This past week marked 25 years since September 11, 2001. I remember it like it was yesterday, watching it unfold on a TV in a Walmart parking lot in Bristol, Tennessee. Aviation changed permanently that day, and this industry has spent a quarter century building the safety and security culture that grew out of it. Worth pausing to remember. As for the rest of the week: Trump threatened to block Bombardier from the U.S. market entirely, and Bombardier fired back citing its 2,800 U.S. suppliers and existing manufacturing footprint. Global Jet Capital projects North America will drive nearly three-quarters of all business jet transactions through 2030. The FAA proposed a safety directive affecting 680 Bombardier Challenger 300-series aircraft. And Texas launched real-world eVTOL integration flights at Fort Worth Alliance.

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by Sunday's tragic Amazon Prime Air accident at Miami International. Beyond that, it was a big week for capital flowing into this industry: GAMA's Q2 report shows manufacturers actually delivering more airplanes, Bombardier is buying a supplier to bring wing production in-house, Honda made a direct investment in a fractional operator, Atlantic Aviation's nearly $10 billion valuation closed into this week's news cycle, and Sino Jet added its second G700. NBAA also released fresh Q2 safety data and confirmed its OEM lineup for BACE.

Big week in the Brief. Apollo Global Management just bought into Atlantic Aviation at a nearly $10 billion valuation, the clearest sign yet that Wall Street sees FBOs as infrastructure. Embraer's Phenom 300EV became the first light jet certified with Garmin Emergency Autoland. Textron Aviation has a new CEO. Jetcraft says the pre-owned market is outpacing last year. FinCEN just made life easier for anyone who owns an aircraft through an LLC. SyberJet is claiming a transcontinental speed record. And FAA officials put charter brokers on notice in Dallas: verify your operators, or the agency might make you. We also pause this week to remember Dolly Parton, and to note that Nashville International, where I learned to fly, may soon carry her name.

This week's Scissortail Brief covers a lot of ground. NBAA's 2026 Compensation Survey shows bizav salaries up nearly 7% in some categories, a sign of how competitive the talent market has gotten. The FAA clarified its 25-hour CVR timetable for new business aircraft, no retrofit required. Private equity keeps buying up FBOs, this time Trenton-Mercer. Textron delivered its 500th Citation CJ4. Texas lawmakers held the first hearing of a brand-new House Select Committee on General Aviation, worth watching if you're in this industry in this state. Global Jet Capital's Q2 brief shows rising OEM backlogs and tightening pre-owned inventory. FlyExclusive posted its third straight quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, though a GAAP net loss remains. Fuel climbed again. And Texas heat advisories are entering their second week with no relief in sight.

It's hot outside, y'all, and so is this week's Scissortail Brief. Los Angeles County is using your ADS-B data to build a $4 billion property tax base, and there's a bill sitting in the Senate right now that could put that fire out for good. NBAA is fighting the same battle on the federal registry front. Embraer posted its best-ever second quarter (the company is HOT HOT HOT). Bizjet traffic can't decide if it's speeding up or slowing down. LEO connectivity keeps expanding. Fuel climbed again. And if you're flying in North Texas this week, the Heat Advisory is hot enough to melt the tarmac.

This week's Scissortail Brief is a big one. Solairus just swallowed Clay Lacy's aircraft management and charter business whole, creating the largest managed private jet fleet the industry has ever seen, over 500 aircraft under one roof. Down the road from us, Joby Aviation planted its flag at Fort Worth Alliance, and the age of flying cars just got a Texas zip code. Bombardier clawed its way back to the top of AIN's Product Support Survey. LABACE turned São Paulo into a runway full of jets and nine-figure deals. EBAA is trying to fill the hole EBACE left behind with a brand-new Brussels event. Hop-A-Jet added another aircraft to its fleet. And fuel keeps climbing because the Middle East refuses to give this industry a break. Plus, North Texas is heating up fast, literally, with fire danger building through the week.

