Features Airlines/Private

It takes some doing to get this aircraft off the ground, both from an engineering and commercial standpoint.  Bradley Pearson defers the engineering to others while tending to the commercial side as senior legal counsel for Lilium, the German-headquartered aerospace company that anticipates bringing to market its cutting-edge hybrid of small private jets and helicopters […]

Selling a small company that produces components and technology for satellites to foreign buyers draws scrutiny from U.S. government agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Justice and Treasury, because of national security concerns. So, the proposed 2017 sale of such a company was one of more than 200 that Caroline Borushko reviewed that year. However, […]

Airliners built in Canada and flown in Spain. An American air freight company president with a vision to turn four of them into freighters. And a Federal Aviation Administration regulation that threatened to derail everything. For Rick Durden, it added up to a high-stakes challenge. How do you get an airliner from Spain to Pontiac, […]

The traditional Italian adage “Lascia che la vita ti sorprenda” simply means to let life surprise you—and that’s exactly what Larissa Meli did. By 1998, she’d graduated cum laude, the maximum grade in Italy, from “La Sapienza” University of Rome’s School of Law and passed the bar exam in Rome two years later. While working […]

By the time a business jet reaches a cruising altitude of 41,000 feet, many passengers are counting down to two things: landing at their destinations and the arrival of their in-flight catering. While Lara Hajjar Ayoub has little control over how quickly the pilots go “wheels down,” she does play a major role in appeasing […]

The private aviation industry has soared for most of COVID-19, many adventurers opting for the convenience and cleanliness of privately owned or chartered jets rather than the delays and discomforts of commercial flights. Signature Aviation thinks the trend will continue, and it’s well positioned to take advantage; the now U.S.-based multinational had focused on becoming […]

In 2020, an airborne virus threatened to ground the entire aviation industry. The International Civil Aviation Organization details the grim scenario: a loss of 2.6 billion passengers compared to 2019, a 50 percent reduction of seats offered by airlines and a $370 billion loss of gross passenger operating revenues. Losses covered travel for both business […]

In a normal year, Jerry Joondeph would accumulate around 100,000 miles of air travel. He’d visit places around the U.S., Europe and Asia—not uncommon for a top executive at an aviation company. But the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of his regular travel, forcing Joondeph to pivot in his roles as chief administrative officer and […]