noplanenogain.orgAbout Us No Plane No Gain, a joint undertaking of the National Business Aviation Association and General Aviation Manufacturers Association, is designed to educate the public on the importance of business aviation to our country and its communities, companies, and citizens. In the United States, business aviation generates well over a million jobs, provides a lifeline to communities with little or no commercial airline service, helps thousands of businesses of all sizes to be more productive and efficient, and provides emergency and humanitarian services to people in need.en-ushttp://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Aviation Chief Sees Rough Weather Ahead.htm?m=51&s=340&id=450By John Golden  “I really do love the smell of jet fuel in the morning,” Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino proclaimed when welcoming visitors to the recent regional forum of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) in a flight service hangar at the county airport.  Astorino was speaking as one whose previous career in radio in Westchester began as a traffic observer riding shotgun in a cramped Cessna plane. In his current job in elected office that jet fuel smell bodes well for employment and the health of the county and regional economy.  “This industry is really vital to the local economy and entire area,” he told an audience seated in an event tent attached to the Panorama Flight Service facility. The forum drew more than 2,000 attendees who surveyed the booths and products of about 120 exhibitors and a display of about 30 aircraft parked outside.  Astorino cited a 2010 study by the state Department of Transportation that found that aviation has a $50 billion economic impact in the state. About 400,000 jobs statewide are related to the aviation industry, he said. The county airport provides 6,300 jobs for area residents.  A spokesman for the NBAA said business aviation in the county generates an estimated $613 million annually for direct and secondary employment alone. The county airport also helps officials’ efforts to attract companies to relocate to Westchester. “It helps, it really does, to have the airport here,” Astorino said.  With the departure in 2012 of AirTran Airways as an operator at the county airport and with other fuel-cost-conscious commercial operators reducing the number of flights from Westchester, business aviation has accounted for an even larger share of airport traffic. Astorino said the county last year recorded 74,000 corporate and charter flights, compared with 32,000 commercial flights.  “We know that growing air transport generates jobs and pumps millions into all of our communities,” the county executive said. Government should not put a brake on industry growth with “burdensome regulations and taxes,” he said.  In Washington, D.C., Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the approximately 9,000-member NBAA, has seen a “big difference” in the view from Congress of his industry since 2008. In the depths of the recession, CEOs from the Detroit automakers were excoriated on Capitol Hill for flying in corporate jets to congressional hearings on a federal bailout for their companies.  “Government officials are realizing that this is an important industry,” Bolen said. In increasing numbers they are willing to be publicly identified with business aviation, he said, noting that nearly half of the membership in the House of Representatives is in the general aviation caucus. About 40 percent of the House and Senate membership combined belong to the aviation caucus.  Despite that sunnier outlook on the industry from Capitol Hill, “The challenges are only going to get more difficult from here on out,” Bolen warned. The cumulative impact of sequestration threatens the industry, which already saw airport tower closings and air controller furloughs in the first round of the sweeping federal budget cuts, Bolen said.  In this “resource-constrained time” for government, said Bolen, “more and more ideas will surface” on how the industry can contribute more revenue to the federal treasury. “The challenges of the future are going to be more significant, are going to be tougher, than what we’ve seen to date,” he said.  Read the original article on the Westfair Online website.2013-06-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/Companies Fly Under The Radar Combating Cancer.htm?m=51&s=340&id=451By: John Golden  Susan Cotten had timely news she readily shared with visitors to her organization’s booth at this month’s regional forum of the National Business Aviation Association at the Westchester County Airport.  “We’ve flown 43,000 patients,” she said. “We just hit 43,000 this week.” The flyer was a cancer patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma for whom Cotten’s nonprofit employer arranged to hitch a ride on a corporate jet flying from the Los Angeles area to the Boston area.  A former flight attendant for American Express Co., Cotten still is a frequent domestic flyer in her current job as patient transport development manager for Corporate Angel Network (CAN). On her stops, she visits hospitals to inform staff social workers and oncology nurses of the charitable service that CAN provides in arranging free flights for cancer patients aboard company jets with a seat or two to spare on their scheduled business routes. While in town, she also contacts the flight departments of companies to enlist their participation in a shared mission of medical philanthropy.  It’s a transcontinental mission grounded and founded at the county airport in Westchester. Despite the turbulence of a recession and prolonged economic downturn and an accompanying storm of negative publicity over CEOs traveling in high-priced corporate jets, 652 companies have climbed aboard with CAN, the most in the network’s 32-year history.  Bonnie LeVar, communications director at CAN, knows intimately that history. Her father, the late Leonard M. Greene, was one of three founders of the Corporate Angel Network. Safe Flight Instrument Corp. the company Greene launched in 1946 from his Yonkers apartment, has long been headquartered at 20 New King St. outside the county airport. LeVar’s brother, Randall Greene, chairs the CAN board and succeeded their father as chairman, president and CEO of Safe Flight.  The corporate hitchhiking network was the inspiration of Priscilla “Pat” Blum, a Greenwich, Conn., resident and CAN’s last surviving founder. A commercially licensed pilot, Blum flew recreationally out of the Westchester County Airport.  Blum in the early 1980s was a breast cancer survivor who had become involved with the work of the American Cancer Society. There she heard of the difficulties that cancer patients faced in arranging and paying for air travel to and from their treatment centers.  At the county airport one day, Blum watched as a nearly empty corporate plane dropped off a single passenger. “She thought, wow, wouldn’t it be great if we could hitch a ride off of it” for cancer patients, said LeVar.  Blum brought her idea to Greene and another Westchester businessman, Jay N. Weinberg, the owner of an Avis Car Rental franchise in Mount Vernon. Greene had lost his wife to ovarian cancer and Weinberg had battled melanoma, and both were receptive. Greene, who had started his own charitable foundation, turned over its tax identification number to the startup network.  On Dec. 22, 1981, Greene piloted CAN’s first flight, delivering a patient home for Christmas in Detroit after treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York.  In its first full year of operation, CAN arranged 24 flights and had recruited 70 companies willing to take on a passenger without charge on the companies’ regularly scheduled flights. By 1991, the charitable network had grown to include 509 companies that carried more than 4,400 patients.  “These companies do this out of the goodness of their heart,” said Peter Fleiss, a former consultant to Safe Flight Instrument and CAN’s executive director since 2000, when the network flew its 15,000th patient.  With a marketing campaign driven by pro bono ads in large-circulation publications, Fleiss has accelerated the network’s growth in his tenure. He heads a staff of seven full- and part-time employees and some 30 to 35 volunteers at CAN’s headquarters at 1 Loop Road at the edge of the county airport. The landlord, Westchester County, provides the office space rent-free.  For participating companies, which include Purchase-based PepsiCo Inc. and half of the nation’s Fortune 100 companies, “There’s no tax benefit” from taking on a hitchhiker, said Fleiss. Many prefer to fly under the radar of public awareness of their aid to patients being treated or in clinical drug trials at about 100 cancer centers around the country. “They don’t want to promote their charity,” said Fleiss, “because of the perceptions about corporate jets” as fuel-guzzling, revenue-burning luxuries of fat-cat executives. “Companies don’t want to publicize that they have corporate jets.”  That criticism from the press and public was especially virulent in the recession and federal bailout of U.S. automakers and too-big-to-fail banks in 2008.  “It clobbered the aviation industry,” Fleiss said of the recession. Manufacturers of corporate jets “had to lay off lots of employees… Corporations, some went under, some merged, some got rid of their airplanes.” In the credit crisis, some medium-sized companies were unable to obtain loans to acquire or replace a business aircraft, he said.  “Since 2008, we’ve lost a lot of companies” from the network, said Fleiss. “But we’ve gained more than we lost.”  With corporations cutting costs in the new economy, LeVar said, “It’s harder to get flights for us now because the flights are definitely going fuller.”  Fleiss said CAN successfully schedules flights for about 250 patients each month. Yet it receives about 500 requests a month.“We still need a lot more to fly the other 250,” he said.  “We need more lift,” said LeVar. “We need more flights.”  “It’s a numbers game,” said Fleiss, “and the more companies you have, the more routes you have, and as a result, the more people we can help,”  “We need more volunteers” to help with scheduling, calls to corporations, soliciting pro bono ads and other office tasks, said Fleiss.  There are no income limits for patients served by CAN. “My father never wanted to be a banker,” said LeVar. “They never believed in checking finances.  “I think it’s great that it’s such a good idea that it stood the test of time,” she said. Read the orginial article on the Westchester County Business Journal website.2013-06-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cedar City Jet Builder Gets a $32M Tax Break.htm?m=51&s=340&id=448By Paul Beebe The governor’s office of economic development (GOED) on Wednesday approved a multimillion-dollar tax incentive that state officials say will bring 1,200 aircraft-manufacturing jobs to Iron County over the next 20 years.  By a unanimous vote, GOED’s board of directors agreed to give Cedar City-based MSC Aerospace a $32 million tax credit the company can draw on when the jobs are created. In return, MSC agreed to start building SyberJet light business jets at a building it will construct next to a 250,000-square-foot factory it already operates near Cedar City’s airport.  "This is a big project. It’s a huge project for rural Utah," said GOED board member Jerry Oldroyd.  MSC Aerospace is the parent company of SyberJet Aircraft. SyberJet has offices in Cedar City and San Antonio, Texas.  SyberJet bills the S130 as the fastest and longest-range seven-seat business jet in the world.  GOED’s approval came during a telephone conference call Wednesday evening. At 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Cedar City Municipal Airport Terminal, Utah Lt. Gov. Greg Bell will join officials from GOED, the Economic Development Corporation of Utah and the company to formally announce the agreement.  The tax incentive appears to be a good deal for the state and Iron County. Utah expects to collect $127 million in new corporate taxes over the 20-year life of the agreement. Iron County, where the unemployment rate was 5.6 percent in April, will get nearly $1 billion in new wages during the period. The county’s workforce of 15,144 will grow almost 8 percent.  Last month, a MSC executive told Iron County commissioners that the company would invest $400 million into the Cedar City plant.  The jobs will pay at least 40 percent more than the average Iron County wage of $2,363 a month. Many will pay double the average.  "For Cedar City and Iron County, it’s huge. We are looking at high-tech, high-end aerospace jobs," said Daniel Stewart, an economic development assistant at Cedar City’s Office of Economic Development. MSC’s main business has been building components for Boeing Co. and other aircraft companies. In 2011, MSC got into the private-jet manufacturing business when it bought the assets of the SJ30 light jet program from Emivest Aerospace for $3.5 million, according to AINonline.com, which tracks the aviation-parts industry. Emivest filed for bankruptcy in 2010 after the recession cut demand for business jets. Read the original article on The Salt Lake Tribune website.2013-06-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Manufacturer Investing $5.5 Million in Andrews.htm?m=51&s=340&id=447Davis Aircraft Products, a maker of aviation tubing systems, will relocate its manufacturing operations to its new plant in Andrews. The $5.5 million investment is expected to generate 100 new jobs. “With our new operations, we will be able to attract new customers and increase our market presence,” said Bruce Davis, CEO of Davis Aircraft Products.  The company will produce its patented Wolfbend product line, used in fuel delivery systems of aircraft. The plant in Andrews is expected to begin operations in spring 2014.  “South Carolina is becoming the ‘it’ state for doing business, and more companies are recognizing the benefits of locating their operations here,” Gov. Nikki Haley said. The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved a Governor’s Closing Fund grant of $300,000 for building upfit.  Since January 2011, South Carolina has recruited more than $9 billion in capital investment and more than 23,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.  “Today’s announcement provides another boost to our rapidly growing aerospace and aviation sector,” said state Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt. “Davis Aircraft Products investment brings another aerospace supplier to our state, and brings new manufacturing jobs that will have an impact in Georgetown County and beyond.”  The company will begin hiring for the new positions in spring 2014. Anyone interested in job opportunities should e-mail sales@davisaircraftproducts.com. Read the original story on the Georgetown Times site. 2013-06-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Sector Takes Spotlight.htm?m=51&s=340&id=449By Larry Avila GREENVILLE — Gulfstream is riding a wave of high demand for luxury business jets.  In February, the company announced it was adding 100 jobs to meet production demands for the company’s new line of G650 jets with a base price of $58 million. It has received more than 200 orders for the planes, which has translated to a backlog of work for the company through 2017.  Gulfstream’s success provided the backdrop for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s rally Thursday meant to spotlight the industry’s impact on the nation’s economy as well as Wisconsin.  “(Bringing the event to) Gulfstream was a natural fit for us,” said Pete Bunce, president and CEO of the aviation association. “They are our largest general aviation employer in the state and also the spirit of Gulfstream’s success was a great way for us to tell the story of general aviation.” The association said nationally, general aviation makes a $150 billion annual impact on the nation’s economy, supporting 1.2 million jobs. In Wisconsin, the sector makes a $3.5 billion impact, supporting 1,100 jobs, including nearly 900 at Gulfstream in Greenville.  Greg Laabs, vice president and general manager for Gulfstream in Greenville, said the company’s work is recognized globally. Gulfstream’s Greenville site does finishing and design work on new jets as well as service work for jets in service around the world.  “Our customers come from all over the world,” he said. “Our industry provides well-paying jobs and employs people outfitting some of today’s most technologically advanced business jets.”  Gov. Scott Walker was among the numerous dignitaries who addressed attendees. He said improving the state’s business climate can help companies like Gulfstream continue to grow.  “We’re going to do all we can to continue improving the climate, not just for (general aviation) but for all industries around the state,” Walker said. — Larry Avila: 920-993-1000, ext. 292, or lavila@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @LarryAvila Read the original article on the Post Crescent website.2013-05-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/Airport Completes North Aviation Development.htm?m=51&s=340&id=446By: Mary Carr MayleWith the snip of a ribbon stretched across a newly extended taxiway, the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport celebrated the completion of an ambitious, $29 million project designed to support the expansion of its largest tenant, Gulfstream Aerospace, while making room for future aviation business. Announced in late 2010, the massive North Aviation Development project involved the realignment of Gulfstream Road, including construction of a tunnel; a new electrical vault, construction of a taxiway bridge and the building of a new Taxiway H as well as the extension of existing Taxiway A. “This was an undertaking that came with its own set of challenges, not the least of which was the marshy, muddy coastal terrain,” said Sylvester Formey, chairman of the Savannah Airport Commission. “But our airport has a truly exceptional and professional group of folks who know how to get the job done. “Not only did they get it done, they brought it in under budget.” Formey said the project gives the commission an additional 200 acres of developed land that can be marketed for further airport development while also meeting the needs of a rapidly expanding Gulfstream. “It’s really a win for everyone,” he said. Airport executive director Patrick Graham agreed. “Our partnership with Gulfstream is important, not only for us but for the community,” he said. “We’re very fortunate to have them here.” Gulfstream Aerospace President Larry Flynn said the feeling was mutual. “We love Patrick Graham and the airport commission,” Flynn said. They — as well as the city and the state — have been wonderful to us. “We started here in 1967 with approximately 100 employees,” he said. “Now we’re at 8,500 in Savannah, adding 1,700 in the last year alone. “We’re really excited about where this taxiway will lead us.” Dodging alligatorsLike most projects of its magnitude, the North Aviation Development brought its share of unexpected complications, Graham said. “On the surface, when you looked at the plans, it seemed pretty simple — you dig a hole, build a roadway, build a taxiway,” he said. “Little did we know it would be like managing a moving target.” Issues ranged from major problems, such as poor soil conditions at the site of the tunnel running under Gulfstream Road, to minor inconveniences, such as the 9-foot alligator that temporarily halted tunnel construction. Graham credited airport staff and Henry Burton, the project’s full-time resident inspector, with keeping the work on track and on budget. Burton was brought in from the LPA Group of Columbia, S.C., a division of Michael Barker Corp. McLendon Enterprises of Vidalia was the general contractor. Graham also thanked the city of Savannah for its help with the project, which was funded by Federal Aviation Administration entitlement grants and airport revenues.