This isn’t a story about big business jets, but I thought it might be interesting news to consider, if you fly in and out of Southern California. According to AVweb (free registration required), OceanWorks has proposed a solution for a new airfield 10 miles off the coast of California, and recently sent notice of claim to exclusive rights to 40,000 square miles of ocean for the purpose of developing, building, and operating an international airport.

“Proposals for getting passengers to the airport include fast ferries, a floating bridge, and underground or underwater tunnels. Advantages to the offshore site include eliminating noise complaints and enabling aircraft to land safely, even in foggy conditions.”

OceanWorks estimates the airport will cost $20 billion.

Conklin & de Decker have released an updated version of the Aircraft Performance Comparator (version 2.5.0), which allows you to overlay and compare aircraft interiors and exteriors side-by-side, and includes critical performance data directly from each manufacturer’s own manuals. Illustrations are to scale, and can be printed or exported.

Newly added aircraft and updates bring the total aircraft included to 268.

The cost is $695 for the jets database, not including shipping.

According to NATA’s interpretation of a speech given by an FAA manager for the operations law branch:

“…operators that post alerts through brokers or any other method regarding empty-leg flights may find their operations deemed as ’scheduled’ by the FAA.”

In an article on AVweb (free registration required), NATA says there are two key elements:

1) Setting a timeframe within which the aircraft must leave satisfies the “departure time” requirement, and
2) The shorter that timeframe, the more it resembles a scheduled operations.

NATA plans to offer guidance to operators worried about legal issues for empty leg flights.

Actor John Travolta’s story serves as a cautionary tale for anyone who owns a big business jet, as detailed in an International Herald Tribune article. Travolta is suing the owners of the airport at the aviation community where he maintains a home. In his lawsuit, Travolta claims the airport owners falsely changed airport records in 2006 to convince the FAA that the airport could not support large airplanes.

The aviation community, Jumbolair Aviation Estates in Ocala, FL, is an exclusive 550-acre “fly-in community” with the largest, paved, private airfield in the U.S. Travolta has a home at the Estates and claims he has continually used the runway for his Boeing 707 without incident.

The lawsuit is seeking to withdraw and nullify the report. The defendants claim they are only concerned about safety.

A recent article on AVweb (free registration required) notes that Liquid Jets is selling second-hand fractional shares and jet cards in a “bid and offer exchange” format.

Liquid Jets’ program offers an alternative to simply turning the shares back in to their management company.

“The benefits include potential discounts and flexibility for buyers and liquidity for sellers that extends beyond accepting whatever aircraft write-downs and penalties [that are] imposed by a management company. ‘You may even be allowed to lease your share to someone else for any portion or all of your contract term.’”

A new inflatable shoulder seatbelt in development by AmSafe may allow passengers to sit on all side-facing seats during takeoff and landing, which in turn may increase the total number of passengers allowed on board (depending on the size of the sofa). Currently, side-facing seats are certified on a case-by-case basis.

According to AVweb (free registration required), the device has been tested by the FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI), which found significant reductions in degree of injury, and could be used by the FAA to create new regulations.

“According to CAMI’s report, ‘the tests simulated three typical seating configurations: occupant in the middle seat, occupant seated next to a rigid wall and occupant seated next to an armrest end closure.’”

The experts at Conklin & de Decker have just published an article called Three Things You Need To Track - Data Needed For Supporting An Aircraft Replacement which delves into the topics of Dispatch Reliability, Aircraft Availability, and Missed Requests as key indicators of the potential need to make crew, equipment, and/or maintenance changes.

Planned per-seat air taxi operators have been the target of criticism because of their reliance on unproven very light jets. However, according to AVweb (free registration required), Alfred Rapetti (former investor in fractional provider Avantair) recently launched BusinessJetSEATS to offer” by-the-seat private charter service” using an existing 2,000 jet fleet in partnership with CharterX.

“Rapetti said his per-seat, air-taxi service - which is available now in 215 markets in the U.S. - costs half as much as whole airplane charter and has all-inclusive pricing and no membership fees…Rapetti said his company’s low price does not come from squeezing the charter operators; instead it allows charter operators to make more profit by aggregating seats offered at a discount compared with chartering the whole airplane to one customer.”

Virgin Charter will launch this fall and plans to provide price quotes based on destination, day, and time. According to Marilyn Adams’ article in USA Today, passengers will be able to book domestic or international flights online with a variety of charter operators using a credit card or wire transfer. They will also be able to get details on the aircraft, pilots, and operator, as well as safety audits (only operators who undergo safety audits will be allowed to provide quotes) and quality ratings from customers. Virgin will collect a commission from the seller on each trip sold, but operators will not be charged for giving quotes and passengers won’t be charged for using the site.

Virgin Charter won’t be the first charter jet website to link passengers and operators, but it plans to be the most comprehensive. The site will also offer a dedicated area for “empty legs” (private jets flying without passengers).

The July/August Issue of Business Jet Traveler Magazine (subscription required) dedicates several pages to tax planning for operators of business aircraft. In the article Taxing Situations reporter Jeff Wieand spends some time focusing on how state taxes work, and how to navigate around them if possible. Some highlights include:

If you close the sale and take possession of the plane in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon or Rhode Island, you can avoid sales tax. BUT, if a key component is not installed at time of purchase (like an engine) that component could be taxed later.

If the aircraft is undergoing maintenance in a state with a sales tax and can’t be flown to a non-tax state at closing, you may be able to take advantage of a “fly-away” rule that exempts the transaction from sales tax.

If you buy a plane in a no-tax state, but keep it and use it primarily in a sales tax state, you’ll need to contend with a “use tax.” This tax will likely cost you as much as sales tax would.

One workaround is to structure things so you can take advantage of a commercial exemption. Operating an aircraft
under the FAA charter rules (Part 135) can help avoid use taxes.

Leasing is another approach:

A “casual sale” exemption, may also apply. If you can’t avoid use tax altogether, you may be able to significantly reduce it by means of a lease. That’s because, in many states, use tax on
the purchase of an aircraft for lease to another entity is levied on periodic lease payments as opposed to the purchase price.

All in all, it’s hard to escape state taxes:

The states have a tool chest full of other taxes that they can impose on business jets, including registration fees, property taxes and forms of income tax. A state might impose an annual tax on the value of corporate assets in the state, including any aircraft owned. Moreover, a state’s treatment of income tax (deductions, for example), may vary from the treatment imposed by the IRS.