has built Vista-Jet into one of the world’s fast-est-growing private aviationcompanies, with one of the larg-est wholly-owned commercialfleets outside the Americas.

He has become the leading

independent buyer of businessjets from Bombardier, and hasdeveloped a close relationshipwith the Canadian aerospace andrail transport group since takingover its troubled charter brokerbusiness outside the Americas,Skyjet International, two yearsago.

Through the acquisition, MrFlohr gained access to an extrapool of expertise as well asoffices in Farnborough in theUK, Dubai and Hong Kong. Mostimportantly, as it turns out, healso gained a new customer base,which crucially helped cushionVistaJet against the worst of therecession.

By the end of last year Vista-Jet had grown to a fleet of 25aircraft, concentrated at theupper end of the market and allsupplied by Bombardier, includ-ing two long-range GlobalExpress XRS jets, 14 Challenger850s and 605s and nine Learjets,chiefly the larger Learjet 60s.

Operations are focused onEurope – including an importantmarket in Russia – and the Mid-dle East, although the plan toexpand into Saudi Arabia hasbeen dropped.

VistaJet also has some trafficin Asia with an operating base inKuala Lumpur, and in the pastsix months it has discovered arich vein of business in WestAfrica related both to the oil andgas industry and to work for gov-

ernments and plans to open abase in Lagos.

“We are developing more as along-haul carrier than flying inshort hops,” says Mr Flohr.“This is our customer profile. Onshort flights with small aircraft,it is difficult to make money.

“On flights of three to fivehours, you can demonstrate thecustomer offering, and you cancharge a premium over the com-petition for service and quality.We have distanced ourselvesfrom the small operators.”

Last year VistaJet, which hasan Austrian air operator’s certifi-cate and a main operations basein Salzburg, flew about 16,500passengers in more than 7,000flight movements.

It has already taken delivery oftwo more Challenger jets fromBombardier this year with fourmore aircraft – two Challengers,one Global Express and oneLearjet – due later in 2010 froman outstanding orderbook for 20more jets.

Mr Flohr believes that theworst of the recession is past andthat demand is improving. “Wehave seen a significant uptick inbusiness in the last fourmonths,” he says.

The recession “brought a lot oflife experience”, however.Demand from new customers forblock hours, where customersbuy guaranteed aircraft availa-bility at a fixed hourly rate typi-

cally for 100 to 300 hours’ flyinga year, essentially dried up forsix months in the wake of thecollapse of the US investmentbank Lehman Brothers in Sep-tember 2008.

“For six months, there wasvery little cheque writing,” saysMr Flohr.

The underlying asset valueof aircraft plunged, as themarket stalled. “My biggestsingle fear was where the decline

in asset values would stop,”he says. “It has stopped nowand is on the way back. Therecovery started at the top end ofthe market.

“If I had been selling smallblocks of 25 hours for one hourflights on small jets, where assetvalues dropped off a cliff, I wouldhave lost a lot. But in long-haul,large-cabin aircraft at the top ofthe market, you were still able toturn a profit.”

Mr Flohr says VistaJet was

also saved by the diversifiedgeography of its operations andbecause it was never highlydependent on customers fromthe financial markets.

“Some of our key clients wereflying more rather than less, asthey needed to get to where thelatest panic was.”

Nonetheless, the group wasforced to cuts its prices sharplyand, as overcapacity became agrowing burden, it was alsoforced to defer some deliveriesfrom Bombardier for new jetsoriginally due at the end of 2010and in 2011.

As demand gradually returns,however, VistaJet has managedto start raising prices, with a 3per cent increase at the begin-ning of January and the elimina-tion of discounts at the start ofApril.

Prices fell 10 per cent in the 18months to the end of 2009, butMr Flohr believes he could beback to mid-2008 pricing forblock hours by early 2011. Fortop-of-the-range jets, capacity isagain becoming constrained. Atthe worst point of the recession,VistaJet had 15-20 per cent over-capacity.

VistaJet is number two inEuropean business aviationbehind NetJets. It does not offerfractional ownership of aircraft,the key feature of the businessmodel of its troubled, much big-ger US rival, but it does offer

customers the option of owningwhole aircraft.

Currently, only two of the 25-strong fleet are owned in thisway, but Mr Flohr says interestin asset ownership is returning,as aircraft values start torecover. Risk-takers and entre-preneurs are looking again atowning aircraft “either becausethey are asset-hungry or for taxreasons”, whereas “in the past 18months they would have laughedat ownership”.

VistaJet still derives about 60per cent of its business from thead hoc charter market, largelyvia brokers, with 40 per centcoming from the core “pro-gramme” business of sellingblock charter of between 100 and400 hours’ flying a year, whichwas launched in mid-2008.

