OEMs and avionics companies are turning to their customers to make the case for next-generation synthetic vision systems approval.

The European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva will celebrate its 15th anniversary when the show opens on May 19.

The fractional ownership specialist is focusing on charter services and its aircraft management business in China.

The Swiss charter company expects to enter the Chinese market “within weeks.”

We strapped into the left seat of TBM 900 S/N 1014 with Daher-Socata’s chief pilot Stéphane Jacques at the firm’s plant in Tarbes, France, for a two-hour evaluation flight.

“We’re open for business,” says Stanley Bugeja, European Business Aviation Association board member and president of MBAA, the Malta Business Aviation Association. “Come here.” Malta, the Mediterranean island country with the lowest taxes in the EU, is “giving London a good run for its money,” Bugeja says, with a strong presence of IT, banking and insurance firms.

The company is boosting its focus on solutions and innovation under a plan, announced this week, to quadruple its investment in R&D for product, service and technology from EUR50 million over the past five years to EUR200 million over the next four years. At the same time, it has restructured its organization to coordinate R&D company-wide for the airline and VIP markets.

The first two production ARJ21 regional airliners are being outfitted ahead of local certification, but in a surprise move on May 10, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China accepted an order for a corporate version from Shanghai Salt Merchants Group Ltd. The existence of an ARJ21-700 bizjet was unsuspected until now, although the manufacturer’s “hope that Salt Merchants Group is able to provide valuable opinions on this jet” suggests that an interior configuration is still to be defined.