ASG Flight Report – Vista Challenger 350

Flashback almost exactly 21 years to the date that this is being written. It’s a hot early afternoon in Wichita, Kansas, and a considerably younger wide-eyed version of me is sitting in the cockpit of a Challenger 300 in Bombardier’s maintenance center as one of the company’s talented technicians talking me through the aircraft’s self-reporting systems. “This aircraft is one of the first in the world that can tell us exactly what’s wrong with its systems,” he confidently tells me.

Originally introduced in 1999, the Continental as was then called, was designed with enough range to connect the East and West coasts of the US, in both directions, in comfort.

Unfortunately, the Continental name was short lived. Although it perfectly described the aircraft’s capabilities, it was more of an internal project name rather than the final name, only giving way to the Challenger 300 name once Bombardier decided which of its then product families (LearJet, Challenger or Global) the aircraft fitted into.

Bombardier produced more than 440 Challenger 300s before it was upgraded to the Challenger 350 in 2013. The Challenger 350 improved on the Challenger 300 by strengthening the wing, increasing the size of the cabin windows and modifying the engine performance, all of which increased the range of the Challenger 350 by just over 100 miles.

It’s a Challenger 350 that I’ll be flying on today. Vista America’s fleet also includes a good mix of Challenger 300s and Challenger 350s.

But back to the present day, and 9H-VCB is sat glistening in the afternoon Singapore sun waiting to take me home to Hong Kong. Having arrived the previous day from Phnom Penh, 9H-VCB is one of a number of aircraft that Vista rotates through the region regularly. Rather than permanently base aircraft in each of the regions that it operates in, Vista prefers to rotate all its aircraft types through different regions as and when needed, which helps it maximize utilization. This in turn reduces the downtime of aircraft, and ensures that there’s always an aircraft in the correct region when a client needs to fly. In practice, although the aircraft officially have floating bases, often the smaller types in the fleet spend a long time in the same region.

The Challenger 350 is, in essence, the perfect aircraft type for Asia, as it can reach from one end of the region to the other side, and has a good-sized cabin to keep the passengers onboard happy.

Having been greeted and warmly welcomed by the Captain, First Officer and Flight Attendant at the steps of the aircraft, I stop briefly whilst getting onboard to take a quick snap of the cockpit. I’m immediately taken back to that hot Wichita afternoon 21 years ago and feel the same kick of excitement as I did back then.

Turning right and looking inside the cabin, I’m met with the familiar sight of the Vista cabin. Across all of Vista’s fleet of different aircraft types, the cabins are all designed to look the same, with the only differences being due to different size aircraft. It’s warm, it’s comfortable and I can easily imagine that for regular Vista clients the cabin design feels homely.

The cabin concept was designed in-house by none other than Nina Flohr, the daughter of Vista founder Thomas Flohr. Nina Flohr, or, to give her full title since her marriage in December 2020 to Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark – Princess Nina of Greece and Denmark, had previously been VistaJet’s Creative Director, saying back in 2013 that the cabins on the VistaJet aircraft were all designed not only to look the same no matter what aircraft type, but also to be simple, clean and make an impression

And make an impression it does.

”From the signature silver fuselage with a red stripe, right the way through to the chocolate brown carpet with cream squares running up the aisle, most people can immediately identify a VistaJet aircraft, inside, or out.”

The Challenger 350 is laid out in a classic two-sets of clubs seating, for a total of eight seats, each adorned with a pillow and a blanket, and a bottle of water neatly placed in the cup holder by each seat.

I take my place at the chairman’s seat as quickly as possible. As soon as I do, the smiling flight attendant offers me champagne, which of course I agree to. In front of me the table is half extended, covered in a series of the latest issues of magazines for people with a higher social standing than me. Next to the magazines, and far more interesting, is a bowl of Lindt Lindor Milk Cornet chocolates, which I sneakily hide when the table is stowed for departure.

Although Seletar Airport has a strict night curfew that prohibits arrivals and departures between 22:00 and 07:00, the airport also has several different non movement times for business jets during the day. These are spread out in one-hour segments, primarily to encourage training flights in light aircraft, and indeed a number of smaller, piston engine aircraft call Seletar home, most notably a sizable fleet of Diamond DA40s operated by the Singapore Youth Flying Club.