Mr Flohr believes the ideal pro-portion to optimise use of thefleet would be a 60 per cent shareof block charter, and the latestexpansion of the group into westAfrica is helping to drive ittowards this goal.

The search for new clientsamong the wealthiest individualsis also being intensified, follow-ing creation of a new advisoryboard at the start of the year.

It is chaired by Rob Hersov, aformer vice-chairman of NetJetsEurope, and chairman and co-founder of Adoreum, an agencyset up to connect luxury brandswith rich individuals.

VistaJetKevin Done examinesa strategy that has keptthe downturn at bay

Education is all partof the full jet service

Central Europe is a greatplace for taking existingbusiness models from moreadvanced economies andtransplanting them. Thatwas what occurred toDagmar Grossmann whenshe was looking for a placeto get back into the jetcharter business.

Chartering jets forbusiness people who haveto move quickly from cityto city is old hat in the USand western Europe, but itwas a relatively new ideain central Europe in 2004,when most of the regionwas joining the EuropeanUnion.

A few of central Europe'swealthiest entrepreneurshad their own aircraft, buteveryone else was stuckwith commercial airlines.

“I did market researchand found that there waswas nothing in centralEurope,” says MsGrossmann, an Austrianwho had run a similarventure in Vienna with herformer husband.

Although she initiallythought Poland made abetter choice, she ended upsettling on Prague, whichhas become the region'smain centre for businessaviation.

Grossmann Jet Servicehad a tough time at thestart.

“I set it up all by myself.

I even lived in the office –I rented one room and paidfor it. But after being sosuccessful in businessaviation in the past, Iknew it would be asuccess,” she says.

In her first year, thebiggest challenge wassimply explaining what herbusiness was about topotential clients.

“I had to be like ateacher, to explain that itis not so expensive,” shesays. “The biggestdifficulty was to convincethem that this madeeconomic sense. I do notwant to be seen as aluxury product, becausethen the market is verylimited, I wanted to tellthem that this is abusiness tool.”

Her first client was a

travel agency, whichneeded to move executivesquickly around the region.

One year later, hercompany had its firstaircraft, a 13-passengerEmbraer 135BJ Legacyowned by her businesspartner.

The most popular routeswere to places difficult toreach from Prague withouta stop-over, such as Ireland,Moscow and Iceland, aswell as more exotic point-to-point destinations inAfrica and Asia.

Grossmann Jet Service

now has three of its ownaircraft, and employs 30people, 12 of them pilots.With chartering aircraftfrom other companies, shesometimes has six or sevenaicraft in the air at onetime. About a fifth of herclients are from the CzechRepublic.

The company managedto survive the economiccrisis, when its Russianbusiness fell steeply.

“The Russian marketdied all of a sudden, and itis still dead,” says MsGrossmann, who relied onher consulting business,and on contacts with travelagents promoting quickgetaways for wealthyclients to help her pullthrough.

In all, business declinedby about 15 per cent, withrevenues in 2009 of €10m($13.4m), and a profit of€500,000. This year, MsGrossmann has had to cutprices by about 11 percent, partly because ofincreased competition.

“Reducing prices isagainst my philosophy,because it becomes hard toraise them,” she says.

The overall business jetmarket in Europe took ahit last year, but isshowing signs of recovery,says Gary Crichlow, senioranalyst with Ascend, theaerospace consultancy.

“Indications are thatEuropean business aviationcharter demand iscurrently well above 2009levels, although given that2009 was a very difficultperiod, we're not out of thewoods,” he says.

Other operators havefollowed in MsGrossmann's footsteps,with NetJets Europe, the

fractional ownership andjet rental company,arriving in the Czechcapital last year.

“Prague for some reasonis the main hub forbusiness aviation,” says MsGrossmann, pointing outthat Bratislava, the capitalof Slovakia, is too close toVienna to make sense as ahub, while business inBudapest has never reallytaken off. She is planningto base an aeroplane in

Poland later this year, asshe see great potential forthe Polish market.

NetJets had 300 flights toPoland last year, whileSpain, a country of similarsize, had 6,500 andGermany had 8,000.

The Polish business jetmarket should growbecause of the poor roadlinks, says AleksanderDomradzki, head of RainMaker, a Warsaw-basedtransport and logistics

consultancy. “There is alot of talk but not muchaction in the market at themoment, in part because itis still too expensive to flyinto major Polish airports,”he says.

Ms Grossmann also seesbig potential in Romaniaand Bulgaria. But she hasno plans to rival NetJets –she aims to stop at fiveaircraft, which will stillallows her to retain a tightcontrol over her business.

“I want to keep it at thecurrent size – otherwisethe spirit of serving theclient gets lost,” she says.

