The Scissortail Brief | August 3–9, 2026

BizAv experienced a week of rapid acceleration and monumental consolidation. Solairus leads off by signing an agreement to acquire Clay Lacy's charter and aircraft management operations, establishing the largest managed private jet fleet in history with more than 500 aircraft. Here in Texas, advanced air mobility reached a new milestone as Joby Aviation finalized a lease at Fort Worth Alliance. Bombardier proved the value of dedicated customer care by taking the top spot in AIN's annual Product Support Survey, overcoming widespread industry backlog woes. On the international stage, LABACE energized São Paulo with a robust static display featuring 55 aircraft, while EBAA announced a new Brussels-based event to address the cancellation of EBACE. Additionally, retail fuel prices climbed higher, and Hop-A-Jet expanded its operations by adding a Gulfstream G280 to its fleet. Let's dive in, shall we?

Solairus to Acquire Clay Lacy's Management and Charter Business

Solairus Aviation announced August 7 that it has agreed to acquire the aircraft management and charter divisions of Clay Lacy Aviation, creating what both companies describe as the world's largest managed private aircraft fleet, with more than 500 aircraft.

Solairus currently manages approximately 360 aircraft from more than 100 base locations across North America. Clay Lacy's businesses included in the deal manage about 140 aircraft, roughly 160 by Clay Lacy's own website, representing an estimated $3.5 billion in aircraft value, plus a charter fleet of more than 60 large-cabin business jets. The combined charter fleet alone will operate nearly 200 aircraft, including more than 150 large-cabin and ultra-long-haul jets from Bombardier, Gulfstream, and Dassault, such as the Global 7500 and G650, capable of nonstop U.S. West Coast-to-Southeast Asia or Europe routing. Per ARGUS data, Solairus currently ranks 7th among U.S. operators by charter and fractional flight hours; Clay Lacy ranks 17th. The combination is expected to move the merged company to roughly 6th.

Clay Lacy's FBO, maintenance, and aviation real estate businesses are not part of the deal and will continue operating under the Clay Lacy name and current ownership, chaired by Brian Kirkdoffer, who started with the company as a Learjet pilot in 1990 and acquired it from founder Clay Lacy in 2012.

Solairus founder and CEO Dan Drohan: "With this transaction, Solairus solidifies its position as the leading pure-play aircraft management company in the world." Kirkdoffer: "The foundation of this transaction is our shared philosophies and our common emphasis on safety, customer experience and employee culture. This transaction will enable us to implement a more focused strategy for our FBO, Maintenance and Real Estate businesses."

Jefferies advised Clay Lacy on the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close by the end of September.

The deal is one of many in a busy year of consolidation across charter, management, and brokerage. Last month, Canadian fractional operator AirSprint was acquired by two private equity firms. FlyExclusive, Bond, George J. Priester, SC Aviation, Reserve Jet, TLC Jet, FlyHouse, and V2 Jets have each acquired other brokers, operators, or management companies in 2026. Talon Air's management bought back a minority stake previously held by Vista Global. Magellan Jets has announced plans to acquire other brokers. Vista Global raised $525 million through a bond offering. Delta has continued extending financing to Wheels Up. Solairus-Clay Lacy is the largest single transaction in that run so far, and it sets a new scale benchmark for what a pure-play management company looks like.

Joby Aviation Sets Up Shop at Fort Worth Alliance

Joby Aviation signed a lease for 45,000 square feet at Perot Field, Fort Worth Alliance Airport (KAFW), Hillwood announced August 6, marking the first significant North Texas presence by an eVTOL aircraft manufacturer.

The space sits within the Alliance Air Trade Center, part of Hillwood's 27,000-acre AllianceTexas development, which the company says has generated an estimated $142.9 billion in economic impact for North Texas since 1989 and is home to 602 companies and more than 73,000 direct jobs. Perot Field itself is billed as the world's first industrial airport purpose-built for cargo and corporate aviation, and sits at the center of the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, a public-private effort bringing together air and surface mobility developers, policymakers, and infrastructure partners, including access to complex airspace, an FAA control tower, and rail and roadway connections.

Joby plans to begin piloted eVTOL flights across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as early as September under the FAA's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), with the Texas effort aimed at eventually connecting Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, transitioning from pilot-only flights toward carrying paying passengers over time. Joby Chief Policy Officer Greg Bowles: "I first visited Perot Field two decades ago and it was clear even back then that this airport would grow into a cornerstone of aviation for the region. Establishing a presence in Texas puts Joby in one of the most exciting markets in the country."

