The Scissortail Brief | August 31, 2026

Before turning to the week's other developments, we pause to honor Dolly Parton, who passed away on August 25 in Nashville at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer. Nothing I could offer would capture what hasn’t already been expressed across the global media landscape. She was an icon and universally loved. Her home state of Tennessee has long been a hub for business aviation. I lived in Nashville for many years. I learned to fly at Nashville International, and I’m thrilled to see that the move to rename it for Dolly is gaining traction.

Fly high, Dolly. You are one of the immortals. Your music, boundless empathy, and immense contributions to humanity ensure your legacy will endure forever.

As for the rest of the news… Apollo Global Management acquires a co-controlling stake in Atlantic Aviation from KKR at a valuation of nearly $10 billion. Embraer's Phenom 300EV receives triple certification as the first light jet with Garmin Emergency Autoland. Textron Aviation names a new CEO. Jetcraft reports the pre-owned market is running ahead of last year's pace. FinCEN permanently exempts most U.S. aircraft-owning entities from beneficial ownership reporting. SyberJet claims an unofficial transcontinental speed record. Garmin expands SmartCharts to Canada and Mexico. The Air Charter Association's Dallas forum tackles broker due diligence and AI. And a Gulf disturbance brings rain and flash flood risk to the Texas coast this week.

Apollo Acquires Stake in Atlantic Aviation at Nearly $10 Billion Valuation

Apollo Global Management and KKR announced August 27 that Apollo-managed funds acquired a significant stake in Atlantic Aviation, one of the largest FBO networks in the United States. KKR remains a substantial shareholder in the company. The transaction values Atlantic Aviation at nearly $10 billion.

KKR acquired Atlantic Aviation in 2021 for $4.5 billion. The company operates more than 100 locations across North America serving aircraft from owner-flown pistons to large corporate jets. Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC also joined the transaction as a co-investor. The specific ownership split between Apollo and KKR was not disclosed.

PitchBook lead industrials research analyst Jim Corridore said the deal reflects growing investor confidence that wealthy individuals and corporate executives will continue flying private. Atlantic is not Apollo's only recent aviation infrastructure move; Apollo separately announced plans this year to sell CoolIT Systems to Ecolab for $4.75 billion.

Nashville Airport Could Be Renamed for Dolly Parton

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Nashville International Airport announced August 28 their intent to rename the airport in honor of Dolly Parton, who died August 25 at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer. "Dolly Parton's extraordinary life is forever woven into the fabric of our state," Lee said in a statement. "At a place where Tennessee welcomes the world, it is fitting that Nashville International Airport would bear the name of our state's favorite daughter and greet travelers with the enduring legacy of Dolly's music, generosity, faith, and kindness."

Lee said he spoke with Parton's team about the proposal this week and that they expressed appreciation for the outpouring of support. A petition calling for the renaming, originally started in January 2025, had gathered more than 164,000 signatures as of this weekend and has backing from a Nashville City Council member and a state representative. The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority's current naming policy requires that airport properties be named only for people who have been dead for at least two years; the proposal and that policy will both be discussed at the authority's meeting September 17.

Parton was asked about the renaming idea on "CBS Mornings" in January 2025, before her death, and called it "just a joke," adding, "I'm very flattered. But it's a nice compliment, and I appreciate it. I've been blessed."

Atlantic Aviation Breaks Ground on Second Nashville-Area FBO

Atlantic Aviation announced August 25 that construction has begun on a new executive FBO terminal at John C. Tune Airport (JWN), a general aviation reliever field eight miles west of downtown Nashville. Both JWN and Nashville International are owned and operated by the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, which awarded Atlantic the project through a competitive RFP process.

The facility will include a roughly 7,500-square-foot executive terminal, a 37,000-square-foot hangar and office complex, about 175,000 square feet of new ramp space, a 60,000-gallon Jet-A fuel farm, 12,000 gallons of 100LL capacity and a dedicated de-icing pad. The project is designed with LEED-focused sustainability features and is expected to be complete in late 2027. Atlantic Aviation CEO Jeff Foland called the start of construction "an exciting milestone" for the company's partnership with the airport authority. The new facility will complement Atlantic's existing FBO at Nashville International, which opened in 2024.

Phenom 300EV Certified as First Light Jet With Emergency Autoland

Embraer announced August 25 that its Phenom 300EV received simultaneous certification from the FAA, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency. The certification makes the 300EV the first light jet approved with Garmin Emergency Autoland and the largest business jet yet equipped with the system.

The system allows the aircraft to land automatically if the pilot becomes incapacitated, evaluating weather, terrain and nearby airports before communicating with air traffic control and completing the landing. The 300EV also includes a new Multi-Purpose Electronic Controller enabling autobrake and rudder-by-wire, updated Garmin G3000 avionics, increased payload capacity of about 430 pounds, and factory-installed Gogo Galileo satellite connectivity. List price is approximately $13.995 million. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2028.

Emergency Autoland has previously appeared on the HondaJet Elite II and Cirrus Vision Jet. Textron's Citation CJ4 Gen3 is awaiting certification with the same Garmin system.