As an illustration shepoints out that during therecent ash-relatedshutdown of much ofEurope's airspace, she hadtwo employees workingconstantly with a singlestranded client.

That, she says, wouldnot have been possible in alarger company.

ProfileDagmarGrossmann hashelped open upnew markets, saysJan Cienski

Market split overshadows optimism

Order cancellations andhundred-million dollarrevenue falls are nevergood news. But for

Cessna and the business jet mar-ket, they are, perversely, a signof slow improvement.

In the first quarter of the yearrevenues at Cessna, the leadingbusiness jet maker, tumbled byalmost 50 per cent to $433m andthe order backlog fell 17 per centto $4.1bn, as cancellations con-tinued to come in.

The company, owned by indus-trial group Textron, reported anoperating loss of $24m for thethree months to end-March. Inthe same period of 2009, it madean operating profit of $90m.

Still, Scott Donnelly, the newchief executive of Textron, wascautiously optimistic, suggesting

that the business jet market washeading towards a turn and thatrevenues, of which Cessnamakes up about a third, had bot-tomed out.

Shares in Textron, which alsoowns Bell Helicopter, jumpedmore than 12 per cent on the dayof the results.

“World economies generallyappear to be recovering,” hesaid. “We believe the economictrend will translate to an even-tual rebound in orders for busi-ness jets and commercial heli-copters.”

He said official data showedpeople were flying more in theirbusiness jets, that corporate prof-its were up and that Cessna wasseeing more prospective buyerstaking demonstration rides.

According to UBS, 2,704 usedbusiness jets were available forsale at the end of March, orabout 15 per cent of the totaloperating fleet, down 12 per centfrom the peak in May 2009. InJanuary, Cowen and Companynoted that US business jet depar-tures rose 10 per cent.

“Clearly, the past 18 monthshave been difficult… but the

increased level of sales activitytowards the end of the quarterbodes well for this industry tostart to turn,” Mr Donnelly said.

Difficult is perhaps an under-statement.

In 2007, business jet makersseemed unstoppable, as deliver-ies surged to more than 1,000 forthe first time and then roseagain in 2008. Cessna and itspeers, Gulfstream, owned byGeneral Dynamics, Bombardierand others, planned for growth.

By 2009, however, the bottomhad fallen out of the market, asthe global economic downturnand a wave of adverse publicsentiment took their toll.

Cash-strapped companies andindividuals looked to sell assetsand used business jets floodedthe market. At the low point inMay, almost 18 per cent of theentire fleet of business jets wasup for sale and prices fell morethan 50 per cent.

With used jets in abundance,deliveries of new aircraftplunged. Last year, the businessjet industry delivered 870 aircraftworth about $17.3bn, down 34 percent on the previous year.

To cope, Cessna cut its 16,000-strong workforce in half, slashedits production rates and began tomove work to lower-cost loca-tions. Hawker Beechcraft andother rivals also cut jobs.

The recovery has been slow,says Brian Foley, an industryconsultant. “The good news isthat for a while we drove off acliff and were bouncing off the

rocks below. But now thereseems to be some stability form-ing in the market.”

The latest data from UBS, how-ever, suggests that the outlook isfragile. In March, prices contin-ued to fall in three out of sixcategories of used aircraft and amarket survey showed sentimenthad stalled after improving foreight months.

Moreover, the market hasbegun to fracture – seeminglysplitting in two as the recoverytakes hold, says Cai vonRumohr, an analyst with Cowenand Company.

Larger aircraft made by com-panies such as Gulfstream haverecovered strongly. Used modelsare in short supply, thanks tointerest from international cus-tomers who want long-range air-craft, rich individuals and pri-vate companies.

At Gulfstream, orders forlarge-cabin aircraft improvedsteadily throughout 2009, and thecompany is predicting a low tomid single-digit increase in reve-nues in 2010 and a slight bumpto profit margins.

The market for mid-sized jets,however, remains weak and Gen-eral Dynamics does not see anyrecovery in 2010. Inventories ofsecondhand short- and medium-range planes remain elevated at17 and 15 per cent of the fleet,compared with a norm of about12 per cent.

“In Cessna’s markets there arestill good used planes availableand its competitors have also

been dropping their prices.” MrRumohr says. “Also, more oftheir buyers are publicly ownedUS companies that have beenunder pressure.”

Some analysts worry that anybounceback in the market as awhole will be muted.

“Between 2006 and 2008, creditwas very loose and half of allbusiness jets were financed,many with deals including zeroper cent down and low rates,”says Mr Foley. “That is all gonenow. Lenders are asking for 20 to30 per cent down now.”

