ORLANDO, Fla. – Business jets have traditionally been the domain of super rich and high-powered corporate executives who don’t have time or patience for getting frisked at airport security checkpoints. But a new smaller aircraft could make private air travel more available for less wealthy folks.
Very light jets have travelers, corporations and commercial operators buzzing about a technology that could revolutionize the way people get places by plane.
The jets cost between $1.5 million and $3 million, weigh less than 10,000 pounds, seat about seven people and can fly more than 1,000 miles at speeds approaching 460 mph. The cheapest ones are less than half the price of existing business jets, although they generally are slower and fly shorter distances.
They could be an addition to a corporate jet fleet, an individual’s plaything, or the savior of the nascent air-taxi industry. Yet no one knows if they will be any of these.
So far, only two companies have received Federal Aviation Administration certification for the jets and are set to begin making deliveries. They are privately owned Eclipse Aviation, whose second-largest investor is Bill Gates, and Cessna Aircraft Co., a unit of Textron Inc.
But the industry has quickly become crowded. Brazil’s Embraer SA, an alliance by Honda Motor Co. and Piper Aircraft Inc., and others are seeking certification and deliveries in the next few years.
“They’re the greatest growth market the aviation industry has seen in a long time,” said Richard Aboulafia, a Teal Group aviation analyst. A self-described “enthusiastic skeptic” of light jet mania, he believes the market capacity will be 250 to 300 orders a year worldwide, with a heavy concentration in North America.
Cessna has received 250 orders for its Citation Mustang, which costs $2.6 million. Eclipse plans to deliver 515 Eclipse 500s, priced at $1.5 million, next year.
Eclipse has received 2,500 orders. The company said customers generally pay 10 percent down on the purchase price – about $150,000.
Leonard Goldberg, president and owner of Fort Lauderdale-based charter company Gold Aviation Services, put a refundable deposit down on two Eclipse light jets in 2001 and is scheduled to get them next year. Goldberg said aviation critics are overly skeptical.
“Aviation is such a conservative market,” Goldberg said. “Everyone else said it can’t be done, it won’t be done. Now it’s clear that it’s a viable market that will do well, and everyone is paying attention.”
Eclipse has invested $500 million in development, and DayJet, an air-taxi company to start up in Florida early next year, placed 239 firm orders for Eclipse jets beginning in 2002. The companies declined to reveal how much DayJet has paid for the planes.
“It could really open up air travel to a whole different group of folks,” said Vern Raburn, Eclipse’s chief executive, who used to work at Microsoft Corp. with Gates. Eclipse was founded in 1998 and its sole business is the small jets.
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