With one of those non-operation periods rapidly approaching, we start up and take a brisk taxi to the end of runway 21. The flight is taking place just a few days before the Singapore Formula 1, so along with F1 driver’s own private jets, many of the more well-heeled spectators are flying in on their own, or chartered jets. As we are lining up on the runway we glimpse the full view of the airport. Arriving just before us from Mexico via Honolulu was Mexican G650ER XA-AND, whilst parked in the corner of the airport, close to the end of the runway sits F1 driver Max Verstappen’s beautiful Falcon 8X PH-UTL. Incidentally, the UTL part of the registration stands for Unleash The Lion, which is also the name of Verstappen’s yacht.

An unusual anomaly about Seletar airport, and fortunately not an issue to us today, is that the area surrounding the airport is home to a number of Otters. Earlier in the week, during the Asian Business Aviation’s (AsBAA) Singapore Safety Day, Seletar Airport’s then General Manager Ching-Hok Chua told attendees during his last presentation before moving across to the main Changi Airport, that Seletar had installed special equipment to keep out the Otters, even going as far as saying “We hate Otters,” which may, or may not, suggest how much of an issue they really are.

But today there’s no time for plane or Otter spotting as the curfew is rapidly approaching, so as soon as we are lined up on Seletar’s runway 21 the captain releases the brakes, and we shoot up into the ever-darkening sky. After a nimble climb to 1,100 feet, we initiate a tight right turn to stay within Seletar’s Control Zone before straightening up and passing into Malaysian air space. The turn is tight, affording us a great view of the airport as we pass it again at 3,000 feet.

Seletar Airport sits in an unusual position, being close to the border with neighboring Malaysia, as well as being close to several of Singapore’s Air Force bases. A standard runway 21 departure means avoiding all other control zones, so whilst a tight right turn straight after departure might seem unusual to some, it’s standard procedure for all aircraft flying out of the airport.

Soon, we are speeding up the Eastern coast of Malaysia, reaching 30,000 feet before a slight course change direct to Hong Kong and climbing up 40,000 feet.

In the cabin, everything is calm and quiet. After a long and tiring week in the alternating blazing hot sun and predictable afternoon downpour of rain, the initial excitement of the flight starts to calm down, and my travel companions and I begin to make ourselves comfortable and start to think about sleeping. Although the flight is full, the aircraft is still unquestionably comfortable, with the ever-smiling flight attendant offering pillows and blankets to anybody that wants them. 

Sleep is the last thing on my mind though. The next day I’d have to get up early to get back to the airport to fly again, so instead of trying to sleep, I ate another of the chocolates that I’d sneakily hidden earlier. However, it seems I wasn’t as sneaky as I thought, as the flight attendant noticed this, and quickly asked if I’d like to eat.

By now it was around 19:15 and we were grazing the coast of Vietnam, which is my food heaven, so I agree, and the flight attendant swiftly and neatly pulls out the table next to me, setting it beautifully with a white cloth and cutlery. I’m also offered more champagne, but politely decline and opt for a Cappuccino instead, as I can already feel myself fighting the urge to sleep.

A short while later the coffee arrives, followed by a light meal, which mixes food from our departure city with that from our arrival city. It’s a nice touch, effectively paying homage to both Singapore and Hong Kong. Our nod to Singapore is of course Satay, with several skewers of surprisingly tender and juicy chicken and pork that could be dipped into a deliciously decadent satay sauce. I won’t lie, satay is one of my favorite foods, and as much as I’d love to tell you that I elegantly consumed each and every skewer, the truth is that I scoffed it all as quickly as I could. I then used the remainder of the satay sauce as a dipping sauce for the delicate dim sum items that were laid out in front of me. Then, as there was some satay sauce remining, I checked that nobody was looking, then ever so quietly unwrapped one of the Lindt Lindor Milk Cornet chocolates that I’d been hiding, covered it in satay sauce, and popped it in my mouth. It might not have been demure, it might not have been elegant, but it was – and I stand by this, absolutely delicious. 