At the same time, companiessuch as NetJets that stimulatedthe market by selling fractions ofaircraft are trying to repair theirbalance sheets and are not add-ing new jets, removing anotherkey driver of demand.

In his 10-year forecast, MrFoley paints an attractive pic-ture. Manufacturers will sell8,900 business jets worth about$170bn, but annual sales will belimited.

“It is going to be a modest rise– 2.5 per cent – a year and [in the10 years] it will not quite reachwhere it was in 2008.”

Jet pricesExperts are warningthat any bounceback islikely to be muted,reports Jeremy Lemer

Dagmar Grossmann: ‘After being so successful in business aviation in the past, I knew it would be a success’

‘I do not want tobe seen as aluxury product,because thenthe market isvery limited’

‘The economic trendwill translate to arebound for businessjets and commercialhelicopters’

‘On flights of three tofive hours, you candemonstrate thecustomer offering andcharge a premiumover the competitionfor service and quality’

FINANCIAL TIMES TUESDAY MAY 4 2010 ★ 3

Corporate Aviation

Cost concerns start to make propellers fashionable again

The new King Air that HawkerBeechcraft will display inGeneva this week is a true busi-ness aircraft of the age.

A descendant of a venerablerange that first flew in 1963, theKing Air 350i turboprop twinhas the plush, sophisticatedinterior of a business jet in thebody of a workhorse.

That meshes neatly with thecurrent mood of austerity. Notonly is cost even more criticalthan in normal times, but theimage of corporate aircraft useis still clouded by the publicrelations gaffe by US auto indus-try executives early in the

financial crisis, when they usedprivate jets to fly to Washingtonto plead for government funds.

Turboprops, which use tur-bine engines to drive a propellerrather than pushing out purethrust, are more economical atlower altitudes than jets, andfor short journeys the advan-tages add up.

In good times, owners andoperators have preferred thespeed – and image – of jets.

The business turboprop fleetin North America grew 12 percent to 8,478 this year comparedwith five years ago, according tofigures from the Ascend aero-space consultancy. But at thesame time, in the same region,the business jet fleet grew 18 percent to 11,631.

In Europe, the contrast ismore marked. A 29 per centincrease in the business turbo-prop fleet to 1,493 compareswith 83 per cent growth in busi-ness jets to 2,587. And across the

rest of the world the equivalentrises are 26 per cent to 3,926 inturboprops, 72 per cent to 3,036in jets.

But behind those long-termshifts are some other trends.

“Turboprops have been a verystable market niche for peoplewho don’t need speed or range –those for whom cost is the bot-tom line,” says an aviation ana-lyst. “You can’t beat the operat-ing value turboprops bring.”

Cessna, which sells more busi-ness jets than any other aircraftmaker, this year celebrates the25th year in production of itsonly remaining turboprop air-craft, the Caravan. The 2,000thoff the line is scheduled to go inAugust to a buyer in Africa – anappropriate destination for therugged, short-takeoff, go-any-where aircraft.

While sales of Cessna jetshave plunged from 340 in 2008 to289 last year and an expected225 this year, John Doman, vice-

president of propeller sales, saysthe single-engine turboprop isbucking the trend.

“We had one of the best yearslast year with 95 or 96 Caravansdelivered,” he says. “But thereare well over 100 in productionfor this year. That will be thehighest figure ever.”

The 208B Grand Caravan, thestretched version that repre-sents 90 per cent of the modelssold, sells for $1.9m typicallyequipped. A package thatincludes Citation jet levels ofinterior luxury, with big seatsand an entertainment package,puts the price up to $2.2m.

That, with operating costslower than for a jet, has beenenough to make some flightdepartments ignore an unpres-surised cabin and a maximumoperating speed of 170-175 kts.

“We do have a market seg-ment of corporate operators orprivate individuals who,because of market conditions,

have reduced their fleet andadded a Caravan for shortroutes,” says Mr Doman.

Piaggio Aero Industries sellsits twin-turboprop aircraft P180Avanti II into a very differentmarket, but it also says it isbenefiting from flight depart-ments looking to trim costs.

“Companies are choosing toadd a P180 to their fleet for spe-cific roles,” says AlbertoGalassi, chief executive of theItaly-based company. “Theymight have a Gulfstream forinternational routes and add aP180 for shorter trips.”

They are opting for less noise,and less cost, he says. “And noone will complain about a turbo-prop,” he adds. “Not sharehold-ers, nor the public.”

The $7.3m aircraft sharesmany performance figures withjets – a Mach 0.7 cruise speed,1,500 nautical mile range and aceiling of 41,000 ft, allowing it tofly above most weather and air-

line traffic. Yet, Mr Galassi says,it consumes 30-35 per cent lessfuel than a similarly-sized jet.