Textron Aviation Names New CEO

Textron Aviation announced August 24 that Brian Rohloff will become president and CEO effective August 31, succeeding Ron Draper, who is retiring after eight years leading the company and more than 27 years with Textron. Draper will remain through the end of 2026 as a senior advisor.

Rohloff has held leadership roles across Textron Aviation's customer support, sales, supply chain and quality functions over nearly three decades with the company. He most recently served as senior vice president of customer support. Textron CEO Lisa Atherton said Rohloff's experience across the business positions him to lead the company's next phase of growth.

Jetcraft Reports Pre-Owned Market Running Ahead of Last Year

Jetcraft CEO Chad Anderson said in the company's mid-year report that the firm is running about 15% ahead of its deal count from the same point last year, pushing back against recent data suggesting the business aviation market has lost momentum. Anderson cited the Q2 IADA report as supporting evidence.

Anderson attributed pre-owned market strength to gradual improvement in new-aircraft production rates and U.S. tax policy changes, including the reintroduction of 100% bonus depreciation. He said 6.6% of the total business jet fleet was available for sale in the second quarter of 2026, below the roughly 10% historical average that typically signals a balanced market. Anderson characterized the current market as a rational stabilization following the unsustainable price escalation of the pandemic era, rather than a downturn.

FinCEN Permanently Narrows Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a final rule August 11 permanently removing the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information under the Corporate Transparency Act. The rule took effect August 14.

The change affects aircraft ownership structures directly, since many business aircraft are held in domestic LLCs. Under the final rule, entities formed in the United States are exempt from beneficial ownership reporting; only entities formed abroad that register to do business in a U.S. state remain subject to the requirement. FinCEN said it will delete previously reported information submitted by U.S. persons from its database. The underlying Corporate Transparency Act remains in place; the relief is regulatory rather than statutory, meaning a future administration could revisit the scope.

SyberJet Claims Unofficial Transcontinental Speed Record

SyberJet Aircraft said its SJ30-2 flew nonstop from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Diego, California, in approximately four hours and seven minutes on August 21, averaging 505.3 mph and breaking the prior C-1.f class record of 339.4 mph set by an Embraer Phenom 300 in 2013. The flight was piloted by Gordon "Gordy" Bryan, with SyberJet CEO Trevor Milton aboard. Official certification from the National Aeronautic Association and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is expected within about 90 days.

The record-setting aircraft will be displayed at NBAA-BACE 2026 in Las Vegas, where SyberJet also plans to debut its next-generation SJ36, a stretched successor to the SJ30 targeting Mach 0.88 and 2032 certification. Milton, SyberJet's CEO, took over the company in 2025. He previously founded Nikola and was convicted on federal fraud charges related to that company before receiving a presidential pardon and dismissal of a related civil action.

Garmin Expands SmartCharts to Canada and Mexico

Garmin announced August 27 that SmartCharts, its customizable procedural chart feature for Garmin Pilot Premium subscribers, is now available in Canada and Mexico in addition to its existing coverage in the United States and Bahamas. SmartCharts filters approach and departure charts to show only information relevant to a pilot's selected aircraft type, runway and procedure transition.

The expansion adds Continuous Descent Final Approach path guidance to the vertical profile view for non-precision approaches in the newly covered regions, along with cold-weather temperature corrections for Canadian and U.S. airports. The feature first launched in May 2025.

ACA Forum: FAA Presses Brokers on Illegal Charter Due Diligence

FAA and industry officials stressed the need for charter brokers to complete due diligence on operators during a panel at the Air Charter Association's U.S. Regional Forum August 26 in Dallas.

Edward Cardenas of the FAA's Safe Air Charter Team said the agency divides illegal charter into two categories: operators that practice charter without certification, and certificated operators conducting flights outside the scope of their certificate. Al Mann, chief safety officer at FlyHouse, said verification through third-party ratings agencies alone is often insufficient, since those agencies typically caveat that their information isn't guaranteed. "Don't rely on things like a third party to do your due diligence for you," Mann said. "You have to have that relationship with the operator to do that due diligence and get to the root of whether it's a true 135 or not."

Cardenas pointed brokers to the FAA's Safe Air Charter website, which maintains a database of certificated operators now updated daily rather than every 30 days. He said brokers can request an operator's D085 or operations specifications and compare them against the list, but many skip that step entirely. Brokers currently aren't held to a formal verification standard; Cardenas said Part 295, which governs brokers, remains vague and is "version 1.0 of regulation" that should improve with industry input. He added that the FAA lacks the staff to monitor every transaction: "You guys have to self-regulate. There needs to be a standard in the industry."

Barry Lambert of Southern Sky Aviation said brokers can also check with the Department of Transportation to confirm an operator carries proper insurance for a given trip. Joel Fenn of Air Charter Service said illegal charter risk extends to brokers as well as operators, since a legitimate operator can still slip into an unauthorized "134 and a half" arrangement without informing the broker. Renee DeNicola of Business Jet Services said clients sometimes attempt to book a "friend's airplane" for charter, a scenario her company and Lambert's have both encountered and now actively track.