“The FAA money on this project is funneled through the city of Savannah,” he said.Savannah Mayor Pro Tem Van Johnson called the development “a reaffirmation of the relationship between the city of Savannah, the airport and Gulfstream.” It’s the kind of relationship that creates a ripple effect in the job market, he added.“Think about it — 50,000 square yards of sod, 20,000 cubic yards of concrete, locally provided with local labor. Those are all local job opportunities.” BY THE NUMBERS1,225 feet: length of the Gulfstream Road tunnel, a little more than three football fields.689: concrete pilings in tunnel750,000 gallons: amount of water pumped daily by a 35-foot-deep lift station to keep the tunnel dry1,800 feet: length added to Taxiway A4,033 feet: length of new Taxiway H15 inches: thickness of the taxiways, which required 20,253 cubic yards of concrete2013-05-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Another Reason Why Our Nation Needs Business Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=445By Jack Olcott A recently published report by MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation documents the trend of US Airlines to reduce the number of flights to airports throughout our nation.  Since 2007, the 29 largest hub airports lost 8.8 percent of their yearly scheduled domestic flights in the six years ending in 2012, and smaller airports with scheduled airline traffic experienced a reduction of 21.3 percent in their activities.  The steadily changing character of scheduled flights results from major air carriers reducing frequency to large hubs and removing direct flights to smaller and medium-sized communities, according to the authors of MIT’s Small Community Air Service White Paper No. 1, distributed early this month.  Acknowledging that the years since 2007 have been challenging for the Airlines as management dealt with a troubled economy and volatile fuel prices, MIT researchers Michael Wittman and William Swelbar attribute the trend toward reduced flights to a strategy they call “capacity disciple”, whereby managers chose to adjust capacity in favor of generating higher load factors and correspondingly higher yields per flight.  Major air carriers reduced their frequency of flights to large hubs and removed direct service to smaller airports, which disproportionally impacted service levels to small- and medium-sized communities.  As if the gravitas of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were not sufficient, ask any business traveler about their experiences traveling to rural America.  Clearly, public transportation between many parts of our nation is time consuming and not conducive to working efficiently while en-route.  The USA, like other countries, requires a highly capable transportation infrastructure.  In today’s economy, travel by air is essential because business demands a rapid response to opportunities.  Thus our nation has invested billions in the development of an air transportation infrastructure that is designed primarily to serve the airlines and as a collateral advantage enables other users of airspace such as business and recreational aircraft to navigate safely.   Lest we discount the influence that airlines have in shaping the aviation infrastructure, it is clear that the overarching structure of Air Traffic Control, such as control centers, navigational facilities, GPS satellites, etc., would exist essentially unchanged if all business and recreational aircraft were grounded.  Furthermore, it is unlikely that our nation’s air transportation infrastructure would be as robust if there were no airline users.  Customers want solutions, and nothing replaces the effectiveness and goodwill that results from a knowledgeable problem solver arriving promptly on scene.   Our nation wants jobs.  Rural America welcomes companies that need skilled workers with a strong work ethic often identified with the frontier spirit.  Without effective transportation connecting areas of opportunity with established markets, America’s ability to leverage the capabilities of our vast land and grow dramatically is curtailed.  The Airlines in 2013, however, are less able to fulfill the needs of an America striving to recover economically and create jobs than they were in 2007.  Airlines serve about 10 percent of our nation’s airports with any scheduled service, and they concentrate their frequent flights between less than 50 locations. Nor do the authors of the MIT report expect the trend caused by capacity disciple to diminish in the near future. The companies that are most effective in seizing opportunities and solving problems often arrive on business aircraft.  They always have, and they will continue to do so.  There is no technology or airline business model that will replace the ability or the necessity of Business Aviation to serve our nation.  Next time someone bashes Business Aviation, remind him or her that corporate jets make our nation’s air transportation infrastructure more productive.  Read the original article on the Forbes website.2013-05-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Hooks Airport Braces For Business.htm?m=51&s=340&id=444By Bryan Kirk Officials at the David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport in Tomball are paving the way for the anticipated growth expected with the completion of the Exxon Mobil campus in Spring and the segments F1 and F2 of the Grand Parkway in 2015.  Since 2011, Antonio Merritt, general manager at the airport, has overseen improvements such as the erection of security gates and fencing around the 680-acre airport, a task that is in the final stages.  "We have all kinds of stuff going on right now," Merritt said. "We didn't have security gates when I got here a year ago, and we are still wrapping the field (with fencing). This is a busy place."  Hooks also is refurnishing a number of aircraft hangars, adding new runway lights and resurfacing both asphalt runways.  Along with the two asphalt runways, Hooks has a rare, 3,000-foot water runway on the property which is the only one of its kind in Texas, Merritt said. The water runway is basically a manmade lake that allows seaplanes or planes that are equipped with pontoons instead of wheels, to take off and land.  Hooks will be ready for the expected influx of new patrons by 2015.  Although the improvements are needed, Hooks Airport, which is one of the few general aviation airports in the United States with an FAA tower, already is an attractive option for corporate travelers.  A general aviation airport handles flights that are not classified as military or airline.  Fast-growing airport They usually handle any type of flight from something as small as a glider or a powered parachute, to a large cargo plane.  Hooks was named as one of the fastest-growing and one of the busiest general aviation airports in the US in 2011 by Access Aviation, an aviation consulting firm.  New hangars Merritt said Hooks also is adding new aircraft hangars, which will invariably increase the number of patrons who house their corporate aircraft at Hooks.  So far, three hangars have been added to the landscape at Hooks Airport, with two more expected to be completed by the end of this year.  Meanwhile, Merritt said he is also working to bring customs inspectors to the airport, which will facilitate travelers from Mexico and Canada.  The only airports in the greater Houston area that have customs officers are Hobby Airport, Bush Intercontinental, and Sugar Land Regional Airport in Fort Bend County.  "I believe we're going to increase our traffic to this airport from between 25 percent to 45 percent," Merritt said.  "This was a sleepy little airport, but we have a Department of Defense contract and we get all branches of the military, but getting these corporate jets flying in and out every day is also helping us.  "We have some big-name customers who fly in and out of here."  Some of those customers include H-E-B, Chevron, Baker Hughes, Citation Oil and Gas Corp., which is based at Hooks, and All-American Aviation.  Enhance the hub Merritt said it is a strong likelihood that Exxon Mobil will enhance the busy corporate travel hub.  "I really don't think we have any idea the impact Exxon Mobil will have on Hooks Airport and the Tomball community," said Tomball City Manager George Shackelford.  Exxon Mobil may be on the radar for growth in the area, but there are other businesses coming into the area.  Companies such as Noble Energy, which is moving into the former Hewlett-Packard complex on Texas 249 this summer, is feeding that anticipated growth in Tomball and fostering a level of excitement at Hooks.  Baker Hughes, already a frequent patron of Hooks, is poised to break ground on the Western Hemisphere Education Center in early 2014.  "It's exciting to see Hooks airport taking advantage of the timing of everything," said Kelly Violette, executive director for the Tomball Economic Development Corp.  "I think they are really looking at sprucing things up and making it ready for the growth we are going to see, not only with Exxon Mobil, but Noble Energy, Baker Hughes and all the companies that are looking at relocating and will use the airport for corporate travel." Attractive to business Having Hooks within reach of Tomball is an economic advantage for the city in that it can attract new businesses to the area, Violette said.  While cities like Tomball see the economic benefits of their proximity to the airport, other communities are praising the efficiency and the amenities offered for corporate travelers. Gil Staley, CEO of The Woodlands Economic Development Partnership, said officials are not only anticipating an influx from businesses using the airport, but the completion of the Grand Parkway will lessen the commute between The Woodlands, Hooks, and the Exxon Mobil campus. "The corporate base we have here lends itself to corporate aviation," Staley said. "Our niche market in The Woodlands area is typically corporate headquarters, so corporate aviation facilities like Hooks are vital to our success, and with it being so close, with the completion of the Grand Parkway, this will help us with our recruitment efforts, as well as those companies who want to expand here." Read the original article on the Houston Chronicle website.2013-05-14http://www.noplanenogain-org/Snapshot Into the World of Corporate Jet Travel.htm?m=51&s=340&id=442Want to know where business is flying higher or taking a dive? Check out the type of companies logging more or fewer hours flying corporate jets. A new report by JSSI, a company that provides support and services for more than 1,800 corporate jets, gives insight into what types of companies have been flying business jets and where they're flying. "What we're seeing is people are flying internationally more, going into new markets, developing markets. However the industry as a whole is still somewhat down, about 5 percent compared to 2012," said Neil Book, CEO of JSSI. "  "It tells me people are being a little more judicious about how and when they fly. The guy who used to fly 600 hours a year is now flying 500 hours."   Autos and Transports Seek New Markets JSSI data for the first quarter shows transportation related companies flew 117 percent more hours than in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile automotive companies logged 60 percent more hours in business jets. By comparison, healthcare (down 27 percent), consumer goods (down 33 percent) and business services (down 16 percent) all showed a decline in the number of hours flown. And while Wall Street had a solid 2012, financial service firms cut back on their use of private jets. "We've seen the banking sector and financial services sector come back since the recession, but we're still seeing some hesitation to fly at the levels they were pre-recession," said Book.   Bigger Jets to Newer Destinations While the use of business jets remains 10 percent below the pre-recession flight hours, JSSI is noticing companies changing how they use corporate planes. Increasingly, they are putting a more executives on larger corporate jets to make trips to developing markets. "There is certainly demand for larger cabin aircraft, especially in some of the emerging markets," said Book. "They've got the range to take more people and go a further distance." Book added companies are taking more flights and more time spent in developing markets of Eastern Europe and Russia. Biz Jet Stigma Still Lingers Admittedly, the JSSI data is merely a snapshot into the world of business jet use. Some of the data seems counter the perception of business picking up in certain sectors. For example, first quarter flight hours for real estate and construction dropped 19 percent and 13 percent respectively. By comparison both sectors clocked at least 20 percent more time in corporate jets last year.  One perception that has been slow to change is the stigma that surrounds the use of corporate jets.  During the recession, many companies were criticized for having a private plane or even a fleet of planes. It forced some, like the Ford Motor Company, to sell its jets in a scramble to save cash. While balance sheets have improved, some executives and companies remain reluctant to talk about how much they are flying the corporate jet. "I think the stigma has not gone away," said Book. "The public perception and attitude toward business aviation is getting slightly better, but we still see a hesitation by our customers to talk about flying and talk about taking their business jet." Watch the video broadcast on CNBC. 2013-05-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/The Enlightened Business Traveler – Your Guide to Creating Time.htm?m=51&s=340&id=441Across the world, companies realize that business aircraft are a vital tool for profitability. Whether it is on-demand charter to fractional and outright ownership, business aircraft represent a tremendous value for businesses that need to get out and see customers, move quickly into new markets and develop client relationships. In fact, a recent study by Washington, D.C.-based NEXA Advisors found that companies using business aircraft outperformed non-users across every key financial and non-financial measure during our nation's economic downturn.Read the full version of "The Enlightened Business Traveler-Your Guide to Creating Time."2013-04-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Houston Executive Airport Expands.htm?m=51&s=340&id=440By Christine Hall Arrival canopy, new terminal among improvements As west Houston and the Katy area continue to grow, the Houston Executive Airport is moving forward with a few developments of its own. Improvement projects underway include construction of the world’s largest fixed-based operator arrival canopy and a 22,500-square-foot terminal, set for use by May. A FBO provides services for aircraft owners, such as aircraft fueling, ground handling operations, rental and crew cars, crew lounge, and catering services. Airport Executive Director Andy Perry said he expects both projects, which cost about $5 million, will contribute to Houston’s economy and will provide alternatives for increased air traffic at area airports.  “West Houston is growing, and the oil and gas economy has definitely taken off,” he said. “Building the new FBO terminal arrival canopy will help us grow and meet the demands of higher-end business.”  About the airport Houston Executive Airport sits on 1,980 acres at 1900 Cardiff Road, north of I-10, in Brookshire. The 32,800-square-foot canopy is part of the construction of the Henriksen Jet Center. Construction had initially concerned neighboring residential areas, but Perry said he has worked with them to solve the problem. In addition, he has tried to keep traffic moving and not have the jets sitting around.  Promoting growth Perry said the airport is another tool for the Katy area to use to attract businesses and grow, especially with the Grand Parkway construction. “Now we have a major airport out here that can handle the traffic,” he said. “It is going to help in the future.” Bob Palladino, a freelance pilot at the airport, flies clients about three times a week out of Houston Executive Airport. Because of the airport’s location, he said, its popularity will continue to rise because of accessibility as opposed to neighboring airports. At William Hobby Airport, Palladino said, can take him an additional half hour to leave because of traffic backups on the runway. At Houston Executive, clients can be in the air by 7 a.m. and arrive at their destination without the extra wait. Thorough logistical planning benefits the pilots, he said, who can prepare to fly clients faster. In addition, the canopy will help with the wait.  “If you are sitting there for two hours, it can get pretty hot in the cabin if you are sitting out in the sun,” Palladino said. “Between the new terminal and the canopy, more fractional airlines and their customers will want to come in and out of there.” Local economic development organizations say the airport improvements will give the Katy area additional leverage when talking to businesses with that require a nearby airport. “This is going to make it a lot easier because now we will have first-class terminal facilities that companies will want to use,” said Vince Yokom, executive director of the Waller County Economic Development Partnership. Lance LaCour, president and CEO of the Katy Economic Development Council, said the projects will enable the city to go after larger companies and corporate aviation projects, especially those related to the energy industry. Meanwhile, Perry said, the airport has room to grow. In the last 10 months, it has expanded hangar lease space to more than 122,000 square feet. The new terminal building will also provide office space. The airport has 18 employees of its own and 50 overall including the businesses. There are 75 businesses using the airport, and Perry said he expects that number to continue to grow. In the future, he would like to extend the 6,600-foot runway and add to the number of hangars. “Our vision is to offer corporate business aviation the opportunity to get out of western Houston in a timely fashion with the ability to expand and grow in the future,” he said. The center is named after Ron Henriksen, who also opened Austin Executive Airport. Henriksen began building the airport in 2005 when he saw a need for a private airport in west Houston. He opened it in 2007. 2013-04-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Upgrade: Renovations Critical To Mercer Growth.htm?m=51&s=340&id=438If Mercer County is to grow and attract new manufacturing and retail business, it will need a strong and robust general aviation airport. After years of wobbly oversight that ultimately led to the loss of commercial air service in late 2007, it is good to finally see an aggressive airport authority board that is fighting for grant funding and other resources to complete long-overdue upgrades to this vital facility.
 
