BUSINESS AS USUAL
India's National Aerospace Laboratories says it will continue to develop the Saras single-engined aircraft - the country's first indigenous aircraft - despite the crash of the second Saras prototype on 6 March that killed the three crew members on board. NAL says the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-powered aircraft had flown for 70min and successfully performed an in-flight engine restart test before it climbed to a higher altitude, lost contact with the central tower and crashed near Bidadi, south-west Bangalore. The cause of the crash has yet to be determined, but NAL has already begun work on third aircraft - a production conforming type - and the company says it expects to certificate the 14-seat Saras by next year
DUTY ABOLISHED
A Russian government commission on protectionist trade measures and customs policy has recommended making permanent a zero-import duty on aircraft up to 19 seats. The decision to introduce a temporary rate of 0% was taken by the government in July. Previously the duty was 10%.
COMPLETION SALE
Canadian completion and maintenance company Flying Colours has acquired the assets of refurbishment and maintenance repair and overhaul specialist JetCorp from its parent JetDirect Aviation. St Louis, Missouri-based JetCorp has now been renamed JetCorp Technical Services.
ALL IN OFFER
US private aviation company XOJet is offering an "all-in" fixed-price one-way coast-to-coast service on its Cessna Citation X for $19,000. The flights are available on 4,000 airport pairs serving nine major East and West Coast metro areas covering New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Diego. "Clients will not pay any additional fees, repositioning costs, or face fuel surcharges, as is common in the industry," says XOJet.
Source: Flight International
