> What's the Avanti's range? How does it compare with a King Air?
It's about the same as a King Air 200/250. Around 1700 miles, minus
IFR reserve offset. The 350 (especially the ER version) is a different
animal for range.
But the problem is that the Avanti is a pretend jet. As a pretend jet,
it needs to compete with the jets. While the small jets are in that
same range, the cabin and feature set of the Avanti puts it in the
midsize jets which have longer legs. It has found a niche competing
against the King Air 250 and 350, and the Jungle Jets, but it is
lacking in the long legs because it has to stop to refuel along the
way, which ends up adding enough time to the run that it defeats the
purpose of flying private or charter in the first place and you lose
out, cost-per-mile, to the jets. As long as you are flying anywhere in
the country from interior city to interior city, it's fine, but
coastal to interior is tight, and coastal to coastal is out. To do the
North Atlantic run, it's big problem is that it needs to be running in
the tracks, but it's too slow to run in the tracks, and it can't
anyway, because it has to make a stop in Newfoundland and Iceland.
One could say that it shouldn't matter, because that is the realm of
jets. That's true, but it also means that a corporate flight
department has to have both types of aircraft. Fine if your
organization is big enough, but for a small company that can't afford
both, it means having to charter or outsource to the airlines or
freight companies.
AG
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