The sleek turboprop is uniqueamong contemporary businessaircraft in having three liftingsurfaces, including a canardwing at the front, and turbineengines mounted on the mainwing driving pusher propellers.“You don’t see the props in thecabin, you don’t hear the propsin the cabin,” says Mr Galassi.

Production is holding up bet-ter than at many jet makers.This year’s expected 25 aircraftis only five or six down on 2009.

The company’s diverse owner-ship gives access to wider mar-kets, too. Piaggio Aero is a thirdowned by India’s Tata Group, athird by the Abu Dhabi govern-ment’s Mubadala Development,and the rest by Ferrari andother Italian families. ThreeP180s are flying in India and onein Bangladesh, says Mr Galassi,while the United Arab Emirates

Air Force has bought two.Hawker Beechcraft has also

been buoyed by new buyers forits turboprops. “Special-missionaircraft have been a large per-centage of sales,” says SeanMcGeough, president of theEurope, Middle East and Africaregion for Hawker.

The US Project Liberty recon-naissance and surveillance air-craft, which are based on KingAirs, have been an unexpectedsuccess for Hawker. “We’vebeen lucky having the turbo-prop range to buoy us throughthe recession,” says MrMcGeough.

He also reports a number offlight departments adding turbo-prop aircraft to take advantageof cheaper flying. And he cites astatistic that indicates that tur-boprops are far from ceding theair to jets: for the past fouryears, the King Air 200 turbo-prop has been Europe’s mostwidely used business aircraft.

TurbopropsSales of some older,slower aircraft havebucked the trend,reports Rohit Jaggi

Private operators certainly made thebest of a rather difficult job last monthwhen the Icelandic volcano’s cloud ofexpelled debris caused what seemedlike the biggest ash disaster in theworld.

Thousands of passengers werestranded, and airlines lost more than$200m a day, according to theInternational Air Transport Association(Iata), as northern European airspacewas closed by air traffic controlauthorities’ reaction to the wanderingash cloud. But charter companiesquickly moved to fill the gap.

“From a helicopter point of view – allin visual meteorological conditions, at amaximum of 1,500 feet – the guidancefrom experts was that we should haveno significant contamination,” DavidMcRobert, group managing director ofPremiAir, the leading UK helicopteroperator, says. “So, subject to owners’permission we were flying.”

It was not just helicopters. UK­basedAir Partner’s commercial and privatejet divisions were kept busy responding– and its freight arm had to set up a“volcanic crisis team” to cope withdisruption caused by the six­dayclosure of controlled air space.

Jet operator Hangar 8, with basesaround the world and its headquartersin Oxford, says bookings were up 40per cent, and turnover during sevendays of the ash crisis was the same asup to three normal weeks. Some ofthe jobs it took on were more vitalthan others. One was flying Britishdance music duo the ChemicalBrothers to and from a concert inMilan.

The biggest ashdisaster in the world

Off the beaten trackBAE Systems will today at theEbace show announce an AvroBusiness Jet concept that takes thephrase “off­ airport operations” to ahigher level.

BAE has been doing a tidy amountof business converting BAe 146 andAvro RJ regional airliners, the four­engine “whisperjet”, into corporatetransport. The latest was delivered lastmonth to the Presidential Flight of AbuDhabi, where the combination ofrugged design and the ability tooperate away from big airportsparticularly appeal.

The concept pictured above, fromUK specialist Design Q, is aimed atadventure travellers. “This is the onlycommercial jet of this size thatcan offer unpaved runwaysperformance and short takeoff andlanding capability with independentops systems,” says Stewart Cordner,vice­president of ABJ. “It’s built like arhino as well!”

Projected price is in the region of$14m­$16m, but the starting price ofan ABJ that uses an older airframe ismuch lower, at $5m­$6m.

Incidentally, the Range Roverpictured would not quite fit into anABJ. A Land Rover with thewindscreen folded flat, however, couldjust about squeeze in through theoptional freight door, which costsabout $2m to put in. A lighter, and

more fun option would be a coupleof motorcycles – and accommodatingthem would pose no problems at all.

Smell of successAircraft management companies areused to being given strict instructionsby owners about whether would­bepassengers can smoke on board. ButFlight Lines heard a while ago of anowner who will not let anyone who iswearing perfume step aboard his jet.One wonders whether the tightercharter market might make the lure ofmoney smell rather sweeter.

Tail numbersAirports in the UK, already smartingfrom a fall of 10 per cent in passengernumbers last year and an overall slidein profits of 90 per cent have trimmedinvestment by 38 per cent for thisyear compared with 2008.

But there are encouraging signs.TAG Aviation, operator of Farnborough,says aircraft movements at the UKbusiness airport were up 7.5 per centin February this year on the previousFebruary, and 16.9 per cent higher inMarch than a year before.