This week's Scissortail Brief opens with Chris Rocheleau leaving the FAA to return to NBAA as COO, a week after he personally unveiled Mobile Clearance at Oshkosh. Gulfstream and Textron posted very different Q2 numbers, Gulfstream's book-to-bill hit 1.5x while Textron's jet deliveries slipped to 40 from 49, and IADA's Q2 report shows the pre-owned market tightening as a result. Gulfstream reclaimed the LA-to-Farnborough speed record from Bombardier after holding it just ten days. Oil posted its biggest monthly gain since March as both the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb Strait stayed under threat simultaneously. FBO Jet-A rose to $7.70 nationally. And NOAA's updated August outlook puts Texas and Oklahoma at the top of the list for above-normal heat.

EAA AirVenture wrapped this weekend with a record roughly 730,000 attendees, smoke and all. The FAA unveiled Mobile Clearance at the show, a genuinely significant digital IFR clearance tool headed for nationwide rollout in 2027. Textron, Cirrus, and Garmin all made news at Oshkosh, with Cirrus putting autoland on a piston aircraft for the first time ever. On the fuel side: Houthi attacks on Saudi tankers near Bab el-Mandeb have opened a second front in the region's shipping crisis, pushing Brent crude briefly above $100 a barrel. With both major Middle East chokepoints now compromised, there's no end in sight, plan your fuel budgets accordingly. Plus a dangerous heat wave building across the central and southern U.S., and STXBAA's second annual aviation law seminar in Conroe.

Happy Oshkosh week, BizAv family. EAA AirVenture kicked off today at Wittman Regional under some early wildfire smoke, but it's still one of the best weeks on the aviation calendar and this week's Scissortail Brief opens with it. Beyond that: large-cabin Part 91 flying keeps declining while fractional large-cabin activity surged 13.3% in June, GPS jamming and spoofing are both up sharply and Honeywell's got a new answer for it as a freshly independent company, Embraer launched the Phenom 300EV with the largest business jet application yet of Garmin Emergency Autoland, Spain beat Argentina in the World Cup Final, and crude oil is climbing fast again as the Iran conflict reignites. Farnborough opens today too.

The NTSB's preliminary report on the June 16 Laredo crash found a fractured fuel tube and broken pressure switch in the right engine, but the left engine failure right after it is still unexplained. The Iran ceasefire collapsed after renewed strikes and attacks on Gulf shipping, sending oil from the low $70s to $75-79 a barrel and putting recent fuel price relief back in question. And we lost Senator Lindsey Graham this weekend, whose Budget Committee chairmanship is the reason 100% bonus depreciation on business aircraft is permanent law instead of a countdown to zero by 2027. Plus the Global 8000's new speed record and this week's fuel and weather outlook.

This week's Scissortail Brief covers a lot of ground. A heat dome cooked the eastern half of the country through the Fourth of July, grounding schedules with density altitude issues and a "ring of fire" storm pattern that produced thousands of delays nationwide, we share our own client-side lesson from it. Fuel dropped below $7.50 nationally for the first time since February as wholesale prices keep easing. The NTSB still hasn't published its Laredo preliminary, but new details are emerging about the crew's four-leg day before the accident. The public comment window closed on NetJets' petition to extend Global 7500 and 8000 crew duty limits, and it drew real opposition. Farnborough is two weeks out, and the World Cup knockout rounds are underway.

Fuel is down to $7.59 nationally at the FBO, with wholesale prices dropping 14.2% in a single week as the Iran MOU starts doing what it was supposed to do. The NTSB still hasn't published the Laredo preliminary report, which tells you the investigation is more complex than it might look from the outside. The FAA proposed a significant overhaul of Part 25 aircraft certification standards this week, the most consequential certification rulemaking in years. And World Cup traffic data from the opening two weeks shows the big airports absorbing the extra jets just fine while smaller host-city markets like Seattle are doubling their normal daily activity.