With all of the food finished, our flight attendant magically reappeared and quickly cleared the table. Offering me another drink, I say yes to another cappuccino, which arrives swiftly along with an assortment of beautiful looking cookies supplied by Shophouse, the delicious bakery on the lobby level of Singapore’s Shangri-La hotel. I chose one of the chocolate chip cookies, which although is as big as my hand and I’m totally full, I still devour with fervent excitement.

Sitting back, coffee in hand, I connect to the onboard Wi-Fi. It’s surprisingly fast, like, really really fast. Even when I’m flicking through Instagram reels, and uploading quite frankly unnecessary pics and videos to IG, it never stutters, never slows down. So I check out our flight progress. Even though I can see on the monitors that we are rapidly approaching Hong Kong, I still want to see where we are, or, to be a bit more specific, I want to see what other traffic is around us and what runway we will be landing on. So I fire up the trusty FlightRadar24 app. For some reason, it shows our flight as being from Singapore to Jakarta, although this is changed as soon as we land in Hong Kong. 

In front of us is an Air China A350, out of Singapore’s Changi Airport heading to Shanghai. Maybe we could have caught it, but we have already begun our decent and started slowing down to join the rest of the evening traffic into Hong Kong.

Another quick check on FR24 shows that we will be landing from the West, over the sea, and soon enough we begin a series of turns to line us up with one of the runways.

I say one of the runways, as it was unclear which of the north, center or south runways we would be landing on. By rights we should have landed on the south runway and had a short taxi directly to the Hong Kong Business Aviation Centre (HKBAC), but as the lights of Macau slowly appeared in the distance, it became painfully obvious that we would be landing on the dreaded northern runway. Whilst you might argue that a runway is a runway, landing on the northern runway would mean a lengthy taxi around the airport before we could finally say goodbye to the Challenger 350.

Nonetheless, we eventually touch down shortly after a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 freighter from Sydney, another aircraft that, by rights, should have been able to use the southern runway. 

The taxi across the airfield to the HKBAC is brisk this evening, as we don’t have to wait to cross the center or southern runways, so around 10 minutes after touching down, we are stepping off the aircraft and whisked into the new HKBAC terminal.

The taxi across the airfield to the HKBAC is brisk this evening, as we don’t have to wait to cross the center or southern runways, so around 10 minutes after touching down, we are stepping off the aircraft and whisked into the new HKBAC terminal.

It’s my first time using the new HKBAC terminal, as it had just opened a month prior to my visit. Part of a wider expansion that’s due to be completed in 2026, the first phase saw the introduction of a new 26-meter canopy that aircraft can park under to disperse their passengers directly into the newly upgraded Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities. They say arrival can be done in less than three minutes, but today it takes a little longer as the HKBAC staff are waiting for our arrival, gift bag in hand. The flight took place in the same week as China’s Mid-Autumn festival, so HKBAC had thoughtfully prepared some cookies for all of the passengers, complete with personalized handwritten notes wishing us a happy holiday. 

Fast forward 14 hours and I’m back at the airport, uncomfortably cramped at the back of a Cathay Pacific A321neo on my way to Bangkok. There’s no peace, there’s no calm, there’s no space. The stranger sitting next to me is already encroaching into my space, and I have an internal wager with myself that they will be asleep on my shoulder within the next 30 minutes.

Although I’ve been very vocal in my distaste for Cathay Pacific using smaller A321neo’s on the flights I often take, from an economic point of view it makes sense. The Hong Kong to Bangkok route is not only flown multiple times a day by Cathay, but it’s also flown many times a day by a number of other airlines. Often there’s no need for Cathay to use a large gas guzzling A330 or regional 777-300 on this route, and I’m also struggling to believe that there’s enough passengers to fill one of those aircraft for a f light from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City at 22:30 at night.

So Cathay has done what any sensible airline would do, they simply ensured that the aircraft type they used on a route is appropriate for it, in much the same way as the Vista Challenger 350s are the appropriate aircraft for much of the routes around Asia.

Sure, it’s nice to be in the back (or front) of a Global 7500, but is it really needed for a three-hour flight? Maybe if you have a huge entourage and a whole shop’s worth of luggage or shopping, but for one, two or even six people, the Challenger 350 just makes sense.

And in this day and age of shaming people for their unnecessary emissions, wouldn’t it be better to take the right sized aircraft which burns through half the fuel every hour?