This isn't the only eVTOL activity in the state. Boeing's Wisk Aero is partnered with Houston Airports and plans to build a network in south Texas, meaning both major Texas metros now have active eVTOL development underway simultaneously.

For current Part 135 operators, none of this changes anything about how you fly tomorrow. But the airspace integration work, vertiport siting, and infrastructure planning happening around DFW and Houston right now will shape how congested that airspace gets and how ATC handles a new category of low-altitude traffic in the years ahead. Worth keeping on your radar as you look into your crystal ball and plan for the future.

AIN's 2026 Product Support Survey: Bombardier Returns to the Top

AIN released its annual Product Support Survey this week, naming Bombardier the top-ranked business jet manufacturer despite ongoing supply chain pressure across the industry.

Despite strained industrywide capacity, operators gave Bombardier high marks for its support network, returning the manufacturer to the top of AIN's annual Product Support Survey. Long one of business aviation's key service benchmarks, the survey measures how operators rate OEMs on technical support, AOG response, service center performance, and parts availability. Bombardier's strong showing comes as global new-aircraft supply tightens, following Q2 production and delivery bottlenecks at Textron and Gulfstream, covered in last week's Brief, that pushed excess demand into the pre-owned market.

LABACE 2026 Opens in São Paulo with Strong Numbers

The 21st edition of LABACE, Latin America's largest business aviation event, ran August 4-6 at Campo de Marte Airport in São Paulo, with 55 aircraft on static display.

The show reflects genuine momentum in the region. Brazil has the world's second-largest business aviation fleet, with 11,375 aircraft, and, per the Brazilian Business Aviation Association (ABAG), takeoffs and landings there grew by 12.18% over the past 12 months. ABAG expects the show to generate more than $150 million in deals. ABAG CEO Flávio Pires emphasized LABACE's role in networking and business development amid what he described as a genuinely strong market.

Major exhibitors included Bombardier, showing its Challenger 3500 as part of a 10-city Latin American tour that also stops in Monterrey, Santo Domingo, Asunción, Santiago, Lima, Guayaquil, Quito, Bogotá, and Panama City. Cirrus displayed its Vision Jet G3 and SR22T G7+, the latter carrying Safe Return emergency autoland, the same system covered in the Brief's Oshkosh coverage two weeks ago. TAM Aviação Executiva showed eight aircraft in celebration of its 65th anniversary. LABACE also introduced a new VIP Fly-in program in partnership with PAX Aeroportos, offering premium reception, expedited accreditation, VIP transfers, fee exemptions, apron parking, and special fuel pricing for arriving operators.

For anyone with clients operating in or expanding into Latin America, LABACE remains the region's clearest read on the market's standing. This year's read is that things are still moving in a positive direction.

EBAA Fills the EBACE Gap with a New November Event

The European Business Aviation Association announced EBAA Week 2026, a new three-day event running November 16-18 in Brussels, following the abrupt cancellation of EBACE 2026 back in April.

EBAA Week combines several of the association's previously separate programs into a single format. Day one, hosted at EUROCONTROL headquarters, is a Business Aviation Flight Dispatcher Day covering the Network Manager Operations Centre, disruption management, and operational tools. Days two and three move to Skyhall and bring together AIROPS, the association's operational exchange event for airports, FBOs, ground handlers, trip planners, and operators, alongside the Business Aviation Safety & Innovation Conference. A European Business Aviation Summit on the afternoon of day two adds a policy dialogue session bringing together regulators, policymakers, and industry leaders.

EBAA has been explicit that EBAA Week is not intended as a replacement for EBACE, which had been Europe's flagship static-display trade show before this year's cancellation. This is a different kind of event: operational, dispatcher-focused, and policy-oriented rather than a sales and order platform. EBAA CEO Stefan Benz said at the time of the cancellation that stepping back from EBACE would let the association redirect resources toward platforms that better meet member needs. EBAA Week is the first concrete answer to what that looks like. Further program and registration details are expected in the coming weeks.

Hop-A-Jet Adds a Gulfstream G280

Hop-A-Jet Worldwide Jet Charter has added a Gulfstream G280 to its fleet, the company confirmed this week. The aircraft has completed conformity for inclusion on Hop-A-Jet's FAA Part 135 certificate.

Putting an aircraft on certificate usually isn’t much of a story. In this case, I included it because Hop-A-Jet is the same operator whose Challenger 604 crashed on Interstate 75 near Naples in February 2024. This Brief covered that accident in detail after the NTSB released its final report earlier this year, which traced the crash to corrosion in the engines' variable geometry systems and a maintenance process that stopped just short of catching the problem.

