Business Aviation Market Intelligence

The Flight Of The Ph(o)enix

The Flight Of The Ph(o)enix

I am sitting in the back of a taxi on the way to the Hong Kong Business Aviation Center (HKBAC) with the driver listening to the news. Towards the end, the news anchor reminds Hong Kong that tonight will be a mega jackpot in Mark Six, Hong Kong’s lottery.

Although I have no intention of playing, my mind still drifts off, thinking about all I could buy if I were to win. I could finally get my dream watch, travel the world in luxury, buy bigger property and of course give some money to charity.

But whilst my mind wanders off into thinking about what I could buy, it comes quickly back down to earth thinking about what I couldn’t buy. One of those things would be the $75 million dollar jet that I am about to get onto, the other, as the old adage goes, is time.

Now, time might be a construct, but we are all on a linear journey towards the end. The end is unfortunately inevitable, so it’s important that we use our time as wisely as possible, getting as much done as we can, whilst we still can. Therefore, saving time where possible is important, as in return it gives us more time to do what we want. Money then becomes more important, but not crucial, as it helps us save more time.

One of those ways that people can save time is by flying private. And as I was about to find out, time can be saved in more ways than one.

So by the time that I’m pulling into the HKBAC in a taxi, I’m already proud of myself for saving time by travelling there by taxi, rather than getting on a bus. I know it seems perverse to catch a bus to get on a private jet, but living so close to the airport it had originally seemed like a good idea.

Although it’s early morning, there are a few flights departing from the HKBAC, but as always the highly dedicated HKBAC team greet me as soon as I get out of the taxi, and take my bag whilst showing me to the lounge. Our Global 7500 is visible across the ramp, its sparkling silver fuselage almost winking to me in the early morning sun. Meeting me in the lounge is Denzil White, Phenix Jet Cayman’s Chief Operating Officer, who will also be along for the ride.

The Phenix Jet Global 7500 we are flying on today was built in 2019 and flew for the first time in 2020. The aircraft had originally been registered in Malta for exactly a month as 9H-VIA before taking up a new Cayman Islands registration in January 2021. It is one of several Global 7500s in the Phenix Jet fleet, with this one preferring to call Tokyo’s Narita Airport home, but as White would later explain, the passengers prefer to fly out of Haneda, which is handy as it’s Haneda that we will be flying to today.

Although Phenix Jet operates several different aircraft types, it is more commonly associated with the top of the line Global 7500. This is mostly due to its penchant for breaking speed records between city pairs. Today’s flight would try to continue that tradition, although more on that later.

Waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs are pilots Dominic and Chun Siu as well as our flight attendant for the day Susanna. After some brief introductions I’m first up the stairs and into the aircraft to choose my seat for the flight. Inside, the cabin is split into four distinct zones, with a galley big enough to fit a full size divan. This also doubles up as a crew rest, with the divan being big enough for a flight attendant to get a good nights sleep during an extended range mission.

The first proper zone is set up with four of Bombardier’s Nuage seats in a club layout. Between each of the two sets of chairs a small table can be found hiding, which is neatly concealed as part of the side panel. This can be folded out at the touch of a button, then extended fully to form a good size table. It is here that we eat breakfast today.

The second zone however is traditionally where people would eat, and includes a full size table with seating for six laid out in a unique ying and yang 2+1 / 1+2 formation and again the table extends from the side panel with the push of a button. This time however the table is bigger, and includes an extra section that can easily be slotted into place to make the table the one piece, stretching right the way from one side of the aircraft to the other.

Behind this is an entertainment zone, that can be blocked off the zone in front and behind it by a pair of sliding doors. In here is a full size divan, but opposite is a big size TV screen. This can be controlled from up front in the galley, as well as directly by the inclusion of a Blu-Ray player that’s hidden in the cabinet that the TV sits upon.

Behind this zone is the master bedroom, complete with a full size double bed, as well as a single Nuage seat. Behind this zone is the bathroom, and access to a spacious baggage compartment.

Having chosen to sit in the forward zone, I’m immediately greeted with a pair of Phenix Jet branded slippers (which may, or may not have ended up coming home with me) and a glass of Champagne. Despite my British roots I wouldn’t normally drink before 09:00, but this morning it seems appropriate. We are politely told to strap ourselves into our seats, and soon enough we are on our way, making the short taxi from the HKBAC to the end of runway 07R, where we hold short just to let a few Cathay flights depart before us.