This week's Scissortail Brief leads with the NetJets Citation Latitude crash on Loop 20 in Laredo, which killed Capital Factory founder Joshua Baer and appears to be the first fatal accident in the history of fractional aviation. The NTSB is on site, the FDR and CVR are in Washington, and a preliminary report is expected in roughly two weeks. Also this week: the Dassault Falcon 10X flew for the first time, NetJets separately asked the FAA to extend crew duty limits on the Global 7500 and 8000 with pushback already in the docket, AeroVanti's founder was convicted on six counts of wire fraud for a $15 million membership scheme, Global Jet Capital closed a $659 million business jet securitization with 41 investors, and fuel prices are finally declining with a fragile Iran MOU providing partial Hormuz access during a 60-day negotiation window.

Late last night, the U.S. and Iran announced a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with a signing set for June 19. If it holds, it could change the fuel story we've been covering for four months straight. But wait, there's more: Flexjet bought The Jet Business and named founder Steve Varsano president, putting one of bizav's biggest social media names in charge of fleet sourcing. The FAA loosens its mental health certification policy for pilots and controllers, which is a big win for the industry. And World Cup host cities are now under PPR with FBO surcharges running 20-40% above standard rates.

This week's Scissortail Brief opens with the tragic crash of a Gulfstream G200 at La Romana in the Dominican Republic that resulted in the loss of both pilots. The aircraft had departed for Austin and declared an emergency; what followed was a fatal second landing attempt into what appears to have been a tailwind.

NBAA's Q1 accident analysis is out, covering 40 safety events, including six fatal accidents, with stabilized approaches and runway excursions leading the findings. Jet-A has found a plateau at $7.83 nationally with wholesale prices starting to soften. And the FIFA World Cup opens Thursday at MetLife, with bizav demand on host-city routes forecast to surge through the knockout rounds.

With kids out of school and summer upon us, the BizAv family is busy. The World Cup is two weeks out. CBP is under pressure. An Ebola outbreak in Africa has NBAA issuing operator advisories. The DHS is floating a proposal that would gut customs operations at major gateway airports, and NBAA is fighting it. And in Massachusetts, a business aviation association just canceled their annual event because activists bought tickets to it. It's been that kind of week.

This week's Scissortail Brief covers the FAA's new ATC workforce plan and the union dispute over a staffing target that dropped by 2,000 positions overnight. Wheels Up completed its fleet transition 18 months ahead of schedule and posted a 99% completion rate. FBO Jet-A is at $7.96 per gallon nationally heading into Memorial Day weekend, and the eastern half of the country is going to be a weather workout for anyone flying this weekend. We also take a moment for Memorial Day, because some things are more important than the news cycle. Read the full Brief at scissortailconsulting.aero.

This week's Scissortail Brief covers the FSF Business Aviation Safety Summit in Provo, where the DCA midair's 50-plus recommendations took center stage. Hal Shevers, the founder of Sporty's Pilot Shop, passed away at 90 after six decades of building the pilot pipeline. STXBAA, HigherVets, and South Texas PAMA came together at The Bandit Golf Club in New Braunfels on May 14 for a golf classic and after-party benefiting veteran transitions into bizav careers. FBO Jet-A is holding near its decade high. And the NTSB released its preliminary report on the Cessna 421C crash near Wimberley — pitot heat failure in icing conditions, in-flight breakup, five fatalities. We also debut a standing weather brief this week.

This week's Scissortail Brief covers the NBAA Maintenance Conference in New Orleans, where the maintainer shortage took center stage with 1,000-plus attendees and 42% first-timers. Embraer posted record Q1 revenue of $1.447 billion with strong executive jet deliveries, but U.S. tariffs compressed margins sharply and that headwind isn't going away. FBO Jet-A hit a decade high in April and ticked up again to $7.94 per gallon nationally this week. Kentucky Derby traffic held steady, giving us two events and two different readings heading into summer. And the FIFA World Cup opens June 11 across 16 North American host cities with charter demand forecast to surge 200-300% during the knockout rounds — if you haven't locked in aircraft and FBO slots, the window is closing.

If you own a business jet in Texas, how you operate it can have a major impact on both your state and federal tax position. This article explains how placing an aircraft on a Part 135 charter certificate can unlock a more favorable valuation method under Texas law, potentially reducing property taxes, while also outlining key federal considerations including depreciation, qualified business use, and passive activity rules.