Jim Christiansen, president of NetJets, the 100 pound gorilla of the fractional and charter industry, painted a very up beat picture. NetJet’s fleet flew 380,000 hours last year and is expecting to fly over 400,000 hours in 2007. NetJets US operations saw a big turn around in 2006 by earning $143 million compared to a loss of $80 million the year before. FBO operators' eyes opened when Jim told the audience that NetJets burned 120 million gallons of jet fuel last year and is expected to use 135 million gallons this year, and 150 million next year. DayJet, the not-yet-started-up VLJ air taxi company, in a futile attempt to sound important, announced that they would use 25 million gallons in their first year of operations. What they didn’t say was when that year would begin. I have a feeling the DayJet speaker was confusing gallons with dollars. I am sure that DayJet will easily burn though $25 million in the first year.
Europe and Asia seems to be the next-big-thing for business aviation. Warren Buffett, writing in the world’s most readable and most read annual report, talked mainly about Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets increasing success in Europe. In the first five years of operating in Europe, beginning in 1996, NetJets acquired only 80 customers. He said recently that European demand for fractional shares has “exploded”. In the last two years NetJets Europe has added 586 customers each year with a total base of more than 1,300 today. Eastern Europe and the Far East is a vast untapped market with rapidly growing economies. It was reported that a 30 person delegation from Russia alone attended the event in Orlando.
On the PAMA side Jack Demeis, president and founder of Continuum Applied Technology, opened the most eyes. Jack has been a good friend for years and I consider him one of the brightest technologist and futurists I know in this industry. Jack sees major changes in the aviation industry in the next 15 years. He predicted that there would be 9,000 UAVs in civilian use in this time frame. He reminded the audience that civilian orbital and suborbital flight is a reality today with new spaceports in the planning stage in Singapore and elsewhere. Jack told me that software would continue to drive aircraft. It reminded me of the F-22 squadron that was "shot down" by the International Date Line. Everything mechanical is becoming digital. I just picked up my car from the shop and was told the problem was corrected by rebooting the system.