Tips to the FAA's illegal charter hotline have grown to about 400 annually, according to Joe Kluk of the FAA's Safe Air Charter Team. Kluk said anonymous tips are often difficult to act on without a source to follow up with, and that including the client's name helps investigators, since clients typically hold the financial documentation needed to prove an illegal operation occurred.

A separate forum session that morning examined AI's changing role in charter brokering. Panelists Wendi Matthews-Ortiz of Hunt & Palmer and Logan Laporte of Trilogy Aviation Group said a broker's core value remains the communication they provide as a conduit between retail customer and operator. Roger Zhan, founder and CEO of Floating Fleet AI, said brokers bring certainty to a transaction that typically lacks it. AI, he said, can ideally offer real-time pricing, feasibility and aircraft availability, but the underlying data is only as good as what operators are willing to share. Saskia de Jong of Avinode agreed, noting operators can be reluctant to share pricing data, and cited rough estimates that 88% of organizations use AI to some extent, though she said that doesn't mean it will replace brokers, since too much can go wrong in a charter transaction without a human interface. Simon Freund, CEO of The Private Jet App, pointed to coding and process development as a practical current use case, and de Jong noted AI is already easing administrative burden in areas like invoicing.

The two-day forum opened with an evening reception at the Business Jet FBO at Dallas Love Field and marked ACA's second annual U.S. gathering, following the inaugural 2025 forum in Fort Lauderdale. The UK-based association has expanded its U.S. presence in recent years through roundtables in Colorado and Georgia before establishing what it expects to be an annual event, aimed at supporting its U.S. membership of nearly 60 companies across 19 states and bridging the North American business aviation community with its international counterparts. ACA CEO Glenn Hogben told the opening reception: "We are growing in the U.S., really rapidly. One of the things we're very passionate about is networking, particularly between operators, brokers, and our support companies." The forum also included sessions on whether the U.S. charter market needs tighter regulation and on chartering in Europe.

Fuel: Prices Hold Near Recent Highs

The national average for Jet-A across 3,212 reporting FBOs was $7.88 per gallon as of August 26, according to GlobalAir, up from $7.80 the prior week. The Central region remained lowest at $7.22. Alaska remained highest at $9.34. The national average for SAF was $10.10 per gallon.

100LL averaged $7.54 per gallon nationally, with the Central region lowest at $6.89 and Alaska highest at $11.37. Texas and Oklahoma are running well below the national 100LL average: per FBO Airport's daily rankings, Texas 100LL starts around $5.62 across 67 tracked FBOs, and Oklahoma starts around $5.80 across 13 tracked FBOs, both among the cheapest states in the country for avgas. Piston operators based in or transiting the region have real savings available by shopping around rather than defaulting to the nearest field.

The August monthly average, according to a survey of more than 200 U.S. FBOs by the Aviation Research Group, was $8.31 per gallon, up 70 cents from July and up $1.70 from a year earlier. The global wholesale jet fuel price rose 3.1% week over week to $163.87 per barrel, according to IATA's Fuel Price Monitor. Both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait remained contested, with no resolution reported on either front.

Weather: Gulf Disturbance Brings Rain Risk to Texas Coast

The National Weather Service's Houston/Galveston office said Sunday it is monitoring a disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico with a 70% chance of tropical development as it drifts west-northwest over the coming days. The system is expected to bring an increased chance of showers and storms Tuesday, along with an elevated risk of heavy rainfall and flash flooding. The office issued a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall for southeast Texas counties Tuesday and a Marginal Risk area-wide Wednesday, with the heaviest rainfall expected Tuesday afternoon and evening.

NWS Fort Worth/Dallas said heat expanding out of the Southwest is set to spread into the center of the country this weekend into early next week, trending toward the Ohio Valley, while North and Central Texas continue under hot, dry conditions and an elevated wildfire threat through the weekend.

The Climate Prediction Center's outlook for September through November favors above-normal temperatures across nearly the entire country, with the highest probability shifted toward the Northwest rather than Texas. Precipitation for the same period is expected to run close to average across most of Texas.

That's The Brief

The Week in One Sentence: Country music icon Dolly Parton died August 25 at age 80, prompting a proposal to rename Nashville International Airport in her honor and marking the same week Atlantic Aviation broke ground on a new FBO at Nashville's John C. Tune Airport, Apollo Global Management acquired a co-controlling stake in Atlantic Aviation at a nearly $10 billion valuation, Embraer's Phenom 300EV became the first light jet certified with Garmin Emergency Autoland, Textron Aviation named Brian Rohloff as CEO succeeding the retiring Ron Draper, Jetcraft reported deal volume running 15% ahead of last year, FinCEN permanently exempted most U.S. aircraft-owning entities from beneficial ownership reporting, SyberJet claimed an unofficial transcontinental speed record with its SJ30-2, Garmin expanded SmartCharts to Canada and Mexico, FAA and industry officials at the Air Charter Association's Dallas forum pressed brokers to verify operator authorization directly rather than relying on third-party ratings alone, FBO Jet-A rose to $7.88 nationally, and a Gulf disturbance is bringing an elevated risk of flash flooding to the Texas coast this week.