Fuel: Prices Climb Again

The national average for Jet-A across 3,226 reporting FBOs is $7.76 per gallon as of August 7, per GlobalAir, up from $7.70 the prior week. The Central region remains lowest at $7.05. Alaska remains highest at $9.26. SAF is averaging $9.97 nationally. The national average for 100LL is $7.50.

The global average jet fuel price fell slightly last week, down 0.8% to $158.77 per barrel, per IATA's Fuel Price Monitor, a small pullback within a broader trend that's been running up for months. Retail FBO pricing continues to climb regardless, consistent with the lag between wholesale and retail this Brief has tracked all summer.

The underlying story hasn't changed. Both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait remain contested, and there's still no resolution in sight on either front. Operators should continue planning around an elevated fuel baseline through the rest of the year.

Weather Brief: Texas Heat Builds as Fire Danger Rises

The following is sourced from NWS Fort Worth/Dallas, NWS Houston/Galveston, NWS Austin/San Antonio, and the national Weather Prediction Center and Climate Prediction Center, current as of August 10 and looking ahead through the coming week.

North Texas spends the week in a seasonably hot pattern that gets more dangerous as it goes. Highs run near 100 degrees areawide early in the week, with only isolated storm chances south of I-20. The heat holds throughout, and the real story is what builds on top of it: an extended stretch of hot, dry weather with increasing southerly winds and humidity dropping below 25% by the back half of the week. Highs of 99-102 degrees and gusts of 15-25 mph push the grass fire threat up across the region, and anything that starts will move fast. Dallas's August normals run 96-103 with an average of 99, so the temperatures themselves are unremarkable; it's the wind and dry air layered on top that make this week different.

Central Texas sits in the same regime, hot and mostly dry, with the NWS Austin/San Antonio forecast through August 16 showing that ridge-driven heat holding for the entire period.

The Gulf Coast is the wetter half of the state, at least for the first part of the week. NWS Houston/Galveston has low-to-mid 90s with afternoon thunderstorm chances and heat index values around 101 early on, then rain chances taper off and the heat builds from midweek onward, much like North Texas. The Rio Grande Valley stays sunny and hot the whole time, with highs near 102 and heat index values as high as 110, the most extreme readings in the state.

Nationally, the Climate Prediction Center's hazards outlook carries a Moderate risk of extreme heat for the Southern Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, and Southeast from August 16-18, with a broader Slight risk extending across much of the south-central and southeastern U.S. through August 22. Texas sits inside both windows. The heavy-precipitation risk over that same stretch lands well outside Texas, covering the Four Corners, Northern and Central Plains, Midwest, Tennessee Valley, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic. The 6-10 day outlook, valid August 11-15, favors above-normal precipitation from the Southwest, Great Basin, and Intermountain West eastward into the Great Plains, with the best odds, over 50%, in Arizona, most of Utah, eastern Nevada, and southeastern California, again bypassing Texas. Warmer-than-typical mid-August conditions are favored across most of the country, Texas included.

For Texas operators, the week's story is fire weather and density altitude, not convection. Build performance planning into every departure off a shorter runway, and expect the worst of it in the back half of the week, when heat, low humidity, and wind line up across North Texas. Watch NOTAMs for temporary flight restrictions if grass fires get going around the Metroplex. The Gulf Coast gets a narrow window of shower activity early in the week before the heat takes over there too.

That's The Brief

The Week in One Sentence: Solairus agreed to acquire Clay Lacy's aircraft management and charter business to create a combined fleet of more than 500 managed aircraft, the largest in the industry's history, Joby Aviation leased 45,000 square feet at Fort Worth Alliance Airport ahead of planned September eVTOL flights across DFW, AIN's annual Product Support Survey put Bombardier back on top of manufacturer support rankings, LABACE opened in São Paulo with 55 aircraft on static display and more than $150 million in expected deals, EBAA announced a new three-day EBAA Week event for November in Brussels to fill the gap left by EBACE's cancellation, Hop-A-Jet added a Gulfstream G280 to its fleet months after the Challenger 604 crash this Brief covered in detail earlier this year, FBO Jet-A rose to $7.76 nationally, and North Texas heads into an elevated grass fire threat Thursday as heat, low humidity, and gusty winds combine ahead of a broader Moderate risk of extreme heat forecast for Texas and the Southern Plains August 16-18.

Carry on and fly safe…