And they are making progress. For example, it was announced just last week that the Hugh I. Shott Jr. Foundation is awarding a $110,000 grant to undertake critical restroom and lobby renovations to the airport, as well as the promise of a conditional matching grant of $400,000 to cover half of the expense for a modern eight-unit T-Hangar. The latter award does require the local authority to raise an additional $400,000.

 Upgrading the restroom and lobby areas of the airport is of particular importance, as these are among the first areas of the airport that visitors, corporate traffic and even politicians see when flying into our facility. It goes without saying that we need to make a positive first impression, especially if we want those corporate chief executive officers to relocate and expand their business offerings into our region. And having a modern T-Hanger at the airport will help to better accommodate the all-important corporate traffic that is necessary for a strong general aviation airport.

 Airport authority board member Charlie Cole has been working to find funding to redo the bathrooms and replace the existing furnishings in the lobby of the airport since he was appointed to the board last year. “Those two areas are so important to our airport because they are the first thing general aviation passengers and pilots see when they land at our airport,” Cole correctly notes. He adds the new T-hangers are popular now among general aviation pilots, and this is another way to bring additional traffic to the airport.

 Other problems at the airport also have already been corrected, including the lack of a working snow plow to keep the airport runway clear of snow and ice during periods of inclement weather. Just two years ago the airport had to close during several snowstorms due to the lack of a working snowplow truck. And every time the facility was closed, vital air traffic and revenue was lost.

 Other assets also are being explored by the newly focused authority board. For example, the 2009 Special Aircraft Property Valuation Act provides a more attractive tax credit for businesses utilizing Mountain State-based airports. It’s an obvious asset that hasn’t been adequately promoted — at least until now. This tax credit puts Mercer County in a unique position of attracting regional two-state traffic due to the airport’s close proximity to the state line.

 The recent progress at the airport is welcomed. In order to attract urgently needed new manufacturing jobs, along with retail and commercial growth, we must have a first-class general aviation facility that corporate executives and others will utilize as needed. This includes adequate hanger storage space, a modern lobby, a modern restroom and pilots lounge, and competitive fuel sales for corporate traffic to utilize.

 If we don’t have an adequate facility, corporate traffic will bypass Mercer County to another facility that meets their needs. That is why it is absolutely critical that these and other updates be made to the airport as soon as funds become available.

 Cole and the authority board members are to be applauded for taking these long-overdue steps to enhance our airport.

It is critical for the board members to continue this fight, and to do everything in their power to help make our local facility a top-notch general aviation airport. 2013-04-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/Airport Improvement Boost Usage.htm?m=51&s=340&id=437By: Sarah Kessinger A plan to enhance the lighting at Marysville Municipal Airport is the most recent in a string of improvements that have made the facility one of the best of its size in this region, local officials say.

 Airport Advisory Board member Bud Schuette, a pilot and City Council member, said Marysville’s airport now can accommodate small jets. The latest lighting improvements will make it even better and safer, Schuette said.

 “The new beacon will make it easier for pilots to spot the airport,” he said. “This will improve safety for Lifestar helicopter pilots coming in at night.”

 Watts Electric Company, Waverly, Neb., was recently hired by Marysville City Council to install the new lighting improvements. Ninety percent of the $398,000 project is funded by a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. “We don’t do this work unless (the federal government) funds it,” said Marysville City Administrator Rick Shain.

 Lighting improvements include a new beacon on a 40-foot-tall pole, replacing a 30-foot pole. A wind cone will have new lighting to tell pilots the wind’s direction at night.

 Precision Approach Path Indicator lights will be installed on the runway to improve safety, as well as a new runway end indicator light.

 Another boost to the city came this past winter when the state approved funding of 75 percent, or up to $75,000, for a new AWOS-III — an automated airport weather monitoring system — and up to $119,700 for an additional taxiway connector for Marysville’s airport.

  The AWOS will be installed this summer, Shain said. The taxiway connector should be in place next summer, he said.

 Most of the local match for the weather monitoring system has been paid by a $60,000 gift to the city from the R.L. and Elsa Helvering Trust in Marysville.

 The changes enhance a major improvement a few years ago when the city added a taxiway. The work has helped maintain Marysville as the site of the largest general aviation airport in northeast Kansas.

 The new weather monitor makes the facility that much safer, city officials say.

 “And the taxiway is really nice,” Schuette said. “It decreases liability and the possibility of a collision.”

 With a second taxiway connector built next year, “we’ll have one of the finest airports of its size in Kansas,” he said, noting that “comings and goings” at Marysville’s airport include occasional operations from Fort Riley.
  With help to the city from both the state and federal governments in the past decade, several million dollars has been invested in the facility, which services not only the area’s business community but also medical providers, flight ambulance services, recreational pilots and, occasionally, military planes and helicopters.

 “Doctors fly in regularly from Lincoln,” Shain said. “And a lot of transient pilots come through on business.”

 Landoll Corporation, Marysville, houses aircraft at the airport, where it leases land for its own hangar. The company regularly uses a plane for business travel. Other local pilots also lease hangars from the city.

 “You don’t realize how many people use that airport until you read the pilots’ log up there,” said Bob Shipman, a longtime City Council member who will retire his seat this month. Shipman includes airport upgrades among city projects he’s been most proud of in his 24 years on the council.

 Jim Swim Jr., a local railroad engineer and pilot, likes to fly for recreation. He uses a plane regularly leased to local pilots by Don Landoll, president of Landoll Corporation.

 “From a community standpoint, this is a nice facility,” Swim said while at the airport recently. “There’s been a lot of personal, individual support in the community for it. People have donated time and energy to keeping it going.”

 Public funding has made it even more appealing, he said.
  An airport of this caliber, Swim said, helps Marysville market itself.

 “It all involves investment. The community has to be progressive and pro-active if you want to get anything done.”

 Landoll has contributed improvements to the airport over the years, building a handsome black metallic fence with cut-out images of Marysville history. The company also helped refurbish a tiny terminal building used by those stopping through the airport.

