John was editor of Aviation Week's ShowNews for nearly two decades. He retired in 2020. His background in business journalism before joining Aviation Week includes stints at Reuters, the American Banker daily banking newspaper and as business news editor at the Milwaukee Journal and the Cincinnati Enquirer.
A lifelong aviation enthusiast, John has been a private pilot for 34 years and won an award at EAA Oshkosh for his restoration of a vintage British Auster army spotter aircraft. He is currently building a 1920s Staaken Flitzer biplane from plans. John attended his first Farnborough Air Show in 1952, when just eight months old.
While VIP completion operations have fared better than the overall business aviation market, they are beginning to feel the impact of the economic downturn, completions executives agree. “The financial crisis has now reached the VIP market,” Walter Heerdt, senior vice president for marketing at Lufthansa Technik, said during this month’s Dubai Airshow. “The impact is not dramatic, but it is there, more so on the narrowbody aircraft such as Airbus ACJs and Boeing BBJs,” Heerdt said. “We’re seeing about 90 percent of what would have been.”
Abu Dhabi plans to build a business jet by 2018 to mark the emergence of the Middle East as a major player in the global aerospace industry. The first steps were celebrated Nov. 14 as the Mubadala Development investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government and Western partners viewed progress in building the Strata Manufacturing composites facility that will begin supplying parts for Airbus, ATR and other airliners in the second half of next year. Strata will open with initial contracts worth more than $2 billion.
Honeywell expects to announce some $500 million worth of contracts during this year’s airshow as airlines in the region buck the global trend and rack up an increase in flight hours of about 5% this year. “The airlines are still taking aircraft and still growing,” said Mike Madsen, VP of airlines for Honeywell Aerospace, who is here to support a growing business in the region for aircraft equipment, maintenance and support services.
