Page 18 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2022 Online Magazine

officer Éric Martel said. “It’s been an extraordinary year. Our strat- Flying High
egy was to replenish the order book in 2021, and we’re ahead of Dassault Aviation also delivered 30 new Falcon
where we wanted to be,” Martel said last December while Ohio- business jets during 2021, down from 34 in
based NetJets, the world’s largest private jet fleet operator, took 2020 but beating its initial forecast of 25 for
delivery of its first Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft. the year. It also took orders for 51 Falcon jets
during 2021, compared to 15 orders in 2020,
“People have turned to business jets because they’re safe, but with the backlog now at a four-year high of
there’s also the question of flexibility,” Martel said. “Many commer- 55 units. Propelled by a rebound in demand
cial flights are no longer operating today. Yes, a private jet is more for small and medium business jets, Textron’s
expensive, but perhaps not that much. We have a lot of customers Chief Executive Officer Scott Donnelly said:
who used to fly commercially and are signing up with operators “Overall demand environment is more positive.
like NetJets.” More people are looking to acquire aircraft
However, “we still considering whether to increase production rates than we’ve seen in quite some time.” Going by
to meet the rising demand,” he said. NetJets will take delivery of the figures available currently, Textron’s busi-
three more Global 7500s in 2022, all of which are also fully booked, ness jet deliveries rose to 28 units in the first
and about three to five jets annually after this year. quarter of 2021, from 23 units a year earlier.
“The demand is still predominantly driven by
a lot of personal travel, but the corporate avi-
ation departments are starting to come alive,”
Donnelly said.

Reports said Textron Aviation in Wichita deliv-
ered 49 business jets in the the third quarter
of 2021, up from 25 year over year, and saw a
66 per cent increase in handovers of its com-
mercial turboprops with 35 deliveries. The year
2022 took off with Airbus announcing the deliv-
ery of the world’s first ACJ 220, a business jet
based on the A220-100, to launch customer
Comlux.

Comlux is undertaking a VIP installation of the
jet on behalf of FIVE, a hotel group based in
Dubai. The aircraft is expected to enter service
in early 2023. It is the smallest business jet to
be produced by Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJ)
and is set to become an interesting competitor
in the large private jet sphere.

Comlux has been selected as an exclusive out-
fitting partner for the first 15 ACJ TwoTwenty
aircraft. But the biggest of all the business jets
deals, was the US$1.2 billion follow-on contract
for 100 Phenom 300s, singed between Embraer
and NetJets. Embraer had successfully deliver-
ing over 100 Phenom 300s to Net Jets. As part
of the deal, NetJets will begin taking delivery
of the Phenom 300E in the second quarter of
2023, in both the U.S. and Europe.

“We are pleased to have signed this significant
deal with NetJets, as our strategic partnership
has been an integral part of Embraer’s success
for over a decade,” said Michael Amalfitano,
President & CEO of Embraer Executive Jets.
“The increase in first-time buyers, the pan-
demic, and younger wealth is changing the
dynamics of the business aviation industry,”
Amalfitano added.

18 January/February 2022 WWW .GBP .COM.SG/ AAA