FAA Administrator Michael Huerta maintains that closing contract air traffic control towers will not jeopardize safety, but warns that efficiency will be sacrificed as a result. “We’re not doing anything that isn’t safe,” he told the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee on April 18.

The Embraer/Avic joint company in Harbin, China, has begun assembling its first Legacy 650 business jet, on schedule for delivery late this year. Workers who will assemble Legacy 650s at Harbin are the same as those who formerly assembled ERJ-145 regional jetliners at the plant, says Guan Dongyuan, president of Embraer’s Chinese operation. The Legacy 650 is based on the ERJ-135, a shortened ERJ-145. Guan says that the program is on track. Capacity will be 20 a year, with a plan to ramp up to six aircraft delivered in 2015.

Embraer’s 12 executive jets delivered in the first quarter were below analyst expectations and foreshadows what is expected to be another sluggish quarter for the light end of the business jet market. Embraer delivered 29 commercial and business aircraft in the first quarter, and increased its backlog by $800 million to $13.3 billion. Of the 12 business aircraft delivered, eight were Phenoms (five 100s and three 300s) and four were Legacy 650s.

Embraer, accruing more than 150 hr. on its Legacy 500 midsize jet, hopes to have the smaller 450 join the flight test program by year’s end. The company cut metal on the 450 light-mid aircraft in August and expects to finish the wing next month with the fuselage sections joining in July. This would put the 450 on pace for first flight sometime in the second half of 2013, about a year after the 500 first flew.

Cessna’s newest Citation X came off the assembly line, bringing the Mach 0.935 airplane closer to reaching market this year. The new X, a speedier, improved version of the X currently on the market, is one of six new or follow-on products that Cessna hopes to bring to market this year and one of at least nine in various stages of production or research. But the X – which was originally announced as the “Ten” in late 2010 – was the first of Cessna’s new pipeline of products to be announced after the economic downturn began.

Nextant has secured an anchor customer in China under a sales agent agreement with China Great Wall Industry Corp. (CGWIC) that includes an initial order for up to 18 Nextant 400XTs valued at $89 million. The agreement, which makes CGWIC Nextant’s exclusive sales agent for the greater China region, also calls for CGWIC to help establish service, sales support and parts distribution in China.

Signature Flight Support received a green light on its largest yet fixed-base operation project, an $82 million complex at Mineta San Jose International airport. The San Jose City Council on April 16 voted 10-1 to approve a 50-year lease for the FBO, which will be developed on 29 acres at the west side of the airport. As part of the development, Signature is relocating its headquarters from Orlando, Fla. to its new San Jose, Calif. base.

New markets are targeted following company shake-up