I always choose the “A” side on aircraft, no matter where I’m flying. My reason behind this is a very simple – if between choosing the seat and sitting on the aircraft the aircraft type gets swapped for another one, then at least I still get a window seat. On a private jet it’s less important, and today I’ve chosen to be on the opposite side, mostly so that I can snap a few pics of my apartment as we take off.

Once the Cathay A350-900 in front of us has departed it is our turn to line up on the runway. With a gentle nudge forward of the throttles we start to pick up speed, faster and faster until we effortlessly leave the ground in what I can only assume appeared as gracious as a swan from the outside. My colleagues sat on the left side of the aircraft are given some beautiful views of Hong Kong as we climb out, whilst I’m busy snapping many more pics of my apartment than I could never need.

The talk in the cabin swiftly moves from how effortless the departure was, to Phenix Jet themselves, aided by White who retrieves a Phenix Jet goody bag, which includes an umbrella which would become very useful during my time in Tokyo, and a folder showcasing the variety and versatility of Phenix’s Ultra Long Range charter fleet

Although Phenix Jet was founded in 2017, it has quickly risen to have one of the biggest charter fleets in Asia.

In the past few years the company has rapidly expanded its Cayman Island VP-C AOC, which White says was at the request of clients who needed a bit more flexibility when operating their aircraft in regions far from the US. Despite being such a young company, it already holds all of the major safety approvals, including IS-BAO Level 3, and Argus Platinum.

As our flight attendant lays our tables ready for breakfast, White tells us that the Phenix Jet service level commitment is built on three founding principles, which he refers to as the ‘Three P’s” – Professional, Proactive, and Personalised.

The first P, Professional, is not only demonstrated by the level of safety certifications that the company has gained, but also by the manner in which the flight attendant and aircraft crew interacts with us. At one point I asked for an orange juice, and before I can say Phenix Jet it was in my hand, placed there with a warm smile and a question asking me if there was anything else I wanted. Note that the word want here is important. There’s a difference between want and need. Did I need another glass of champagne? No, of course not. Did I want one? Yes, so that’s what I asked for, and again it was in my hand with a warm smile within a minute.

Proactive is always hard to gauge in a single flight, but I can say this: One of our party was delayed arriving at the HKBAC due to a traffic accident on the way. Fortunately not the taxi he was travelling in, but the resultant mess meant that there was a complete stand still traffic jam on the Tsing Ma bridge. As it became clear closer to our original departure time that we wouldn’t make our slot if we waited for the last passenger much longer. Phenix Jet stayed in constant contact with the airport ATC to ensure that when we were all ready to go that we could just get on the plane and leave straight away. Which is exactly what we did. It was no more than five minutes between the time the passenger arrived to when the aircraft door shut and we were taxiing.

Personalised can refer to several different things, but runs deep through the company. From choosing your meal as a passenger before you depart, right the way through having different AOCs for owners to choose from, Phenix Jet prides itself for offering personalized service. This is especially evident in its Global 7500 fleet, each of which has a different floor plan, which has been customized for different passengers and flight profiles.

The meal on todays flight was breakfast, for which we were asked in advance if we had any allergies. There are of course several ‘safe’ options for breakfast, and so that is what we were served today. The word ‘safe’ in this context isn’t used in a disparaging way, in fact, if I were to choose what I’d have for breakfast, this would undoubtedly be my choice. Fresh yoghurt with granola and fresh fruit, an omelet, croissant and a plate of fresh picked fruit. It might be the safe option, but it’s also classic and dependable. It was also delicious.

As we were finishing off our breakfast White tells us more about the flight, which we were to learn would not be an ordinary flight. Although we could see the moving map with flight stats behind White’s head, none of us had been paying too much attention, but as White was to explain, maybe we should have been.

Although this flight would be a regular route flown by Phenix Jet, and many others, today’s flight would try and set a new speed record between Hong Kong and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. To do this, we were unable to climb to 51,000 feet, as the winds were more favorable at around 37,000 feet. Quickly we all looked at the moving map, which confirmed that we were indeed at 37,000 feet.

Breaking a speed record between two airports is no easy feat, especially on a route flown so much. In fact, this route is flown so often that the aircraft that took off after us was a Cathay Boeing 777-300 which was also heading to Haneda.

So to get between the two cities as quickly as possible, and to save more time, we needed to fly as quickly as possible. So that’s what we were doing. With the moving map cycling through different sections of information I wanted to check myself how fast we were flying, so I did the only thing a true avgeek would do in that situation – I connected to the wifi and loaded up FlightRadar24 on my phone. Although it took a while to find us, when I eventually did I could see that we were travelling at Mach 0.91 and rapidly catching up with a China Airlines Airbus A330-300 that had departed Taipei and was heading to Tokyo’s other airport at Narita.