London Oxford Airport, which isvying for some of Farnborough’straffic, says a 12 per cent risein business aviation movementsin the year to date compares with a12 per cent fall across the whole ofEurope.

‘Built like a rhino’: the Avro Business Jet Explorer concept from BAE Systems

Giant of Europeis braced fora bumpy ride

Life has not beenquite the same forEric Connor sincehe was appointed

head of NetJets Europe inOctober last year – nor forhis family.

Not long after he took onthe job, one of his daugh-ters, a student and hockeyplayer at Leeds University,was chatting to the head ofthe men’s hockey team.

The man was intrigued todiscover he was talking tothe daughter of the personrunning Europe’s biggestbusiness jet group, says MrConnor. “He said, ‘My ambi-tion is to be a pilot forNetJets’. And then, afterabout a three-second pause,he quipped: ‘Will you marryme?’”

Mr Connor, a 61-year-oldengineer from County Dur-ham in the north of Eng-land, with many years inthe energy business, leansback in his chair in NetJets’airy Kensington offices incentral London and grins.

But much of the changeat NetJets over the pastyear has been less enter-taining, in line with the restof the battered private jetindustry.

Since October, the Euro-pean arm of the fractionaloperator NetJets, a part ofUS billionaire Warren Buf-fett’s Berkshire Hathawayempire, has lost four of itstop people.

Mark Booth, chairman,and Bill Kelly, chief execu-tive officer, both went inOctober. Robert Dranitzke,chief operating officer,went in January. GraemeWeston, president of mar-keting and sales, resignedin February.

Before then, the grouplaid off some 100 staff fromits Lisbon operations centreand arranged for 250 pilots

to take voluntary leave,leaving a full-time staff of1,740 workers, about 1,000 ofwhom are pilots and crew.

Though its 1,500 custom-ers and 158 aircraft stilldwarf its rivals, it has hadto defer a number of deliv-eries to adjust to the down-turn.

All this has been a sharpturnround for a companythat had been riding thefinancial boom enjoyed bymany of its wealthy clients,and placed the biggest sin-

gle order for business jetsin Europe in 2006, beforethe financial crisis struck.

When Mr Buffett deliv-ered his annual letter toBerkshire Hathaway share-holders in February thisyear, he described NetJetsas “the major problem forBerkshire last year”.

NetJets Inc, which is 100per cent owned by Berk-shire and owns between 40per cent and 50 per cent ofNetJets Europe (the rest isheld by European inves-tors), grew into the largestcorporate jet group in theUS under Richard Santulli,its former owner and chiefexecutive.

But its business operationhas been, as Mr Buffett putit, “another story”.

“In the 11 years that wehave owned the company, ithas recorded an aggregatepre-tax loss of $157m,” hesaid, adding that its debthad soared from $102m 11years ago to $1.9bn in Aprillast year. In 2009 it made a“staggering” $711m loss, hesaid, although debt hadbeen cut to $1.4bn, and thegroup was now “solidlyprofitable”.

This was thanks to the“enormously talented”David Sokol, he said, whowas plucked from the Berk-shire empire’s MidAmeri-can energy group to runNetJets in August.

Mr Connor was a topexecutive at MidAmericanuntil he became head ofNetJets Europe. He has

known Mr Sokol since 1996and like his US counterpart,is expected to keep a closeeye on expenditure.

“He’s been given a man-date to be as ruthless aspossible on costs,” says anexecutive from a rival com-pany. “They’ve said: Any-thing that doesn’t look likea proper commercial deal,kill it’.”

Mr Connor confirms thata number of cost-cuttinginitiatives have taken place,such as the renegotiation ofairline contracts for crewtravel and the re-tenderingof fixed base operations.

“In some places that hasresulted in a decrease incost and an increase infacility, so that’s been awin-win,” he said.

Some observers say thetop-level executive shake-uphas created a “divisiveatmosphere”.

Mr Connor says marketconditions meant the com-pany had to respond. “Yes,some people left, but peoplealways leave organisationsand organisations live on.”

Despite the cutbacks,NetJets Europe remainscommitted to Frankfurt-

Egelsbach airport, a popu-lar business jet centre, inwhich it became an 80 percent owner last year,announcing last month thatit planned to invest€20m-€30m ($27m-$40m) init over the next five years.

In December, it said it

would invest €750m intraining and safety over thenext five years.

Safety is one part of thebusiness with which MrConnor is very familiar.

“I don’t have any greatknowledge of aviation otherthan to say I’ve used it a

lot,” he says, but adds: “I’man engineer by background,so I understand technicalaspects and complex sys-tems. In terms of safety,I’ve done work in power sta-tions, in coal mines, withunderwater weapons, innuclear installations, so I

understand the importanceof safety.”

