The Barron Killer

This week Cirrus Design announced their new Cirrus Jet. This was a closely guarded secret development project. I visited Cirrus’s headquarters and factory last year. No one would talk about the jet then, but you could just feel that it was there somewhere. Last fall at the NBAA trade show there was a scheduled press conference at the Cirrus booth where most expected the jet announcement, but again no mention of a jet. NBAA took place only days after the tragic accident when a Cirrus prop plane crashed into a building in Manhattan with New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle as one of the pilots. Cirrus Design was not looking for attention until they could sort out what happened. (It appears it was pilot error – a poorly planned 180 degree turn over the East River.)

Cirrus is a very credible company and builds great small single engine propeller air planes. In only a few years they out produced and out sold Cessna’s single engine line, which had dominated the industry for years. The Cirrus Jet should not be lumped into the class known as very light jets (VLJs) like the Eclipse, Honda Jet, Embraer Phenom, etc. We have written earlier about the VLJs – most recently Very Light Jets: A Reality Check for Eclipse, and last summer I posed the question, The Eclipse of the Eclipse?. However I predict the Cirrus jet will be a success; but there are bumps in the road ahead.

The Cirrus Jet is a personal airplane and will be owned and flown by individuals. It has a price point at $1 million that makes it comparable to a Beech Barron. If fact it might be the Barron killer. What red blooded pilot who can afford a Barron would not want to go higher, faster, and maybe father than the two engine version of the 60 year old Bonanza? More than 180 of these high testosterone pilots have stroked a check for a $100,000 deposit to make their dream come true.

Certification of a jet is different than certifying a non-pressurized piston engine powered aircraft. However, Cirrus Design has a lot of experience in certifying new and sometimes radical designs.

The silver lining or dark cloud, depending on where you stand, is the airline implosion this summer with delayed and cancelled flights. The traveling public is looking for any alternative to using the unreliable airlines. This mess will certainly sell more general aviation airplanes, and clog our highways and trains. Mix all this in with an antiquated air traffic control system, along with record high fuel prices, and we have a formula that spells trouble for all if corrections are not made.

Wait – User Fees Might Be Good For Us?

Bob Poole, Director of Transportation Studies at nonprofit think-tank The Reason Foundation explained to an AVweb reporter why user fees might not be such a bad thing for general aviation after all. This is a 16 minute interview that is well worth your attention.
POD Click here to download and listen to the interview.

The Airline Alternative

As business jet sales continue to set new records, the lay press is beginning to notice. This publicity is partially fueled by the airline industry. They discovered after 9/11 that their first class cabins were occupied by a large number of non-paying passengers. These seats were filled with frequent fliers who suddenly found that that their, here-to-fore seldom used miles, could be cashed in or used to upgrade. Full paying business passengers were hard to find. It seems they had discovered the advantages of business jet travel.

Now the business jet industry is being vilified by the airlines for the long delays, missed connections, and long waits on the ramp for a gate. The irony is that you can watch the charade in ads paid for by the airline trade association on the CNN airport channel as you wait, sometimes hours, for the flight that was delayed or missed because of the airlines’ own doing.

In the upside down airline marketing mentality the first class cabin is now hard to find – paid for or not. The airlines have downsized to fleets of regional jets holding 50 to 70 passengers. "Regional" is an oxymoron as flights on these stretched business jets often exceed 3 hours and cover well over a thousand miles. It now takes 3 planes or more to take the same number of passengers to the same destination. USA Today’s Business Travel column spoke on The Curse of the Regional Jet. No wonder there is seldom an empty gate when my flight arrives, or I sit in a que on the ramp waiting for takeoff. Heaven help me if my flight is cancelled. An empty seat anywhere is rare, except perhaps on a red eye flight.

The beauty of private jet travel has been discovered. Fractional ownership and jet cards, a debit card for private jet travel, makes it affordable for many more. If you want to own your own jet, major financial institutions have formed divisions ready to lend or lease. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story, Interest In Private Jets Takes Off. The WSJ points out that large banks - including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., and Wachovia Corp. - have in-house departments dedicated to helping individuals and corporations acquire and finance private jets.

So while the airlines and their passengers suffer, the business jet industry and all the related support businesses flourish.