Category: Commercial

Electric aviation company Ampaire has secured a firm order backed by deposits for five of its low-emission, nine-seat Eco Caravan aircraft, plus an option for an additional 20. The buyer is WingTips, an air mobility company operating today in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Both companies anticipate another 175 orders for the Eco Caravan as WingTips expands nationwide, plus 50 of Ampaire’s follow-on 19-seat Eco Otter aircraft.

WingTips plans to use these new aircraft on regional routes of 100 to 400 statute miles, flying mainly from convenient general aviation airports. The company uses artificial intelligence to offer individual seats to on-demand charter passengers, and advanced floating fleet algorithms to optimize fleet usage. The company also plans to offer scheduled service on higher volume routes.

“The Eco Caravan will redefine operating cost through its extreme efficiency,” said WingTips founder and CEO Mike Azzarello. “Our objective is to close the gap with the cost of driving while cutting travel time up to 75 percent. Working with Ampaire, we’ll be able to achieve this in a sustainable way. The Eco-Caravan operates within existing airport infrastructure, putting us years ahead of competitors that need major infrastructure investment in order to operate.”

“Ampaire and WingTips share a vision of reducing the cost and increasing the convenience of regional air travel while addressing a major source of harmful greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ampaire CEO Kevin Noertker. “The starting point for moving toward zero emissions is with low-emission hybrid-electric aircraft such as the Eco Caravan.” 

The Eco Caravan is Ampaire’s first commercial product. It is a Cessna Grand Caravan upgraded with a hybrid-electric propulsion system that retains the range and payload characteristics of the current Grand Caravan. The Eco Caravan can carry up to eleven passengers or 2,500 pounds of cargo. 

The aircraft uses 70 percent less fuel on short trips and 50 percent less on longer trips with corresponding emissions reductions. When using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), emissions reduction is nearly 100 percent. Total operating cost reduction ranges from 25 to 40 percent, depending on route structure. The aircraft can operate independently of ground charging infrastructure by recharging the batteries in-flight when desired, as with hybrid-electric cars today. 

Ampaire conducted the first Eco Caravan engine runs with a preliminary drivetrain configuration in April 2022, with plans to fly the aircraft in the second half of the year. The company is working with the FAA to achieve supplemental type certificate approval in 2024. 

WingTips intends to place the aircraft into service as quickly after certification as possible, according to Azzarello. “The Eco Caravan hits a sweet spot for our operation,” he said, “driving down costs, operating at any general aviation airport, and solving passenger problems on regional legs where driving has become congested and inconvenient.” WingTips has been refining its model in busy California and Southwest markets. Its most popular flights are less than 200 miles and about an hour’s duration from cities such as San Diego, Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, avoiding the large commercial airports in those areas.

Arlington based aviation maintenance organization, Aviation Maintenance Professionals (AmP), received final approval from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia General Authority of Civil Aviation. This certification allows AmP to provide its full range of maintenance, repair and upgrade services to Saudi registered Gulfstream, Bombardier-Learjet, Hawker and Dassault aircraft. 

“Initially we were approached by an operator in-country to handle a few maintenance items while they completed a significant avionics upgrade,” said Brian Allen, president of AmP. “The client was pleased with our performance and suggested we apply for GACA approval in order to both oversee the remaining upgrades across their fleet and their ongoing maintenance requirements.”  

The Saudi GACA authorization is AmP’s second foreign certification having received approval from the Mexican Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil (AFAC) in 2013. “We approach expansion of our size, product offerings and market reach steadily and cautiously to insure we maintain the high levels of service upon which we built our reputation and that our clients deserve,” said Jim Balzer, COO and Accountable Manager. “With hangar space and labor availability shortages worldwide, this is an excellent time to expand our reach.” 

Lufthansa Technik’s AVIATAR, a digital operations suite, now operates carbon-neutral, the company has announced. The Digital Fleet Services business segment has had this certified by standardized reporting and offsetting via the certified compensation platform SQUAKE. AVIATAR is thus a pioneer 
among digital tech ops platforms in the aviation industry as well as among Lufthansa Technik’s business segments.

At AVIATAR, the achievement of carbon neutrality is based on two pillars. On the one hand, the emissions caused by the technical cloud and office infrastructure as well as by the employees were already massively reduced in the past years. While 152 metric tons of CO2 equivalents were still emitted in 2019, this figure was almost halved in 2021, to just 77 metric tons. This corresponds to the average 
annual footprint of just seven people. The halving of emissions is all the more remarkable given the significant increase in the number of customers over the same period and a tripling of the number of 
aircraft serviced on the AVIATAR platform. AVIATAR will continue to vigorously pursue the goal of reducing its real emissions.