 “They’re very active,” Schuette said of Landoll’s involvement in maintaining the facility. “But it’s not just for Landoll, it’s for business in general and medical and recreational fliers. It puts a stamp on your community in every way. 2013-04-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/New taxes Could Decimate General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=439Small aircraft boost economy, connect cities While rarely thought of, small aircraft help support critical aspects of our local infrastructure on an almost daily basis.   Small aircraft help the Salt River Project connect water and power to more than 2 million people throughout central Arizona. With mostly hydroelectric dams located in rural areas throughout the region, the company relies on general aviation to fly engineers and technicians, along with the specialty parts and tools that they need, directly to locations in record time to minimize power loss. Numerous studies have shown that companies that utilize their own aircraft perform better than those that do not. Businesses of all sizes count on general aviation to get to locations in a time-sensitive manner, meet with customers and make multiple stops in a single day, particularly in regions where access to commercial aviation is limited.   This translates into economic development and job creation for many local communities. The Scottsdale Airpark, the second largest employment center in the state, is a prime example. The airport generates more than $182 million in revenue to the region. Across the state, general aviation has an economic impact of $609 million and is responsible for nearly 7,000 jobs. Nationwide, general aviation accounts for $150 billion in economic activity and more than 1.2 million jobs. General aviation is also an important asset to the modern public-safety system. Firefighters, emergency-medical responders, law enforcement, search-and-rescue teams, natural-disaster relief crews and non-profit organizations use general aviation every day ensure safety for our communities. In fact, my organization, Flights for Life, utilizes all of the Valley airports, making 1,200 flights per year to deliver human blood and platelets, all by volunteer pilots. We provide emergency transportation for human blood to replenish hospital reserves on demand, 24 hours a day and 365 days per year. We will soon be accepting the Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award from America's Blood Centers, North America's network of non-profit community blood centers. But recently, some in Washington, D.C., have aimed to score quick political points by targeting these aircraft. Not only would new, punitive taxes on aircraft owners and operators decimate many small businesses throughout our state that are already struggling to recover, but these proposals would have a ripple effect throughout our communities, threatening critical services that connect many of our rural communities.  Fortunately, local elected officials recognize the need to protect general aviation. Gov. Jan Brewer declared Jan. 15 to be Aviation Day. In doing so, she has acknowledged the vital importance of general aviation for businesses and communities throughout the state. In addition, Mayor Chris Gibbs of Safford has joined more than 140 other mayors and town officials in a petition to the President urging his protection of general aviation against new burdensome taxes. Warren McIlvoy of Phoenix is the President of Flight for Life and a member of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. 2013-04-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Paving The Way For New Jobs.htm?m=51&s=340&id=436By Paul JohnsonGREENSBORO —Piedmont Triad International Airport will spend nearly $3 million to help Honda Aircraft Co. create more jobs and invest $20 million at its HondaJet aircraft maintenance operation. The contract, awarded Tuesday to a Charlotte-based company, will extend one of the PTIA taxiways by 1,500 feet to the HondaJet maintenance, repair and overhaul facility on the eastern edge of the airport property. The facility will open in the second half of this year, Honda Aircraft reports. The jobs created at the facility, which haven’t been specified, are part of 419 new positions that Honda Aircraft will create locally through the end of 2015. Honda Aircraft broke ground this past September on the 54-acre maintenance facility site that will become part of the HondaJet corporate complex. Since last decade, Honda Aircraft has invested more than $120 million and developed more than 500,000 square feet of production, research and development and administrative space at PTIA. Its local work force totals more than 750 employees. The company is developing a small jet for the corporate aircraft market. The taxiway extension will allow HondaJet aircraft to reach the maintenance operation after landing. The taxiway extension should take four months to complete, said PTIA Executive Director Kevin Baker during the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority monthly meeting. The contract was awarded to Morlando Construction of Charlotte, which edged out the next lowest bidder by $3,990 on nearly $3 million project, according to the Airport Authority. 2013-03-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/‘No Plane No Gain‘ Themes In View As Harrison Ford Champions GA On Capitol Hill.htm?m=51&s=340&id=434The House General Aviation Caucus held a discussion on Capitol Hill this week with actor and pilot Harrison Ford to highlight the value of general aviation to the nation, and the event served as an effective opportunity to showcase the many reasons business aviation is essential in America today. Ford joined GA Caucus Co Chairs Reps. Sam Graves (R-6-MO) and John Barrow (D-12-GA) at the March 19 event to talk about the many contributions of general aviation to a policy audience that included other congressional lawmakers, Capitol Hill staff, reporters with several national news organizations and representatives from NBAA and other GA groups.  The event featured a large banner (shown at left), displayed beside Ford and Graves, which showcased individuals from across the business aviation community who have been featured in the most recent ad campaign produced for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign. The campaign is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and the latest ad campaign is called ”Faces of Business Aviation,” because it puts forward real people in the industry to underscore for policymakers and opinion leaders the size, diversity and importance of business aviation in America today. Learn more about the ads and view a copy of each ”Faces of Business Aviation” ad. The banner at the March 19 GA Caucus event featured a dispatcher, two individuals who are small business owners and pilots, a business aircraft cabin filled with traveling salespeople and a small child on a humanitarian flight conducted by a business airplane to deliver the message: ”Business Aviation Works for Us…All of Us.” In his remarks, Ford similarly noted the industry‘s humanitarian value, and the other important services provided by GA, even noting his personal involvement in humanitarian flights. He also pointed to other valued services provided by general aviation, including medical evacuations, emergency air support services, and search and rescue operations. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen welcomed Ford‘s participation in the House GA Caucus event, and the opportunity it provided to highlight the industry‘s importance. ”When NBAA and GAMA launched the No Plane No Gain campaign, we noted that we want to ensure that Washington decision-makers understand the many reasons why business aviation is essential to citizens, companies and communities,” Bolen said. ”We are delighted that Harrison Ford spoke to the industry‘s many benefits, and we thank Congressmen Graves and Barrow for organizing this important event.” Because the GA community has been focused in recent weeks on the potential impact of the ”sequester” – or mandatory budget cuts to federal agencies, including the FAA – much of the GA Caucus forum focused on that topic. Ford spoke forcefully about the importance of control towers as ”critical to flying”, calling the threats to about 200 contract control towers a serious issue that ”needs to be addressed immediately.” He went on to warn that with the tower closures anticipated in the FAA‘s sequester-response plan, jobs will be lost and local economies around the country will be impacted. ”When you close a tower, you're eliminating the operations that can happen there,” he said, noting that the industry provides over 1.2 million stable, high-wage jobs and generates $150 billion in annual economic activity.  The actor-pilot noted it will have ”a huge impact on small businesses,” as the closures cause businesses using aircraft to seek alternate airports for conducting their missions, further limiting access for small towns and rural areas.  The FAA plans to announce a final decision on its tower-closure plan on March 22. 2013-03-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/Hawaii Declares 2013 The Year of General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=435Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii has declared 2013 “The Year of General Aviation” (GA), making the Aloha State the 48th state to officially recognize the importance of all general aviation, including business aviation.  In his proclamation, Abercrombie noted the $412 million annual contribution the industry makes annually to the state’s economy. Despite its small land area, the state has 15 airports that serve 3,103 pilots and 1,005 GA aircraft. Hawaii is composed of eight main islands, and more than 100 smaller ones, making GA essential for quick travel within the state. “(GA) provides residents, businesses and visitors access to isolated areas of the state, enabling communities to remain connected to the nation’s air transportation system and the world’s global marketplace,” the governor said. He added that GA was also vital for the state’s response to emergencies and natural disasters. Review the Hawaii proclamation (PDF)  Before issuing the proclamation, Abercrombie released more than $100 million for various capital improvement projects at the state’s airports, including Kahului Airport on Maui, Kona International Airport on the island of Hawaii, Honolulu International Airport on Oahu, Molokai Airport on Molokai, Hilo International Airport on Hilo and Lihue Airport at Kauai. “We thank Gov. Abercrombie for his proclamation,” said NBAA Western Regional Representative Stacy Howard. “Also, the General Aviation Council of Hawaii (GACH) has been instrumental in helping pilots deal with some of the special considerations of flying in Hawaii, such as extended temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) when President Obama vacations in the state.” Nearly all U.S. states have officially recognized the value of all general aviation, including business aviation, with all proclamations including at least some of the basic tenets of the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which was launched in 2009, and is sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturing Association. 2013-03-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/Economic Abundance: Within Reach With Just A Change Of Perspective.htm?m=51&s=340&id=432By Todd Simmons Todd Simmons is Executive Vice President Sales, Marketing & Customer Support for Cirrus Aircraft. He offers his perspective on the real value of personal and business aviation. As a pilot, aircraft owner, employee at Cirrus Aircraft — and, most important, father to a young son who loves to fly — I am passionate about flying and particularly general aviation. I am privileged to be able to observe and to participate in the power that the general aviation industry and Cirrus Aircraft have on people’s lives, both personally and professionally.  However, the current public discourse around national legislative changes that could harm general aviation have us all concerned. That the general aviation owners, operators and employees — including Cirrus Aircraft — are the antagonists in this narrative is simply misguided. By contrast, let me share a unique perspective that illustrates both the high-value jobs and the pro-growth solutions that Cirrus Aircraft and General Aviation provide. Cirrus Aircraft is a shining example of innovation, ingenuity and quality manufacturing of fast and efficient transportation machines. The avionics and systems aboard the fifth-generation Cirrus are more sophisticated and capable than on just about any airliner or business jet flying today. Even better, Cirrus aircraft have a unique airframe parachute system that can safely lower pilots and passengers to the ground in case of the very worst emergencies. With 65 lives saved to date because of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System, called CAPS, that’s real technology making a real difference! There are really two main issues that speak to the contributions that come from the production and use of these aircraft. The first is the immediate positive impact of Cirrus Aircraft as a manufacturer and its place in the general aviation ecosystem. On the first point, while I suspect that class division using aircraft owners as targets does poll well among a segment of the electorate, that rhetoric is ignorant as it relates to the real power and positive impact of general aviation on local, regional and national economies. Cirrus Aircraft and other general aviation manufacturers employ highly skilled technicians, designers, engineers and many other professionals at class-leading wages and class-leading salaries — exactly the kind of jobs and compensation that the U.S. needs and wants more of. Cirrus Aircraft also contributes to a net export surplus that the U.S. enjoys in the aerospace sector, with more than 40% of Cirrus Aircraft deliveries going to over 60 countries around the world. With all of those dollars flowing back to the U.S., Cirrus Aircraft has an enormous economic benefit for the families and citizens of Duluth, MN, and Grand Forks, ND; and the economic vitality of the entire Upper Midwest. I could go on with this list of well-established statistics of the positive benefit of domestic aircraft manufacturing. Before moving on from this first point, note that this manufacturing capability comes as the aviation industry collectively invests literally billions of dollars in research and development of new aircraft products and technologies that maintain our leadership position today and for tomorrow. Our commitment to that future at Cirrus is called the Vision Jet. This new entry-level jet makes fast, efficient, economic transportation available and affordable to a wider audience than ever before. With over 500 positions reserved, it will be purchased, owned and operated by the same value creators and job providers that our piston-engine SR-Series owners are today. Our customers — entrepreneurs, innovators, small business owners, medical professionals and job creators — are actually the lifeblood of this very significant national economic enterprise. The second point, perhaps more important, but often overlooked, is the overall value-creating impact of a typical Cirrus Aircraft owner and how he or she uniquely multiplies economic value through the use of an airplane. This impact has proven time and again to be profound as these same airplane customers noted earlier are themselves economic value creators. Real executives conducting real face-to-face business that keep their busy schedules with single engine piston aircraft like a Cirrus. It all equals real value and real productivity. For example, a farm implement dealer in the Dakotas; a franchisee of a well-known family restaurant brand who manages his outlets up and down the East Coast using a Cirrus; a car dealer in Ohio; a geologist in the Bakken oil fields; a real estate development firm in Arkansas; business owners, farmers, franchisers, consultants, attorneys, marketing agencies and more are using Cirrus aircraft and general aviation daily to further their business, reach more customers and add more employees. The Cirrus aircraft used in these examples are absolutely critical tools of commerce and productivity that provide entrepreneurs with quick and efficient access to smaller communities, remote locations and cities and towns across America’s heartland that are served by more than 5,000 local airports. By contrast, less than 10% of those communities are served by airlines. The collective value and benefit this group uniquely provides — and the multiplicative positive impact it has on so many communities across the country — creating the real prosperity we all want. They are a critical part of the drive train in the American economic engine. I am an optimist. I do think enlightenment can find our policy makers and help grow companies like Cirrus Aircraft. If we can change the prevailing view, we can clearly see that the owners and operators are the catalysts they have proven to be in this narrative. My optimistic outlook is embodied by a recent comment from a fellow pilot and industry colleague: “What could this look like if we viewed it from the perspective of abundance instead of scarcity?”  Indeed, abundance is exactly what we see when we pilots are flying and look out of the cockpit. 2013-03-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA Member Denounces Obama's Business Aviation Policy Proposals.htm?m=51&s=340&id=433A longtime NBAA Member is speaking out against a “counterproductive” proposal by the Obama administration to target business aviation with changes to tax-depreciation schedules on the purchase of aircraft. In an online piece published this month by Forbes magazine, Louis Seno, chairman emeritus of JSSI (Jet Support Services Inc.), argues that the proposal would do little to cut government red ink, but could impede the business aviation industry’s gradual recovery from the 2008 economic downturn. “What I see is yet another stumbling block out of Washington that has the potential to hurt the 1.2 million people who make their living, building and servicing these valuable business assets,” Seno wrote. Read: “Is the Obama Depreciation Plan Counterproductive? You Betcha!” “Depreciation” refers to the amount and timing of tax payments for companies using general aviation airplanes. Under requirements defined by the IRS decades ago, and codified into law by congress in 1986, aircraft owned and operated by a company for business use are depreciated over five years. The Obama administration proposes to change that schedule to seven years, even though economists have noted that shorter depreciation schedules help incentivize the purchase of business assets. That means moving to a longer schedule would remove such an incentive, driving down demand for business aircraft purchase, and impacting manufacturing jobs in the process.  “The current methodology has been working for the better part of three decades,” said Seno, who became “frustrated” when he learned of the Obama administration’s proposal two years ago. When Forbes asked him recently to write about it, he jumped at the chance to increase awareness of the issue. “Our fragile industry is just starting to come out of the doldrums,” he said. “Anything that would kill that, I am against.” Calling himself a “diehard believer in business aviation,” Seno has spent 35 years in the industry, much of it in financing. In 1989, he helped found Chicago-based JSSI, now the world's largest independent provider of hourly cost maintenance programs for aircraft engines and airframes. He is a former senior manager at Boeing Capital Corp. and GE Capital Solutions and has served with several NBAA groups, including the Association’s Tax Committee. 