Mr Connor is quietly opti-mistic. “Generally speaking,for the first quarter of 2010– and obviously one quarterisn’t a whole financial year– the indications are quitepositive.”

NetJetsInvestment carrieson alongside thecutbacks, saysPilita Clark

Eric Connor: ‘By background, I’m an engineer, so I understand technical aspects and complex systems’ Daniel Jones

‘In some areas,cuts have led to adecrease in costand an increase infacility, so that’sbeen a win­win’

FLIGHT LINESRohit Jaggi

4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES TUESDAY MAY 4 2010

Corporate Aviation

Flight Test Embraer Phenom 300Alpine peaks on the moving mapin front of me move downalmost indecently quickly, as thePhenom 300 I am flying piercesa brilliant blue European sky,writes Rohit Jaggi.

Embraer’s light jet, the first ofwhich was delivered this year,has landed in its class at thesame time as a newly designedrival from established businessjet maker Cessna, the CitationCJ4. How they match up willhave a direct effect on howquickly they end up flying offtheir production lines.

The 300 is big brother to thePhenom 100, but Brazil’sEmbraer is quick to point outthat the bigger aircraft is notjust a stretched version. Whatthey do share, however, is thehopes of their manufacturer.

Embraer, the third largestcommercial aircraft maker, hasset its sights on becoming a“major player” in the businessaviation sector by 2015 and thePhenoms are the first purpose­designed aircraft it has fielded inthat category. It expects to build120 Phenoms this year and has600 firm orders, one third forthe 300 model

The $3.75m Phenom 100 wasintended as an entry level jet.The $8.14m 300 ($8.5m for theEuropean­certified version),which can seat up to 10including pilots, is more of “anentry level for corporate flightdepartments”,Embraersays. Butboth areapproved forsingle­pilotoperation, andfor both the owner­pilot is part of themarket.

High off the ground, andreached by a drop­down doorwith steps on it like largeraircraft, the 300’s cabin feelsspacious and light. It has twoPratt & Whitney Canada PW535­E engines, each with 3,200 lbfof thrust, against half that fromthe 100’s PW617F­E turbofans.

The power of the largerengines is immediately apparentas I release the brakes on therunway at Le Castellet airport insouthern France. Everything notproperly stowed takes a jumpbackwards as the Phenom 300dashes forward with the urgencyof one of the cars zoomingaround the neighbouring PaulRicard car racetrack.

Seeing a rate of climb justshort of 5,000ft a minute on thevertical speed indicator adds tothe impression of power – besttime to its ceiling of 45,000ft is26 minutes.

Many of the 300’s numbersare better than expected.Maximum range, at long­rangecruise with six on board, is 1,971nautical miles with fuel reserves.That’s only a whisker short ofthe CJ4’s top­speed range.

My destination,Friedrichshafen, is just 300nmaway on the German side ofLake Constance. The Phenom’stop speed of 453 knots wouldmake short work of that, but amore normal cruise is not asfast. At 28,000ft, 85 per cent ofengine power gives us M0.77with an indicated speed of302kts, a tailwind helping topush our ground speed up to467kts.

Handling is solid, giving thefeel of a much larger jet. The300 is as happy for me to fly itlike a bigger aircraft too,managing our progress througha very capable autopilot.

Compliant landing gear flattersmy touchdown such that theline between flying and rollingdown the runway on our wheelsis blurred. Pilots and passengersalike will be pleased with that.

Compared with the CJ4 fromestablished business jet makerCessna, the 300 is cheaper, hasa shorter but roomier cabin, can

cruise atabout the same speeds butloses out slightly on range.

Embraer, as befits itsbackground, claims it has built alight corporate aircraft that canbe pressed into jetliner­likelevels of use. Time in service willtell whether it has succeeded.But, so far, the Brazilianmanufacturer looks like it has achance of hitting the numberson its business jet strategy.

For a fuller flight test seeft.com/corporate­aviation­2010For Rohit Jaggi’s flight test ofthe Phenom 100 on video seeft.com/phenom

Rapid climber:the Phenom 300

Cessna’slight jetfaces stiffopposition

Avintage red aircraftperched high up in alarge Cessna hangar atWichita’s Mid-Conti-

nent airport provides quite acontrast to the sleek and mod-ern aircraft it watches over.

It is a reminder of the 83-yearhistory of an aviation survivor.It is also a reminder that theWichita, Kansas, company takesdevelopment seriously.

Two of the fruits of that devel-opment sat in the warmth of thehangar under the gaze of thatlittle red plane on a bitterly coldday in February, examples ofthe Cessna Citation CJ4 used inthe test programme.