On the other hand, AVIATAR’s carbon footprint is already neutral today, thanks to full financial compensation of the remaining emissions through a broad portfolio of social and environmental  projects. These include, for example, the installation of wind turbines in India, reforestation of rainforest in Nicaragua, support for sustainable food production in Burundi, and the procurement of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The compensation of emissions is carried out in close cooperation with SQUAKE. The IT startup, a spin-off from the Lufthansa Group’s Innovation Hub, automates the emissions accounting and enables 
AVIATAR to operate the calculated compensation exclusively via certified projects. This ensures that the emissions generated are offset in a complete, transparent and verifiable manner. In addition to the annual compensation of future emissions from now on, AVIATAR has decided to also compensate its emissions from the past three years (319 tons of CO2 equivalent) via SQUAKE.

“Of course, we are proud to be the pioneer among digital tech ops platforms in launching a carbon-neutral product,” said Philip Mende, vice president Digital Fleet Services at Lufthansa Technik. “But this
is just the start for us. On the one hand, we will continue to drive forward the real reduction of emissions in our production in a targeted manner and firmly anchor the topic of sustainability in our 
product development. On the other hand, we intend to conduct further studies in the near future in order to precisely quantify the emission savings that AVIATAR enables for our customers, for example 
by avoiding technical diversions or by optimizing aircraft performance and flight operations. Here, we expect even more impressive figures.”

achieving their sustainability goals.

HAECO Cabin Solutions has been selected to supply their Vector Economy seats for Air New Zealand’s newest long-range passenger cabins on 22 Boeing 787s. The fleet will serve international destinations for Air New Zealand’s ultra-long-haul route network.

Vector Economy’s features include a high-comfort headrest, an ergonomically sculpted seatback and cushions, an amenity stowage compartment, a 13.3-inch HD seatback video screen with Bluetooth audio, and USB-A and USB-C charging ports. Air New Zealand will offer three economy class seating options based on Vector Economy platform: Vector Economy Skycouch – convertible into a lie-flat bed, Vector Economy Stretch – increased leg room, and Vector Economy Standard – the baseline seat with a full complement of comfort enhancing features.

“We were really encouraged by HAECO in the way they approached our journey to think differently about how we could maximize the Economy customer experience,” Air New Zealand head of Aircraft Programs Kerry Reeves said. “Working virtually throughout Covid added another layer of complexity. Without being able to travel to the HAECO site to validate our ideas and concepts, we built a mock- up both at our innovation lab in New Zealand and at HAECO U.S. facility to ensure we had a common design interpretation, and nothing was lost in translation.”

Doug Rasmussen, president and group director of HAECO Cabin Solutions, said: “We are honoured to collaborate with Air New Zealand and highly value them as a strategic partner of the HAECO Group. Vector Economy hits the sweet spot of delivering on multiple goals for both the airline and its customers. Through the use of leading-edge design principles and material selection, including the use of composites and titanium, this seat achieves the dual goals of reduced weight while delivering high durability. Vector Economy also provides a new level of passenger comfort in the economy cabin through industry-leading living space and passenger focused amenities.”

Vector Economy is manufactured at HAECO Cabin Solutions’ facilities in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.

SR Technics has added Leonard Lump to its business development team as vice president for Americas.

Leonard “Bo” Lump has over 23 years of experience as an executive in the aerospace and aviation industry having worked in the areas of aerospace design, manufacturing, and the aftermarket on both engine and airframes. Having most recently served on the executive team for ITS as the global vice president of sales and product line creating the company’s strategy and leading the organization’s global expansion on airframe and angine component support to the Airlines.

Before joining SR Technics, and prior to ITS, Lump worked for Chromalloy as the global director on their small engine market segment with the creation of the organization’s strategy and the expansion of business and development of critical engine repairs.

Lump began his career in the United States Navy and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in communications from Northern Arizona University. He is a Certified Six Sigma Greenbelt and a LEAN Advocate.

“Business Development team is proud to have a new member for Americas as an important market and we are sure together we will pave the path of the success to spread the word on our flexible, fully customized MRO services and commitment to an outstanding customer experience,” said Caroline Vandedrinck, senior vice president, SR Technics.

As of July 1, 2022, Sören Stark has taken over as chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa Technik from Dr. Johannes Bussmann who leaves the Lufthansa Group at his own request after 23 years.

At the same time, Harald Gloy has succeeded Stark as the company’s chief operations officer. Gloy thus bears responsibility as accountable manager in accordance with EASA Part 145 and is the contact person for aviation authorities with regard to Lufthansa Technik AG’s MRO operations.

Dr. William Willms continues to serve as chief financial officer in the three-member executive board team. Stark joined Lufthansa Technik’s executive board in 2019. Previously, he was responsible in the executive board for Operations at Lufthansa Cargo for three years. He began his career at Lufthansa Technik in 2004 as managing director of Lufthansa Technik Logistik in Hamburg. From 2011 to 2016, the industrial engineer was in charge of Lufthansa Technik’s aircraft overhaul division.

With immediate effect, Harald Gloy will also head the executive board department human resources as chief human resources officer (CHRO) and labor director, which was previously part of the area of 
responsibility of Bussmann. Gloy was most recently labor director and a member of the executive board of Lufthansa Cargo being responsible for operations. Prior to that, the engineering graduate 
held various management positions at Lufthansa Technik.