2013-03-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/Wichita's Aviation Industry Could Hit Delays Amid Budget Cuts.htm?m=51&s=340&id=429By: Chris Frank  The recovery of Wichita’s general aviation industry could be hitting another obstacle. Planemakers like Bombardier Learjet and Cessna could run into delays from the FAA in getting new products certified due to federal budget cuts. Take Bombardier Learjet has three new products in the certification process: the Lear 70, 75, and the all-new composite plane, Learjet 85. And Cessna is working on the M2, the Latitude, and Longitude business jets. But now comes sequestration budget cuts. The transportation secretary earlier warned furloughs of FAA personnel would impact aviation manufacturer’s certifications. Sources say the FAA has followed that up with a new email to Wichita planemakers, say the certification process could be delayed. "When you delay the certification of aircraft then, yes, you're delaying the success of programs," says Brian Foley, aviation analyst and president of Foley Associates. Delaying certification means delaying a whole program, missing deadlines, and being late getting a product to market. It could delay planned hiring for the ramp-up of production in some cases.  There has been no confirmation yet from local planemakers of specific warnings from the FAA. But we've already heard the transportation secretary who saying this would happen.  Bombardier spokeswoman Peggy Gross says the company hasn't heard anything formal yet, saying they're staying in touch with the FAA and Bombardier doesn't want to speculate on how furloughs could impact product certifications. 2013-03-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/FAA: Long-term Bizav Outlook Remains Favorable.htm?m=51&s=340&id=431By: PAUL LOWE While general aviation began to show signs of recovery in 2012, boosted by strong growth in rotorcraft and the agricultural turboprop aircraft segment, the slow economic recovery and economic uncertainties continued to plague business jet and multi-engine piston deliveries. However, “We see growth in business aviation demand over the long term driven by a growing U.S. and world economy, especially in the jet, turboprop and turbine rotorcraft markets,”  the FAA said in its “Aerospace Forecast for Fiscal Years 2013-2033,” released yesterday. After growing rapidly for most of the past decade, and then slowing over the past few years, the business jet market is finally seeing an end to the hard impact of the recession, according to the most recent shipment activity, the agency said. The forecast calls for robust growth in the long-term outlook for business jets, driven by higher corporate profits and the growth of worldwide GDP, though at rates lower than those predicted last year. Additionally, continued concerns about safety, security and flight delays keep business aviation attractive relative to commercial air travel. 2013-03-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Alphabets Sound Alarm at Town Hall.htm?m=51&s=340&id=430“An organized attack by the administration on business aviation,” was among the topics under discussion at the General Aviation v moderated by HAI president Matt Zuccaro yesterday. Panelists–the leaders of AOPA, GAMA, NBAA, NASAO and NATA–also discussed topics ranging from the effects of sequestration to efforts to revisit aircraft certification standards. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association president and CEO Craig Fuller spoke of the “growing outrage within the general aviation community” he has seen at meetings around the country and said that when Americans went to the polls last November “growing the economy was the most important thing to voters.” The administration’s efforts run counter to those concerns, he said. National Business Aviation Association president and CEO Ed Bolen pointed out that President Obama should be among the first to recognize the value of business aviation. “Air Force One is America’s corporate jet,” said Bolen. “He uses it for the same reason companies rely on general aviation aircraft,” noting the flexibility, security, ability to maximize efficiency and other benefits of traveling by general aviation aircraft.” Regulatory Changes Among the subjects General Aviation Manufacturers Association president and CEO Pete Bunce addressed was the current effort to modernize aircraft certification standards. “We need regulations that are adaptable,” Bunce said. “Regulations made 20, 30 years ago are not applicable today without different interpretations and judgments,” and said the FAA “is excited” about the current revisiting of Part 27 and Part 29 certification. Addressing the subject of what he called “the meat axe of sequestration,” Henry Ogrodzinski, president and CEO of the National Association of State Aviation Officials, noted, “There was a teleconference yesterday where the FAA talked about shutting down all the contract control towers,” Ogrodzinski said. “But those are primarily general aviation airports.” National Air Transportation Association CEO Tom Hendricks noted the importance of educating legislators through lobbying efforts, as his association does. “There will come an inflection point in the legislative process in the middle of the night when young staffers are told they have to get a deal done,” said Hendricks. “If you haven’t spent time educating people who are going to do that deal, you are going to lose in the legislative game in Washington.”  Zuccaro highlighted another critical issue, legislative efforts to force the FAA to consider noise complaints in regulating air traffic–even though there are no studies regarding the issue–as the most pressing problem facing the rotor industry, along with the dearth of pilots and maintenance technicians coming into the industry. Despite the gloomy talk of assaults on business aviation, panelists said they remain optimistic the community can prevail by working together and expressed their determination to carry on the fight. 2013-03-06http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Aviation Career Day And Forum To Be Presented at LGB.htm?m=51&s=340&id=427By Sarah Bennett Some commercial airlines might be closing and the economy is still technically in a recession, but private jet sales  are still a robust industry meaning that new business aviation jobs are not only increasing, they are attainable for both young people and those looking for a career change.  The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), together with the Southern California Aviation Association (SCAA) are hosting a Career Day at the Long Beach Airport tonight that will give interested locals insight into a variety of available jobs working in and around private business jets, many of which are based at municipal airports around the Southland. Tonight's Career Day will feature a panel of ten speakers from NBAA and SCAA, who will discuss the variety of jobs needed--such as a pilots, maintenance technicians, flight attendants, operations specialists, dispatchers, sales and marketing professionals--as well as steps to pursue those careers. Those who attend tonight will also get free admittance to the day-long Long Beach Business Aviation Regional Forum being held tomorrow, February 28. “Long Beach Airport supports 18,000 jobs in the region," said Long Beach Airport Director Mario Rodriguez. "Not only does aviation provide careers, but they are careers that people enjoy. The panel of folks speaking all share a passion for this industry and if you attend, you’ll see why." Tomorrow's peer-networking forum will feature more than 100 companies, is expected to draw more than 1800 aviation professionals and is designed to meet the needs of regional business aviation communities. President of Aeroplex/Aerolease Group, Curt Castagna, came up through the ranks washing airplanes and pumping fuel in 1978 to become CEO of one of the top private jet terminals in Long Beach today.  “I enjoy helping people like me learn about traditional and nontraditional jobs in aviation," said Castagna. "There are opportunities in aircraft sales, administration, leasing, FBO management, hospitality, as well as more traditional roles for pilots and flight attendants." Both events will be held at AirFlite at the Long Beach Airport. Please register online at http://scaamemberlodge.com/events to attend. AirFlite at Long Beach Airport is located at 3250 Airflite Way. 2013-02-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Job Seekers Find Opportunity To Learn About Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=428By Ashleigh Ruhl There's a lot more to aviation than what the public sees when they make their way through the airport. There are a lot of people doing jobs behind the scenes, according to Long Beach Airport Director Mario Rodriguez. That's why Long Beach Airport is playing host to the National Business Aviation Association's (NBAA) Business Aviation Regional Forum on Thursday, Feb. 28. Also, there will be a special panel discussion from aviation professionals preceding the event on Wednesday, Feb. 27 done in collaboration with the Southern California Aviation Association (SCAA). All attendees at Wednesday's panel discussion will receive complimentary passes to Thursday's event. "Consider this as a very sophisticated career day," Rodriguez said. "I don't know that people are really 100% informed about how many actual careers there are in aviation. How many of us have had an opportunity to sit in the cockpit of an airliner or own a private jet and need to have the engine overhauled?" Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, who is expected to attend the forum, issued the following statement: "The future is bright for young, hard-working professionals who are thinking about a career in aviation. Having the opportunity in Long Beach to meet those working professionals and to find out how to get trained in the field is a tremendous advantage for those who can attend." Rodriguez said there are a lot of jobs in aviation - Long Beach Airport supports 18,000 jobs in the region. Besides pilots, there are jobs for people interested in working as flight attendants, air traffic controllers, maintenance, accounting, design and more. Also, there are jobs working for airlines as well as private jet companies and general aviation operations. "The pilot has the sexy job," Rodriguez said. "But there are other jobs that pay really well - hopefully people will come to this event if they are thinking about a different career field. Aviation is still very romantic. They write poetry and songs about flying, and there's still a mystique to working in the industry. It is an interesting field and it changes all the time, and there are lots of different jobs - it is endless." Wednesday's panel discussion will include a mix of professionals from different areas of expertise in the industry. The panel takes place from 5 to 6 p.m. at Airflite at 3250 Airflite Way. Register online at http://scaa.memberlodge.com/events.  Thursday's Business Aviation Regional Forum is a learning and peer-networking event from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. featuring more than 100 companies. Nearly 2,000 attendees are expected. Tickets are $60 in advance or $75 at the door (discounts are available to NBAA members, and the event is free for those who attend the Wednesday panel). Register at www.nbaa.org/events/forums/ . 2013-02-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/General Aviation In Ohio Keeps Businesses Moving.htm?m=51&s=340&id=426In 2011, the state of Ohio experienced record rainfall, saturating the ground and jeopardizing the state's crops since farmers were unable to operate heavy machinery to apply fertilizers and crop-protection products without damaging the land and crops. In this case, many area farmers turned to aircraft and aerial applicators to help save crop yields throughout Ohio. And 2011 actually ended up being the third-most plentiful yield (per acre) of corn in Ohio history.  While this may seem to be a rare story, the truth is that the versatility of small aircraft, also referred to as general aviation, makes them a crucial tool for businesses and farms alike across Ohio in many different circumstances. While these aircraft are often unseen to the general public, the fact is that they are a crucial tool used by law enforcement, emergency medical response, firefighting and prevention, charitable efforts, natural disaster recovery, education, blood and organ transport, fish and wildlife management, search and rescue, power-line and pipeline maintenance, and nearly every service to communities conceivable.  The same versatility that makes small aircraft such a great resource for public safety also applies in the business world. In fact, a number of studies have shown that businesses that utilize general aviation do better than those that do not. At Neil Armstrong Airport in Wapakoneta, manufacturers in the area, including Honda of Ohio and Crown Equipment Corp., rely on the airport for "just-in-time" delivery of components. NASCAR teams and vendors use the airport for access to nearby Eldora Speedway, home of the first NASCAR dirt track race in 43 years this July. Overall, general aviation in Ohio accounts for $5.5 billion in economic activity every year and supports 17,000 jobs. Businesses of all sizes use general aviation. Most workers who travel by general aviation are engineers or technicians, sales personnel or middle managers, traveling between branches and visiting with new customers or suppliers. General aviation allows for multiple stops in a single day, especially in rural areas where access to commercial flights is limited. In fact, at Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights, Nextant Aerospace manufactures low-cost business aircraft and Flight Options manages fractional ownership of business aircraft. Both companies make general aviation accessible to smaller businesses at lower costs and provide well-paying jobs within the community. Unfortunately, many still do not understand the crucial importance of these aircraft and the airports they use for businesses and communities across our state. Some in Washington, D.C., seek to make the businesses and groups that use these aircraft pay additional "user fee" taxes, on top of existing fuel and sales taxes, which would unfortunately put a target on many of our area's smallest businesses and farms, as well as medical providers, flight instructors and many others who carry out critical services for our communities. Fortunately, many of our local leaders understand the value of general aviation and its crucial importance to our communities. Gov. John Kasich declared last December to be General Aviation Appreciation Month, the third proclamation of its kind in three years, and 15 Ohio mayors have joined other local officials across the country in signing a petition to President Barack Obama urging the administration to recognize the value of general aviation and avoid destructive new types of taxes. While it may be a tough budgetary environment in Washington, let's make sure we remind our local leaders to stand up for the businesses and resources that make a huge difference to our residents every day. Marshall Eichfeld is the president of the Ohio Aviation Association, office director at Delta Airport Consultants, a registered professional engineer and a member of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. 2013-02-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/Why Are Business Aircraft Owners A Target For White House Ridicule?.htm?m=51&s=340&id=425 By: Mark Patiky The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today strongly criticized the dismissive remarks from the White House made earlier this week regarding business aviation. Specifically, on February 20, an assertion was offered by the White House that the only reason American companies use business aircraft is because “it’s extremely convenient and they can afford it.” Responding to that misrepresentation, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said, “The White House is promoting a caricature of business aviation that is at odds with reality. In fact, 85 percent of companies using an airplane to help build their businesses are small or mid-size, and are most often flying to or from communities with little or no airline service. For these companies, trying to be efficient and productive enough to compete in an extraordinarily difficult economy, business aviation is not a ‘convenience’ – it’s a critical tool that allows them to reach more places in less time, quickly move people and parts, and work in an environment where employees can discuss proprietary information without fear of eavesdropping.” Bolen noted that in separate published newspaper opinion pieces, the presidents of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council have also responded to the administration’s recent mischaracterizations of business aviation by championing the industry’s value and calling upon the White House to stop targeting the industry with “job-killing” tax proposals. Bolen added that elected officials have weighed in as well, pointing to the mayors and governors from both political parties who have written the White House in support of business aviation in recent months. “It’s difficult to understand why the White House would be unresponsive to these important voices, or to the industry’s importance in places like Ohio, Minnesota, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas and elsewhere,” Bolen said. “The fact is, business aviation is essential to citizens, companies and communities across America, and the renewed mischaracterizations that have been coming from the White House have real potential to harm this great industry.”   2013-02-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Jay Carney: Aviation Job Cuts Just 'Difficult Choices'.htm?m=51&s=340&id=424By Burgess Everett White House press secretary Jay Carney didn’t ooze sympathy Wednesday for the thousands of plane builders who could lose their jobs if the Obama administration succeeds in its call to eliminate a tax break for corporate and private jet owners. “I would say that making choices about budgets and deficit reduction always involves difficult choices,” Carney told a reporter who asked what he would say to “tens of thousands” of middle-class aviation workers whose jobs could be affected in states like Kansas, Washington and Oklahoma. Carney then went back to the administration’s usual argument on how to avert the looming sequester — that the debate is a choice between “special” tax breaks versus national defense, Head Start for children and jobs for teachers. “When it’s a choice between laying teachers off or affecting our national security or in the broader scheme, reforming our tax code in a way that eliminates these special interest tax breaks or subsidies, that is a better option,” Carney said. “The question here is: What choices do we make? Do we choose to protect narrow special interest loopholes?”  Later, in a televised interview with Wichita’s KAKE, Obama offered a more diplomatic defense of his administration’s push to end a corporate tax benefit for jet owners, saying the move isn’t about cutting aviation jobs, and he hopes to make things easier for aviation companies, but not corporate jet owners. “We want to give more tax breaks to all the aviation companies in Kansas, so that they are hiring here and producing here. What we don’t want to do is give somebody who's buying a corporate jet an extra tax break that ordinary people can't get because they don't need it,” he said.  “The reason people buy corporate jets is because it's extremely convenient and they can afford it. And they don't need an extra tax break, especially at a time when we're trying to reduce the deficit. Something's got to give,” he added.  Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) raised concerns earlier this month that more than 1 million people in the general aviation industry could be affected by touching the 1986-era tax exemption for personal and corporate jets. The reporter at Wednesday’s briefing said thousands of layoffs have already occurred in Kansas “since the president started mentioning this.” Association CEO Pete Bunce said later that people in his industry “are not special interests” and demanded a mea culpa from Carney. “These statements are totally outrageous and Mr. Carney should apologize,” Bunce said. “It’s completely offensive to refer to hardworking Americans as ‘difficult choices.’ This administration should stop the sound bites and political games and focus on fixing our economy.” The infamous loophole, a frequent target of Obama, stole the show at the daily press briefing. Carney repeatedly pitted the billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts looming on March 1 against “corporate jet owners,” along with the oil and gas industry. One reality, though: Eliminating the tax benefit would pay for a fraction of the billions in domestic spending cuts that sequestration threatens to impose March 1. The tax break allows general aviation aircraft to be depreciated over five years rather than seven for commercial planes. Eliminating that provision has been estimated to generate about $300 million a year, or $3 billion over 10 years. The sequester will deliver about $43 billion in domestic cuts this year alone should it go into effect. “Can we acknowledge here that closing the loophole for corporate jet owners … is not going to solve your sequester problem?” another reporter asked Wednesday. “We can acknowledge it, but implicit in your suggestion is that we ever said that it would,” Carney responded. “Can you tell me a single tax loophole … that Republicans have identified that they’re willing to close that would reduce the deficit?” However, the press secretary also said Obama supports legislation from Senate Democrats that would avert the sequester, mostly through raising taxes on the rich but also ending some farm subsidies and cutting some defense spending. The Senate bill doesn’t include anything to eliminate the break for jets. So while Carney continued to hammer private jet owners, he also was endorsing a bill that would do nothing to close that loophole. “There’s legislation that has been submitted that would avert the sequester implementation by House and Senate Democrats. The president supports that legislation,” Carney said. 2013-02-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/Rhetoric Against GA Continues.htm?m=51&s=340&id=419By Charles Spence WASHINGTON, D.C. — Money continues to be the topic dominating the conversations and actions here as the President, Congress, and businesses, including aviation groups, face a series of challenges. The federal debt is passing $16.5 trillion and increasing at the rate of $3.2 million a day. The President wants more taxes to slow it. That’s one spot where aviation groups differ with him. They also differ with his proposals to assess a fee on all flights using Air Traffic Control services and a reduction on the depreciation schedule for general aviation and business aircraft. Officials from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA), and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) came out fighting after Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, commented about closing “loopholes” for items like corporate jets.  Craig Fuller, president and CEO of AOPA said: “AOPA is very disappointed in the Obama Administration’s endless attempts to lengthen the depreciation schedule for business aircraft. At a time of widespread concern over job creation in this country, we feel it is short-sighted to put further financial burdens on an industry that contributes positively to our nation’s balance of trade, and one that supports highly skilled, good-paying jobs.”  “Once again,” said Pete Bunce, president and CEO of GAMA, “the Obama Administration is starting the drumbeat that we could end all the fiscal challenges our nation faces by changing the depreciation schedule for general aviation and business aviation from five to seven years. Their rhetoric is wrong and all it does is hurt general aviation companies and workers across this country.” “Purchasers of jets, turboprops, rotorcraft, and piston aircraft didn’t create the country’s misfortune, but contributes more than $150 billion to the economy annually and employ more than 1.2 million people,” he added. Ed Bolen, president and CEO of NBAA, said the White House rhetoric about general aviation depreciation ignores established facts and long-standing tax policies related to business aircraft ownership and use. Noting changes to the depreciation schedule for GA aircraft would not yield meaningful progress toward reducing the national debt, Bolen added it has the potential to harm a great American industry.  Business jets are used by government officials. A report from the General Accounting Office shows that for fiscal year 2002 the federal government spent $289.9 million operating its aircraft. All cabinets in the administration have their own business jets. In that year 15,545 flight hours were racked up by business jets operated by the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Justice, State, Interior, Treasury, Transportation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, and Tennessee Valley Authority.  The President’s business jets are two Boeing 747-200Bs operating as “Air Force One.” Cost to fly these on presidential business trips is $180,000 an hour. The recent extra vacation trip to Hawaii taken by the president in his business jet cost taxpayers $3 million. This business jet has also been used on local hops. One example is a 90-mile trip from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia.  Many in aviation are puzzled by the confusing positions of the President, who recognizes the value of aircraft for conducting government business while at the same time proposing raising taxes on individuals and companies that find business and personal aircraft of distinct value.  The issue is sure to continue. 2013-02-14http://www.noplanenogain-org/Sen. Roberts Asks Jack Lew About The Obama Administration's War On General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=422On Feb. 13, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) stood up for the industry during a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee. Roberts looked to the hearing, which focused on President Obama’s nomination of Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary, as an opportunity to grill Lew about the White House’s unfavorable characterization of business aviation, and “the seemingly unending attacks this Administration continues to direct at this essential aviation industry – i.e., general aviation.” He added that “general aviation has become a ‘piñata’ in regards to tax reform by this administration, and I’m more than a little tired of it.”See Sen. Roberts' committee hearing remarks. 2013-02-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/GAMA Report: Airplane Sales Flat, Helicopters Booming.htm?m=51&s=340&id=421By Mary Grady The 2012 shipment report from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, released on Tuesday, was mixed, with deliveries of piston aircraft down by 2 percent compared to 2011, business jets down 3.4 percent, and turboprops up 10 percent, with growth of 0.6 percent overall for airplanes. Helicopter sales rose 21 percent, reflecting a growing global market. GAMA chairman Brad Mottier said what the numbers don't show is the intense amount of development work now under way across the industry. "The general aviation segment is poised for resurgence in the next few years as these new technologies certify and enter the market," he said. The major general aviation manufacturers showed no dramatic changes over last year's numbers; for example, production at Cessna rose from 521 aircraft to 571 (including piston, jets, and turboprops), Cirrus kept almost level at 253 deliveries in 2012 compared to 255 the year before, and Diamond grew a bit, with 182 deliveries in 2012, up from 156. GAMA also announced it's expanding its work with the nonprofit group Build A Plane, which is developing a nationwide competition in aircraft design for high-school kids, and with the Recreational Aviation Foundation, which works to open up access to wilderness areas across the nation. The full GAMA report is posted online. 2013-02-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/General Aviation Plane 2012 Shipments up Slightly.htm?m=51&s=340&id=418By: AP News WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The General Aviation Manufacturers Association says shipments of general aviation airplanes last year were up slightly at the same time billings decreased a bit. The trade group reported Tuesday that 2,133 airplanes were delivered in 2012 for an increase of just point-6 percent. At the same time, airplane billings declined slightly last year to $18.9 billion. That compares to billings of $19 billion in 2011. Deliveries of turboprop airplanes were up by more than 10 percent last year. That helped to offset fewer deliveries of piston planes and business jets. GAMA's chairman, Brad Mottier, says in a news release that general aviation is poised for a resurgence in the next few years as new technologies enter the market. 2013-02-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/GAMA: Business Aircraft Deliveries Down in 2012.htm?m=51&s=340&id=420By Curt Epstein While many prognosticators forecast last year as the beginning of a resurgence for business aircraft manufacturers, those hopes will have to move to this year, according to 2012 aircraft delivery numbers released this morning by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. While 2012 saw a modest increase in overall turbine aircraft shipments, the gains were solely in the lower-end, non-pressurized turboprop segment as overall billings decreased by nearly 1 percent from $19 billion to $18.9 billion year-over-year. For the business jet segment, the 672 aircraft handed over last year represented 24 fewer than the previous year and the lowest tally since 2004. Those delivery totals were buoyed by a fourth-quarter push that saw more than a third of the year’s business jets handed over to customers. Although turboprops overall saw a better than 10-percent year-over-year increase–due mainly to GAMA’s recent inclusion of agricultural aircraft manufacturers–pressurized model deliveries declined by 6 percent, from 239 in 2011 to 224 last year. “While the 2012 shipment and billing data were mixed, the numbers don’t reflect the amount of development work in progress in general aviation,” said GE’s Brad Mottier, who is GAMA’s chairman this year. “The general aviation segment is poised for resurgence in the next few years as these new technologies [achieve certification] and enter the market." 2013-02-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Rep. Pompeo On Aviation Industry.htm?m=51&s=340&id=423On February 12th, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-4-KS) took to the House floor in a forceful speech noting that depreciation schedules like those on business aircraft are, “Something that every asset in America is subject to, and yet somehow [the president] has picked on this particular depreciation schedule is offensive and antithetical to the American way of life.” Pointing to the million-plus jobs created by the manufacture and use of aircraft for business, the congressman added: “It is unexplainable why anyone would pick on this industry.” See Rep. Pompeo's floor statement. 2013-02-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/GA Groups Work To Expand Caucuses.htm?m=51&s=340&id=417By: Mary Grady With a new Congress now in session in Washington, NBAA this week said now is the time for pilots around the country to contact their elected representatives and ask them to join the general aviation caucuses in the House and Senate. NBAA President Ed Bolen said the bipartisan groups "inform legislative debates by highlighting the value of general aviation in creating jobs, helping companies succeed, connecting communities and supporting humanitarian endeavors." Bolen said the groups helped to pass FAA reauthorization, the pilot's bill of rights, and bonus depreciation for airplane buyers. AOPA has posted a map on its website to show the status of elected officials in each state, and EAA also says it's vital that the caucus "has a large membership to draw upon to highlight important issues facing the GA industry." U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., told AVweb back in 2011 that the House caucus worked hard to inform lawmakers about "hundreds of issues" regarding FAA reauthorization, which finally passed, after a five-year effort, in February 2012. Elected officials can be contacted through the USA.gov website. 2013-02-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Bolen: Time To Court Congressmen for General Aviation Caucuses.htm?m=51&s=340&id=416By: Curt Epstein This morning at the opening session of NBAA’s 24th annual Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen looked to the start of the new session of Congress and used his podium to issue an impassioned plea for show attendees to contact their representatives, requesting they join the general aviation caucus. “One thing I have learned after nine years of coming to Schedulers and Dispatchers is that the people that come to this conference are doers–you guys make things happen, so I am coming to you today to ask you to get it done,” he told the audience gathered in the ballroom of the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center. Despite the last session being generally regarded as a do-nothing Congress due to partisan arguing, Bolen recounted the aviation-friendly legislation it was able to pass, including the reinstatement of the BARR program, the oft-delayed FAA reauthorization, the pilot’s bill of rights, legislation against the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and the extension of bonus depreciation. He credited those successes to the industry’s engagement with the legislators on both sides of the aisle over the last four years. During the session of Congress that just ended, those efforts resulted in nearly 40 percent of lawmakers in both houses joining their GA caucuses, a level that Bolen said must be achieved again in the new session to provide protection for the industry against threats such as user fees. With the battles over the national debt and sequestration still facing debate, some legislators continue to view additional fees on general aviation as a source of revenue without raising taxes, he noted. 2013-01-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/Companies That Use GA doing Better In Economic Recovery.htm?m=51&s=340&id=415By Janice Wood Businesses that rely on aviation not only did better during the Great Recession; they are already doing better in the recovery when compared to their ground-bound competitors, according to a new study. A post on the website of the National Business Aviation Association notes that companies that utilized business aviation “mitigated revenue losses and recovered more quickly than non-users. Further, companies using business aviation were quicker to hire back employees and have significantly grown their overall workforce since 2007, relative to non-users.”   2013-01-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Study Shows GM's Use Of Business Aircraft Could Actually Improve Shareholder Value.htm?m=51&s=340&id=414By: Mark Patiky For many, associating a business jet with improved profitability, enhanced shareholder value and heightened productivity seems counterintuitive. Those that own, operate and use business aircraft will tell you otherwise. But you don’t have to take their word for it: A recent study by NEXA Advisors clearly underscores that companies that use business aircraft outperform those that do not by a wide margin. The National Business Aviation Association  published the results of the NEXA study on its No Plane, No Gain web site. January 14, 2013 Listen to the NBAA Flight Plan podcast about the study by NEXA Advisors.  Businesses that rely on aviation not only did better during the Great Recession; they are already doing better in the nascent recovery when compared to their ground-bound competitors, according to one prominent researcher. NEXA Advisors President Michael Dyment pointed to findings in his recent study of companies using business aviation to challenge an online Forbes magazine editorial calling into question GM’s renewed use of business aviation, now that the company has been released from U.S. Treasury requirements resulting from the government’s investment in the company. “If GM goes out tomorrow and buys a jet for its executives, shareholders might as well dump their stock now…” the Forbes opinion piece stated. “There are many, many factual examples where business aviation today is most successfully used to grow shareholder value by the top-performing companies in the United States and elsewhere,” Dyment countered.