We did eventually catch it and overtake it, but by then I’d had another glass of champagne and was off exploring the rest of the cabin.

Those that know me well already know about my love of Godzilla. I remember watching the old black and white films as I was growing up being awestruck at the destructive damage that Godzilla could cause, and even as an adult I managed to get a Godzilla tattoo on my arm. So given the choice, up here at 39,000, on my way to Godzilla’s favorite stomping grounds, the opportunity to close myself into the entertainment zone and watch a Godzilla film was too good to resist. The TV itself was loud and crisp, with the Godzilla film being provided by a Blue-Ray that was found amongst a stack of films in a cupboard under the TV itself. The controls for the TV took a little bit of working out, who knew you’d have to swipe your hand over the arm of the divan you’re sitting on like Obi-Wan Kenobi performing a Jedi mind trick. Did I say ‘These aren’t the droids you are looking for’ as I said it? Maybe, but either way once I had then a little control column rose up from inside the arm of the divan that provided some basic controls for the Blu-Ray player, as well as those to lower the window blinds.

After randomly checking FlightRadar24 again a few times, I could see that a USAF KC-135 would shortly be passing underneath us travelling west to east. So I went back into the main cabin to join everybody else. And then it happened.

Although long before top of descent, there was a slight but perceptible change in engine tone. We all looked at each other, and then White hopped up and went into the cockpit to talk to the captain. Shortly after he returned with the bad news – Although we were well on our way to setting a record for this class of aircraft, Tokyo ATC had a different idea, and as we were rapidly approaching a lot of traffic, we had been told to slow down. A quick check on FlightRadar24 confirmed this, we were indeed rapidly approaching not only Tokyo, but were catching up with a lot of other aircraft that were heading into Tokyo’s airports.

So with that, our chance of breaking the speed record was gone. Postponed for another day.

It wasn’t long until we were at the top of decent, so our flight attendant came back into the cabin to begin tidying up and asked us to strap ourselves in just in case there was any mild Godzilla related turbulence. Or at last that’s what she had said in my mind, not that I’d know as I was invited into the cockpit for landing.

If you haven’t seen the cockpit of the Global 7500 then you are in for a treat. Beautifully simple, the pilots sit in front of three big main screens, with a further screen in the center console. Each screen can be quickly adjusted to show whatever information is needed, although the main focus for the arrival into Haneda is on the inclement weather which is elegantly reproduced on the multi function displays.

As we get closer and closer to landing one of the pilots apologizes for the weather, saying that if it would have been clear we would have been able to see an amazing view of Mount Fuji off in the distance. Whilst that would of course have been lovely, I’m more concerned with just how bad the weather is. This was borne out by Haneda ATC, which on one call to the aircraft warns that we should not expect to be visual with the runway until we are down to around 600 feet.

True to their word, we pop out of the cloud at 600 feet with Haneda’s runway staring right at us. There had been a few bumps on the way down, but our smooth touchdown is ruined slightly by Haneda’s runway, which seems long overdue for resurfacing.

The weather in Tokyo was, as everybody had been telling us, pretty bad, with strong winds and heavy rain. This was very much evident as we taxied past scores of ANA and JAL 787s parked on Terminal ready for their next international flights, and the handful of Globals and Gulfstreams that we parked next to as we finally came to a stop.

Clearing customs in the small, but dedicated, private facility at Haneda was just as efficient as you would expect from a Japanese airport, so within 10 minutes of landing we were let out in the Japanese wilderness. Each of us would go our own separate ways, White heading straight for Terminal 3 to catch a flight straight back to Hong Kong and my colleague headed straight to Narita, again for a flight to Hong Kong. Me, I dropped my bags off at an airport hotel, then caught the train (well, three trains) to the outskirts of Yokohama for some shopping.

The next day, whilst flying from Tokyo to Taipei on a regular scheduled airline flight, I finally have the chance to look back at the flight the day before. Phenix Jet had been great, not only were they able to negotiate slots in Hong Kong and Haneda to ensure that we could depart as soon as our colleague that was delayed in traffic had arrived, but they had also made sure that we had everything that we needed on the flight. Often, we didn’t have to ask for anything, whatever we needed was just there, perfectly on time right as we wanted it. Remember the goody bags I mentioned earlier? Maybe it was a coincidence, but the inclusion of an umbrella would be a remarkable stroke of luck, or forward planning by Phenix Jet, as it was in constant use almost all of the time I was in Tokyo.

And as for the speed record? Yes it was disappointing, but hey, there’s  always next time!

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