Why am I writing about business aircraft? Because I have worked in this industry for a decade and I understand it well. Unlike other matters I comment about on this blog 🙂

When aviation is discussed among the general public, Business Aviation (BA) rarely gets a mention. People relate aviation with airliners or fighter jets. Small, slender aircraft do not inspire the same kind of awe that bigger aircraft do, although functionally they can do everything that an airliner does.

BA or GA?

The terms Business Aviation and General Aviation (GA) are used interchangeably, although they don’t mean the same thing. BA is a subset of GA, and the latter includes helicopters, gliders, hot air balloons and trainer aircraft apart from regular passenger aircraft. The term ‘jet’ is also used as all encompassing, whereas all GA aircraft may not have jet engines. A small number have turboprop engines. Piston engines, which are a third type of engines are mostly restricted to trainer aircraft now.

Who makes these aircraft?

In the airline industry we are familiar with the 2 giants – Airbus and Boeing. There are other manufacturers too, such as ATR, Embraer and Bombardier which produce smaller regional jets. But what about GA aircraft? You have probably never heard of these names – Gulfstream, Beechcraft, Dassault, Cessna, Piaggio and some others. Embraer and Bombardier are also major players in the GA space. As for helicopters, the major manufacturers are Bell, Leonardo (erstwhile Agusta Westland), Airbus Helicopters (renamed Eurocopter), Sikorsky, and Robinson. GA aircraft are made to order. So unless you are willing to buy from the pre-owned market, you will have to wait a substantial amount of time to get your hands on one.

Surely there must be other players?

It is important to note that the above are what we call integrators or assemblers. They design the aircraft, manufacture the airframe and do the final assembly. The engines are manufactured by companies like Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, Williams, Turbomeca and others. The avionics manufacturers are more numerous – Honeywell, Collins Aerospace, Thales, L3, Garmin etc. Then there are other companies which make components like Landing Gear, Propellers – Hartzell, Messier Bugatti Dowty (part of Safran Group) and Auxiliary Power Units – Hamilton Sundstrand (part of Collins). Aviation industry sees continuous acquisition and consolidation. The many names that you will come across are part of a small cluster of giant companies.

How many passengers can the aircraft carry?

Speaking of BA aircraft, and not GA as a whole, you will find the aircraft being categorised as Very Light Jet (VLJ), Light Jet, Mid-Size, Super Mid-Size and Large. The VLJ category aircraft seat 4-5 passengers, depending on the configuration chosen. The 5th seat is generally added by sacrificing the galley area (common man’s term: pantry). At the other end of the spectrum, a large business jet like the Embraer Lineage 1000 can carry up to 19 passengers in a dense seating configuration. A question arises: Do BA aircraft have flight attendants? Yes they do, but in India it is not mandatory to have one onboard if the number of passengers is less than six. I am not aware of the regulations in other countries. So where does the flight attendant sit if seating is so scarce? Well, usually the owners of the aircraft will designate one seat as cabin crew seat, but often the toilet seat serves that purpose. Before you curse indignantly, wait. This is a modified toilet seat. It has a cushioned top which can be flipped down when not in use, and also comes with a seatbelt to ensure safety. Yes, it’s still a toilet seat, but that’s how it is.

Now the question arises – if there is no flight attendant on some aircraft, who serves the food? Surprise surprise! It’s the pilot. But such services will not be very elaborate. These aircraft are likely to be small, short range aircraft and there won’t be much time. Meals will likely be boxed and the beverage bottled. Expect the pilot to serve quickly and go back to their flying duties.

Tell us about the performance characteristics

Jet powered BA aircraft can fly at the same speed and altitude as commercial airliners. Like I said earlier, functionally they are not inferior to their larger cousins. In fact many come with cabin wifi, so they are actually a step ahead. Turboprop aircraft like King Air fly at about 60% of the speed of jet aircraft. They are primarily meant to operate from shorter and/or unpaved runways where operating a jet aircraft may not be feasible. What about range then? Range is a function of a) Fuel carrying capacity, b) Load and c) Fuel efficiency of the engines. Load is a function of number of passengers and baggage. Given that engines are what they are, a manufacturer has to make a trade off between baggage capacity and fuel capacity. Given a certain fuel capacity, the range will then mostly depend on the number of passengers. You might wonder how much difference will 2 people less make on an aircraft that already weighs in dozens of tons. It can be the difference between reaching Dubai from Bangalore, or just falling short, which means a refuelling stop and added time.

How much do I have to shell out to own one?

Anything between USD 3.5 Mn for a 4 seater jet to USD 70 Mn for a 19 seater. These are prices for a new aircraft. Used ones will be available for cheaper. I am not including business jet versions of commercial aircraft such as the Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ – which is a modified A319) or the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ – modified B737). These sell upwards of USD 600 Mn. There are business versions of B747 and B777 also! They cost a billion plus. Technically any aircraft can be modified into a business jet and there is no limit. Lastly, if you are importing one into India, there will be other costs like GST, Customs Duty and others. I will cover these in the next post, along with some idea about the operating and maintenance costs.