“Any notion that business aircraft are a bad investment cannot be substantiated.” NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen was also quick to reply to the Forbes opinion piece. “Simply put, General Motors, or any company that wishes to remain agile and competitive in the global marketplace, should consider use of a business aircraft — one of the most vital efficiency and productivity tools available — without concern for unwarranted stigmatization,” Bolen wrote in an opinion piece of his own, which was posted to the publication’s web site. Backed By the Numbers Dyment backed up Bolen’s assertion by pointing to his most recent study on the effect business aviation had on Standard & Poors (S&P) 500 companies’ bottom lines as they weathered the Great Recession. “Our analysis of the key financial metrics found that business aviation users weathered the Great Recession of 2008 far better than non-users. Among the S&P 500, business aviation users outperformed non-users in every performance category we examined,” the study, entitled, Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times, concluded. Dyment was critical of reporting that perpetuates misperceptions about business aviation, rather than realities. “Business aviation is truly a competitive advantage that has been proven time and time again,” Dyment said, citing key findings in several additional studies he has done about companies using business aviation. For example: Among the “50 Most Innovative Companies,” a compilation produced by BusinessWeek, 30 S&P 500 companies made the list. Of these, all were business aircraft users.Among the “100 Best Places to Work,” a compilation produced by Fortune, 32 S&P 500 companies made the list. Of these, 91 percent were business aircraft users.Among the “25 Best Customer Service Corporations,” a compilation produced by BusinessWeek, 8 S&P 500 companies made the list. All of these were business aircraft users.Among the “100 Best Brands,” a compilation produced by BusinessWeek, 48 S&P 500 companies made the list. Of these, 96 percent were business aircraft users.Among the “50 Most-Admired” companies, a compilation produced by Fortune, 43 S&P 500 companies made the list. Of these, 95 percent were business aircraft users.Finally, among the “100 Best Corporate Citizens,” a compilation produced by The CRO, 98 S&P companies made the list. Of these, 94 percent were business aircraft users. Critical to the Economic Recovery? How important is business aviation to the still-fragile recovery? Dyment again pointed to his firm’s most recent study, which was conducted late last year, and compares the performance of S&P 500 firms with and without access to aviation assets in terms of their ability to lift themselves above the still-challenging economy. Those companies that utilized business aviation “mitigated revenue losses and recovered more quickly than non-users,” the study said. “Further, companies using business aviation were quicker to hire back employees and have significantly grown their overall workforce since 2007, relative to non-users.” (Source: Study Author’s Findings Counter Forbes Editorial Questioning Business Aviation Use | No Plane No Gain | NBAA – National Business Aviation Association)     2013-01-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/Like Many Companies, GM Would Benefit From Business Aircraft Use.htm?m=51&s=340&id=413By Ed Bolen, President and CEO, National Business Aviation AssociationThe recent announcement that General Motors will soon repurchase a portion of its stock now held by the federal government was accompanied by news that the automaker would subsequently be released from some of the restrictions placed on its business practices as a result of a 2009 government subsidy, including limitations on GM’s use of business airplanes. While that message should have been heralded as an encouraging sign of GM’s resurgence in both the United States and abroad, one recent Forbes opinion piece looked to the announcement as reason to question the company’s need for business aviation. That’s unfortunate, because studies have repeatedly shown that using a business airplane is the sign of a well-managed company, and that, by a host of measurements, nearly all companies using business aviation outperform those without aircraft, and with good reason. Business aviation helps companies succeed in a global marketplace that demands speed, flexibility and efficiency. A business airplane makes possible missions that can’t be otherwise conducted efficiently: For example, a company’s airplane can transport employees to three cities in one day — a trip that might require multiple days between towns with little or no airline service. Business aviation is also a powerful productivity booster: When traveling aboard business aircraft, employees can meet, plan and discuss proprietary information in a secure environment and without fear of industrial espionage. It’s also worth noting that the benefits of using business aviation accrue not just to the companies, but to shareholders as well: Companies using business aviation provide greater shareholder return than comparable companies without business aircraft. All of these benefits would surely apply to General Motors as well; after all, one of the reasons the company has returned to profitability is its greater competitiveness and production capabilities throughout the world, including China, South Korea and Brazil. Reaching such destinations requires the quick, efficient, flexible transportation that business aircraft can provide. Simply put, General Motors, or any company that wishes to remain agile and competitive in the global marketplace should consider use of a business aircraft — one of the most vital efficiency and productivity tools available — without concern for unwarranted stigmatization.   2013-01-02http://www.noplanenogain-org/Corporate Planes Give Business Owners An Edge.htm?m=51&s=340&id=412For businesses like Wichita, KS-based Berry Companies, an airplane is vital tool for looking for new opportunities to expand and grow into distant markets. Their Cessna Citation Mustang allows employees to make multiple business stops in one day. A recent study reflects this value, especially during challenging economic times. The study, conducted by NEXA Advisors, finds that companies that used business aviation during the "Great Recession" outperformed competitors that did not. To read this article, please click here. here 2012-12-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/Gulfstream Exec Reaches Out To Local Small Business Leaders.htm?m=51&s=340&id=405By: Adam Van Brimmer Gulfstream relies on more than 3,400 suppliers in building and servicing its corporate jets. The roster includes giants like General Electric, but the list is overwhelmingly populated by what the company's vice president for marketing, Bill Shira, calls Gulfstream's "lifeblood" - small businesses. "We can't do what we do without the help of small businesses," Shira told a room of local entrepreneurs Tuesday during a Small Business Council SMART Lunch Series event. More than 2,400 of Gulfstream's suppliers are classified as small businesses. Those businesses garner a large piece of the $734 million in procurements Gulfstream makes nationwide each year. Gulfstream spends more than $80 million annually with Savannah suppliers alone. "We look for passion, skill, commitment and somebody we can trust," Shira said. "We really have to have that trust."  Several Gulfstream managers involved in purchasing and subcontracting, including small business liaison Marshall Tuck, attended Tuesday's luncheon held at the Savannah Morning News auditorium. Shira encouraged local small business owners to network with those managers and to register as a Gulfstream supplier through the company website at gulfstream.com/supplier/. Registering is a way to get on the "radar screen" with procurement, Shira said. "We, as a company, are slammed," Shira said. "So the key as a potential new supplier is to be persistent. Persistent and patient.  The time is now to make that connection because Gulfstream is "slammed," Shira said. Gulfstream has a backlog of orders for its new G-650 through 2017 and is building its new production facilities near the airport to address the demand. The company is projecting growth as the American economic recovery continues and the economies in developing countries, particularly China, expand. Of the 16,000 business jets in service around the world, only 200 are owned by Chinese companies. "When the market returns like it always does, we're going to be golden," Shira said. GULFSTREAM SUPPLIERS Small businesses wanting to work with Gulfstream as a supplier need to register through the company website at www.gulfstream.com/supplier/. Gulfstream's corporate small business officer is Marshall Tuck. 2012-12-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/They're Winging It For Shore Storm Relief.htm?m=51&s=340&id=403By Tom Mongelli A C-210 filled cereal wings in from Indiana in the morning, and within hours families in the Toms River storm shelters are eating.  A Baron G-58 filled with coats arrives from Ohio and shore storm outcasts are suddenly fending off the winter’s chill. Such are the stories of private pilots who have been flying supplies to the Jersey Shore since Sandy left her destructive path.. and have flown aid to disaster-stricken spots since Hurricane Katrina. Once just a loose aggregation, they’re now organized as a 501-C(3) nonprofit called AERObridge. They’ve been keeping the landing strips at Robert J. Miller Airpark in Berkeley Township and Lakewood Airport busy since Sandy swept through. “This is just a caring community in aviation that wants to help out,” says Jo Damato, director of the National Business Aviation Association, “whether it’s a domestic or international crisis.” Damato says the concept arose after the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast, and was sharpened during the Haitian earthquake of 2010. Pilots in companies that use small aircraft in their resource arsenal, as well as private operators, fill in space in their cargo holds and passenger cabins with desperately-needed goods that turn the entire country into a gigantic neighborhood relief effort. And when planes aren’t big enough, says Damato, they kick it old school. “There’s one ambitious group out in Arizona,” she enthuses. “They collected so many donations as part of the Arizona Business Aviation Association, they’re sending two 26-foot Penske trucks to New Jersey.” But how do they know what to load onto their crafts? The rise of social media has super-charged the information flow, says Damato. “If you think of where were were after Hurricane Katrina, that’s an asset we just didn’t have,” Damato explains. “There are so many great, legitimate New Jersey Facebook pages that are available, where you can find out specifically what supplies are needed, where, a contact point. Of course the food banks have been fantastic, the Diocese of Trenton…really anyone who has a caring organization that’s able to provide official information on what’s needed has been our guide.” How long can the flyers sustain the complications of added cargo and logistics? Damato says, until local organizations are ready to go it on their own. “Relief organizations are obviously on the ground,” she says. “They have an eye on the needs probably better than we do. Our formal airlift organization is going to slow down, but our members are still going to want to fly in supplies.”  See more about the group at aerobridge.org. Visit the National Business Aviation Association at nbaa.org. 2012-11-14http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA Applauds Business Aviation's Sandy 'Airlift'.htm?m=51&s=412&id=411Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Washington, DC, November 14, 2012 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today recognized the business aviation community’s impressive response to the devastation produced by “Superstorm” Sandy in the Northeast, and encouraged Association Members to continue providing assets, supplies and cash contributions to humanitarian groups. "The business aviation community has repeatedly demonstrated its readiness to step forward to help in the wake of natural disasters,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen, pointing as examples to the industry’s coordinated efforts to fly in badly needed medical and other supplies following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. "The industry has again snapped into action with a variety of efforts to help people and communities following ‘Superstorm’ Sandy, as well." In the hours before the storm made landfall on the shores of southern New Jersey in late October, NBAA urged Association Members to consider entering available aircraft, assets and volunteers into the Association’s Humanitarian Emergency Response Operator (HERO) database - a list of people and companies ready to assist with disaster-response mobilization efforts. Even before the full impact from Sandy was widely known, operators and others registered in the HERO database were working with national emergency agencies and personnel to assist with post-storm relief efforts using business aircraft. These efforts resulted in a wide range of relief missions operated by a diverse mix of business aircraft, ranging from Cessna and Piper piston singles to transcontinental Global Express jets. One relief organization, AEROBridge, reports that it has directly coordinated the delivery of more than 50,000 lbs. of supplies onboard business aircraft, and has assisted with an additional 70,000 lbs. of donations being driven into affected areas of New York and New Jersey. "While this initial response has been impressive, efforts on the ground to assist the people in coastal areas in New York and New Jersey continue," Bolen noted. "The business aviation industry can provide airplanes and crews, donate supplies and provide cash contributions to humanitarian organizations in the industry." Bolen pointed to two specific ways the business aviation community could continue supporting “Superstorm” Sandy relief efforts. First, interested individuals and companies can continue listing volunteers, aircraft and other assets to the NBAA HERO database on the Association’s website. Second, those in the industry can provide cash contributions to non-profit relief organizations and humanitarian groups affiliated with business aviation, which match available assets to people and organizations with urgent needs. NBAA lists a number of those organizations on theAssociation’s website.  # # # Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 9,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via email. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release email list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe.   2012-11-14http://www.noplanenogain-org/New Study Highlights The Value Of Bizav During ‘The Great Recession’.htm?m=51&s=340&id=404By: Janice Wood A new study unveiled at the recent National Business Aviation Association convention shows that even during the worst economic times since the Great Depression, companies that relied on business aviation outperformed the field in important measures of shareholder value and recovered from the recession more quickly than their peers across a range of industries representing the U.S. economy. The study, “Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times,” concludes that companies in the S&P 500 that use business aviation achieved superior financial performance in a number of key measures and also displayed superior ability to respond to the severe downturn. “This answers the question as to why so many American enterprises continue to depend upon business aviation, even in — and perhaps, especially in — tough economic times,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen (pictured). Find out more here. 2012-11-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Arizona Group Sending Desperately Needed Supplies To Sandy Victims.htm?m=51&s=340&id=401By: Jason Volentine See Video Here. PHOENIX -- People are still cleaning up after super-storm Sandy, and Arizona continues to help the Northeast.  A local non-profit organization is using a unique transport system to get supplies back East.  So far Sandy is blamed for 110 deaths in the U.S., 48 of those in New York. Officials in that state said Sunday that 730,000 people are still without power.  New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said between 30,000 and 40,000 need housing.  With those numbers in mind, Arizona-based AERObridge is helping to get emergency supplies to the East Coast by hitching rides for those supplies on corporate jets.  "What we do is set up the logistic chain," said Alan Staats of AERObridge, a non-profit started in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.   AERObridge finds business planes that will donate extra space on flights already headed into disaster affected areas.  Emergency supplies are then packed onto those planes and taken to the disaster area where everything is distributed to those who need it most. It works by getting lots of people, groups and companies on the same page.  "There's this cold northeastern storm blowing in on Wednesday," said Ken Casey, president of the Arizona Business Aviation Association, which is working with AERObridge.  "People are going to need blankets, they're going to need supplies especially if they're without heat, so we said, 'why not.'" AERObridge has already organized 40 flights to the East Coast and has another leaving from the Phoenix area on Wednesday.  The charity would still like donations of warm clothes, blankets, shoes, mittens, etc.  People can drop off donations by Tuesday evening at Cutter Aviation (2802 E. Old Tower Road at Sky Harbor International Airport) or Pinnacle Aviation (14988 N. 78th Way #106 at Scottsdale Municipal Airport). If you prefer to make a monetary contribution, you can do that by donating to the reputable organizations listed below. Like with any donation, we encourage you to do your due diligence to ensure your generosity is getting to those in need.  American Red Cross - Donate Now Local Red Cross organization up and down the eastern seaboard are providing shelter to thousands of people across nine states. The Salvation Army - Donate Now to storm relief The Salvation Army long before the storm hit began feeding operations at shelters along the East Coast. Dozens of mobile feeding units, canteens, able to serve thousands of meals, are stocked are ready to deploy into the most heavily impacted areas once it is safe to do so. For more updates from The Salvation Army click here. 2012-11-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Local Pilots Flying From Fitchburg Airport Aid In Sandy Relief.htm?m=51&s=340&id=400FITCHBURG —  About three dozen pilots in 17 planes are taking much-needed shrink-wrapped supplies to East Farmingdale, N.Y., out of Fitchburg Municipal Airport today.  Fitchburg Pilot’s Association President Charley Valera said the effort in response to devastation from Superstorm Sandy was a collaboration with AERObridge, a National Business Aviation Association-endorsed group of aviation specialists who coordinate emergency aviation responses during disasters.  “We had an influx of people wanting to help and dropping off donations for us,” Mr. Valera said about collection efforts at the flight school at the airport yesterday.  Items such as winter coats, diapers, blankets, pet food, bottled water and flashlights with batteries are shrink-wrapped, he said, to save space on the planes and ensure they stay dry at drop off.  The pilots are leaving at noon today and will return in the afternoon. They are volunteering their time and flying at their own expense, Mr. Valera said.    2012-11-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Local Pilot Flies Supplies To New York.htm?m=51&s=340&id=402Over 2 thousand pounds of supplies donated MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (WPRI) – Nearly a week after Sandy hit, millions of people in New York and New Jersey are still without power and thousands are homeless. This weekend volunteers flooded the streets to help people affected by the Hurricane and a local pilot has given his time to fly down supplies to those in need. Graeme Smith, a local business owner, has been flying for about 18 months and says the entire community came together to make his charity flights possible.  