It has not been an easy twoyears for Cessna, the flag bearerof business jets with more than6,000 Citations made. Last yearthe company delivered 289 jets,and reported about $3.3bn inrevenues. But that compareswith 340 deliveries of jets in2008, and a pre-downturn fore-cast of 525 for last year.

Cessna’s response to the chilleconomic climate was to scaleback growth plans savagely, los-ing about half its workforce.

Outside the hangar with theclassic red plane, a large flatarea not far from Cessna Boule-vard bears witness to the shelv-ing of plans to build the $27mColumbus large-cabin, long-range jet. The company did not

even get as far as building onthe levelled plot.

But the $9m CJ4 is a differentproposition. In the middle of theCitation range of business jets,but at the top of the CJ range, itshares a common type ratingwith the rest of the CJs and is,like the others, certified for sin-gle-pilot operation.

That means that simple opera-tion and easy handling arevitally important. But the CJ4 isalso facing stiff opposition in itslight jet class, not least fromanother new entrant – the Phe-nom 300 from Brazilian aircraftmaker Embraer (see separateflight test, right).

Cessna opted for the new Wil-liams FJ44-4A turbofans for itslight jet, with the aim of meet-ing key targets on performance,efficiency and range.

As I sit at the controls of CJ4tail number N525NG on theshorter of Mid-Continent’s twoparallel runways, my right handcan call on 3,600 pound-force ofthrust, fully electronically con-trolled, from each engine.

We are 600lb below the maxi-mum take-off weight of 16,950lbs, but even crammed as full offuel, people and baggage as itcan be, a CJ4 needs just 3,130feet of runway to get into theair in standard conditions.

The flatlands of Kansas, whitesnow contrasting with sharpshadows, recede quickly. Aclimb direct to its 45,000ft ceil-ing, again at maximum weight,would take just 28 minutes.

Grain elevators are the high-est objects in this landscape, butthe terrain as well as trafficwarning systems on the CollinsPro Line 21 avionics suite pro-vide ample reassurance about

not bumping into anythingunexpected. Multi-scan weatherradar is also standard, as is theADS-B capability that will ena-ble safer, faster routing.

Direct routing, at the highaltitude at which the Williamsturbofans are most efficient,allows the CJ4 to exploit itsrange – about 2,000 nautical

miles, even at high-speed cruise,with fuel reserves. FromWichita, that puts almost all ofCanada in single-hop range.From Geneva, Baghdad iswithin reach without refuelling.

Cessna has given the CJ4 aswept wing, but the spoiler andspeedbrake systems are similarto those on the manufacturer’smuch larger Sovereign. The

spoilers help give the new lightjet handling that is crisply pre-cise – even sporty. The arrange-ment also reassures with goodcontrol at slow speed. This is anaircraft that I want to hand-fly.

Even without reaching themaximum cruising speed of 453knots, the newest CJ does notwant to slow down. Despite pull-ing the engines back to idle, anairframe built from aluminiumalloy but as aerodynamicallysmooth as composite construc-tion means the speed takes along time to bleed away.

But extending speed brakes,flaps, then landing gear helpskill our momentum and reachour approach speed of 120ktss,followed by a gratifyingly gentlelanding.

The aircraft I flew was full oftest equipment, but the stand-ard interior of CJ4s like the onedelivered last month, with seatsfor up to eight in the passengercabin, shows that Cessna hasmoved a long way from thebeige, gold and overstuffed seatsof some earlier Citations. Theall-singing Venue entertainment

system from Rockwell Collin,complete with iPhone dockingstations, also debuts on the CJ4.

The aircraft shares with itsCJ-series siblings a cabin that islow to the ground – making iteasy to climb into.

However, that has alsoallowed the designers to use asimple door and fold-out steps.While that means a sensiblylightweight door, it loses out alittle in the ramp presencestakes to the Phenom.

But more than 150 orders indi-cate that Cessna’s projectionsfor the aircraft have hit a chordwith buyers, even beyond thebrand loyalty that the marketleader can expect.

Dynamically, too, the machinehits a key note. It takes the lat-est avionics and safety equip-ment for the sort of medium-distance journeys that are donemostly on autopilot at high alti-tude, and combines them withan airframe that in its handlingshows its connection to the air-craft Cessna cut its teeth on.

Like the red airplane in theWichita hanger.

Flight testThe high­tech CitationCJ4 has a longheritage to live up to,says Rohit Jaggi

Clean sweep: the wing uses features used on other jets from the same stable Blaine Fisher

ON FT.COMSee Rohit Jaggi’sflight test of theCessna CitationCJ4 on videowww.ft.com/cessna­cj4