He says he got an email from a charity called Aerobridge that he volunteers for, asking him to help fly supplies into Long Island. In that email it said that 5,000 kids need warm clothes and food that doesn’t need to be cooked. It took four pilots eight round trip flights to fly down the more than 2 thousand pounds of clothing and food that was donated by people in the community. Each trip takes about four hours. Smith tells Eyewitness News he is planning on making one more charity flight to Long Island this week. 2012-11-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Help Is On The Way: Business Aircraft Fly Supplies Into Areas Raveged By Sandy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=398Millions of people throughout the northeastern United States are still without shelter, basic utilities, and access to food and medical care in the devastating aftermath from 'Superstorm' Sandy. As federal agencies and charitable organizations work to reach those cut off from emergency relief, the business aviation community has stepped in to provide urgently needed assistance. "We have between 25-30 aircraft, ranging from PC-12s to the Global Express, ready to assist with the relief effort in New Jersey and New York," said Douglas Schultz, board member of AERObridge and a founding member of Corporate Aviation Responding in Emergencies (CARE), a group of volunteers from the business aviation community who coordinate donated aircraft for critical transport during disasters. As of Saturday evening, AERObridge had coordinated 32 flights, and been involved in over 18 additional flights to five collection sites. Schultz estimated the organization had assisted in the delivery of 94,000 lbs. of relief supplies, adding "the momentum is increasing. “Operators have donated these aircraft and crews, and they are prepared to fly wherever and whenever they are needed,” Schultz added. “Most came from the NBAA HERO Database and through NBAA's Air Mail forum, while others reached out to us directly with offers to help.” Offers to assist with the relief effort have come from across the country, with discussions about specific needs and methods of transporting supplies to stricken areas dominating Airmail and other aviation message boards. "There's a huge community of people in this area that need help," said New Jersey resident, Sky Hope Network board member and NBAA Director of Educational Development & Strategy, Jo Damato. "And, we've put the call out to operators planning to fly into the area for any space onboard. If they have empty seats, we want to fill that space with dry food, drinkable water, and personal toiletries. Gift cards are also appreciated. “Many local NBAA Members in the greater-New Jersey area have reached out to me personally, wondering how they can help and they are starting their own grassroots efforts to have food drives in their neighborhoods and places of business/airports, for transport to New Jersey shelters,” she added. New York’s five boroughs were also hit by the storm. AERObridge has received PPR (prior permission required) approval for corporate humanitarian flights into Farmingdale’s Republic Airport (FRG) - and JFK International Airport for larger aircraft - bringing supplies into Lower Manhattan and other areas. "We’ve had urgent and specific requests from two large evacuation centers - one in Staten Island, and another in Brooklyn,” Schultz noted. “Those centers are completely cut off from any relief due to conditions on the ground.” Other organizations throughout the business aviation community are also finding ways to assist with relief efforts. Showalter Flying Service, host facility for the static aircraft display at the recently-concluded 2012 NBAA Meeting and Convention in Orlando, FL., found good use for bottled water left over from the event. "We had about 15 cases of water remaining, that had been donated by Universal Weather and Aviation for our crew during the show," said Brad Elliott, Director of New Business at Showalter. "As we were making plans to send those cases to the Northeast, [company president] Kim Showalter walked by and said that [static display sponsor] TAC Air had another four pallets of water as well. We loaded everything we could onto a Lear 40 that landed Thursday night at Teterboro.” Schultz said AERObridge believes these private efforts will be most beneficial throughout the weekend and into early next week, assisting as a “stopgap” until federal and other relief channels have been established. “We need supplies,” he added. “AERObridge has several pre-staged storage facilities throughout the lower 48; however, we have completely used all of our stocked supplies in Jacksonville, FL,  Charleston, SC and Stewart, NY. We are now trying to find a constant pipeline of items.” For the latest information about Sandy, including ways your operation may assist in relief efforts, visit www.aerobridge.org, www.sky-hope.org, and www.nbaa.org/news/2012/sandy/. 2012-11-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/Study: Companies Using Bizav Fared Better in Recession.htm?m=51&s=340&id=397By Chad Trautvetter NBAA released a new study today showing that even during the worst economic times since the Great Depression, companies that relied on business aviation outperformed those that did not. According to NBAA, the companies that use business aircraft have better shareholder value and recovered from the recession more quickly than their peers. The study, “Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times," is the fourth in the business aviation users study series to be completed by Nexa Advisors. It concludes that companies in the S&P 500 that use business aviation achieved superior financial performance in a number of key measures and also displayed superior ability to respond to the severe downturn.  “This answers the question as to why so many American enterprises continue to depend upon business aviation, even in–and perhaps, especially in–tough economic times,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. The study found that generally speaking, companies not using business aviation during the recession lost profitability, employees and even dropped off the S&P 500 rankings at far higher rates than companies using business aviation, revealing that use of an airplane for business has a positive impact on enterprise resiliency following what Nexa termed “the Great Recession” period of 2007 to 2011. For example, the analysis found that jobs at a diverse range of companies that use business aircraft, from consumer to energy, healthcare and industrials, not only recovered but have also grown beyond pre-recession levels, while non-user companies have recovered at much slower rates. Comparisons of employment matched the better performance of business aviation users in financial measures of shareholder value, including revenues, earnings and profit growth and market capitalization. 2012-10-31http://www.noplanenogain-org/New Study Highlights Business Aviation Value During ‘The Great Recession’.htm?m=51&s=340&id=396NBAA-Commissioned Study Shows Companies That Use Airplanes Perform Better Than Those That Don’t A new study would seem to indicate that even during the worst economic times since the Great Depression, companies that relied on business aviation outperformed the field in important measures of shareholder value and recovered from the recession more quickly than their peers across a range of industries representing the U.S. economy. The study, entitled, "Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times", is the fourth in the Business Aviation Users study series to be completed by NEXA Advisors, LLC. The study concludes that companies in the S&P 500 that use business aviation achieved superior financial performance in a number of key measures and also displayed superior ability to respond to the severe downturn. “This answers the question as to why so many American enterprises continue to depend upon business aviation, even in – and perhaps, especially in – tough economic times,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. The study found that generally speaking, companies not using business aviation during the recession lost profitability, employees, and even dropped off the S&P 500 rankings at far higher rates than companies using business aviation, revealing that use of an airplane for business has a positive impact on enterprise resiliency following what NEXA termed “the Great Recession” period of 2007-2011. For example, the analysis found that jobs at a diverse range of companies that use business aircraft, from consumer to energy, health care and industrials, not only recovered, but also have grown beyond pre-recession levels, while non-user companies have recovered at much slower rates. Comparisons of employment matched the better performance of business aviation users in financial measures of shareholder value, including revenues, earnings and profit growth and market capitalization. The three previous NEXA studies, which analyzed Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 companies, S&P 600 small-cap companies, and government use of business aircraft at the federal, state and local levels, all concluded that business aviation contributes to private and public enterprises’ ability to deliver greater value to shareholders and taxpayers. The four studies make a convincing case that use of a business airplane is the sign of a well-managed enterprise. “These studies make clear that business aviation delivers value, boosting efficiency, productivity and flexibility, enabling organizations to excel in good times, and especially in a turbulent economic environment,” Bolen said. The earlier studies of large-cap and small-to-mid-size companies took place before the full impact of the downturn hit the U.S. economy, and found that the business aircraft users outperformed peer organizations in key financial and non-financial measures, including “best of” rankings. The metrics from this study, which compiles recession-era data, show that using business aircraft as a productivity enhancer brings an “inoculation effect” that held through the toughest period of the severe downturn. The study was commissioned by NBAA in conjunction with the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies, and communities across the United States. The campaign is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. 2012-10-31http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Aviation Ready To Assist In Sandy Relief Efforts.htm?m=51&s=340&id=399Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Orlando, FL, October 31, 2012 – As pounding rain and wind speeds exceeding 90 miles per hour heralded the arrival of "Superstorm" Sandy along the Eastern seaboard earlier this week, companies and operators participating in NBAA's Humanitarian Emergency Response Operator (HERO) database were already working with national emergency agencies and personnel to assist with post-storm relief efforts using business aircraft. The NBAA HERO database is a list of people and companies throughout the business aviation community who have volunteered to assist with disaster-response mobilization efforts. While ground transportation is often the preferred means of assisting with relief efforts, business aircraft have long served as a lifeline to people and communities in crisis, and are uniquely suited to providing a first response to natural disasters and other emergencies. Review the NBAA HERO database. Business aircraft are often able to reach locations impacted by natural disasters when airliners and sometimes even automobiles cannot – operating on short notice into outlying airports with small runways, unpaved airstrips or even onto roads. Robin Eissler, president of the Sky Hope Network, said her organization this week has staged aircraft of varying types between New York City and Wilmington, DE that are ready to be utilized as needed. "At the moment, much like the rest of the country, we're waiting to see what the damage is and what efforts will be needed in the hours immediately following the storm's passage," she added. "Our focus is specifically on life-saving flights and placing aviation assets where they are needed most." Operators may register their aircraft on the HERO database, and individual personnel may also note their specific skills that may be of use during relief efforts. In the aftermath of major crises, NBAA provides basic information from the database to dozens of business aircraft operators and other organizations to assist with their coordination of relief efforts. "We work with the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) and National Incident Management System (NIMS) to determine what their needs might be, and when they will require our assistance," explained Marianne Stevenson, president of aviation relief organization AERObridge. "At this point we're monitoring the situation and preparing to respond as needed to the relief effort following Sandy."  Billed as a "superstorm" by media outlets, Sandy made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in the early evening of Oct. 29 along the southern New Jersey coast, with flooding reported throughout the state and into lower Manhattan. Numerous deaths have been attributed to Sandy, and more than 6 million homes and businesses were left without power throughout the eastern United States. Effects from the storm have reached as far inland as Chicago. NBAA Air Traffic Services continues to provide operational guidance via a dedicated Sandy resource page at www.nbaa.org/sandy. Before flying in areas impacted by Sandy, NBAA encourages operators to continue to check FAA NOTAMs, obtain a current weather briefing and contact FBOs or airport officials at their destination for the latest conditions. NBAA Air Traffic Services provides regular updates on this and other airspace-related topics via its Twitter feed.  The storm seems to have had little impact on NBAA's 65th Annual Meeting & Convention (NBAA2012), which runs through Nov. 1 in Orlando, FL. For the latest Convention news and announcements, visit the NBAA2012 Online News Bureau. # # # Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 9,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via email. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release email list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe   2012-10-31http://www.noplanenogain-org/New Study Highlights Business Aviation Value During 'The Great Recession'.htm?m=51&s=340&id=394Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Washington, DC, October 30, 2012 - The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today welcomed a new study showing that even during the worst economic times since the Great Depression, companies that relied on business aviation outperformed the field in important measures of shareholder value and recovered from the recession more quickly than their peers across a range of industries representing the U.S. economy. The study, entitled, Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times, is the fourth in the Business Aviation Users study series to be completed by NEXA Advisors, LLC. The study concludes that companies in the S&P 500 that use business aviation achieved superior financial performance in a number of key measures and also displayed superior ability to respond to the severe downturn. "This answers the question as to why so many American enterprises continue to depend upon business aviation, even in - and perhaps, especially in - tough economic times," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. The study found that generally speaking, companies not using business aviation during the recession lost profitability, employees, and even dropped off the S&P 500 rankings at far higher rates than companies using business aviation, revealing that use of an airplane for business has a positive impact on enterprise resiliency following what NEXA termed "the Great Recession" period of 2007-2011. For example, the analysis found that jobs at a diverse range of companies that use business aircraft, from consumer to energy, health care and industrials, not only recovered, but also have grown beyond pre-recession levels, while non-user companies have recovered at much slower rates.   Comparisons of employment matched the better performance of business aviation users in financial measures of shareholder value, including revenues, earnings and profit growth and market capitalization. The three previous NEXA studies, which analyzed Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 companies, S&P 600 small-cap companies, and government use of business aircraft at the federal, state and local levels, all concluded that business aviation contributes to private and public enterprises' ability to deliver greater value to shareholders and taxpayers. The four studies make a convincing case that use of a business airplane is the sign of a well-managed enterprise.   "These studies make clear that business aviation delivers value, boosting efficiency, productivity and flexibility, enabling organizations to excel in good times, and especially in a turbulent economic environment," Bolen said. The earlier studies of large-cap and small-to-mid-size companies took place before the full impact of the downturn hit the U.S. economy, and found that the business aircraft users outperformed peer organizations in key financial and non-financial measures, including "best of" rankings. The metrics from this study, which compiles recession-era data, show that using business aircraft as a productivity enhancer brings an "inoculation effect" that held through the toughest period of the severe downturn. The study was commissioned by NBAA in conjunction with the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies, and communities across the United States. The campaign is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. To learn more, visit www.noplanenogain.org. Review a full copy of Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times. # # # Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.  Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release email list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe. 2012-10-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA Unveils New ‘No Plane No Gain’ Advertising at 2012 Convention.htm?m=51&s=340&id=395Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Orlando, FL, October 30, 2012 – A new media campaign emphasizing the size, importance and diversity of the business aviation community was unveiled today during NBAA’s 65th Annual Meeting & Convention (NBAA2012), now underway in Orlando, FL. Six new print advertisements promoting the message of the No Plane No Gain program are featured throughout Convention site at the Orange County Convention Center in hanging signage, displays on the show floor and in the NBAA press room, as well as in trade publications and other media outlets at the event. Each ad features a real-world account of job creation, small business growth and other important roles served by the industry, all parts of the "diverse composite" of business aviation, according to NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. Communicating the value of business aviation in America today is the central mission of the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.  "We hope these advertisements help introduce – and reintroduce – business aviation to lawmakers and opinion leaders,” said Bolen. “We want to show the diversity of people and companies that are using business aviation to succeed, as well as to benefit their local communities and people across the United States." One advertisement features Dorette Kerr, manager of flight administration at John Deere Global Aviation Services. "In this ad, we highlight the many jobs in the industry, which may be jobs people don't think about, but are nonetheless important," Bolen noted. "We're also noting that having a business airplane helps John Deere compete on a global stage from its Moline, IL headquarters." Other print ads include: An ad featuring Viking Range Corporation, which tells of how the company uses its business airplanes to bring clients and distributors for product presentations to the company’s headquarters, located in Greenwood, MS, a town two hours from the nearest commercial airport. An ad featuring Ascension Aircraft CEO Jamail Larkins, who explains how his airplane allows his Georgia-based aviation business to compete against larger companies. “Business airplanes “aren't a reward for success, but a way to achieve it,” Larkins explains in the ad.   An ad featuring pilot and small-business owner Brad Pierce, who travels in his single-engine piston aircraft to keep his restaurant supply company agile against larger competitors. An ad featuring Desert Jet President Denise Wilson, whose charter aircraft company helps businesses operate more efficiently, while also providing much-needed jobs throughout Southern California. A sixth advertisement showcases the humanitarian roles that business aircraft play for local communities and individuals, such as providing critical medical transportation and relief support. "Taken together, these ads highlight that business aviation is essential in supporting jobs, helping companies be nimble and competitive, connecting towns and cities, and providing humanitarian support," Bolen added. That message will also be shared through the Association's recently announced advertising sponsorship of the PBS series, The Aviators, a weekly program featuring stories from throughout the aviation industry. This sponsorship includes a 15-second advertisement, based on the campaign’s first television ad, “One Industry,” which was originally released in 2009 and broadcast on cable television and public affairs programming. View the original “One Industry” ad, and the version of the ad airing on The Aviators this broadcast season. "The No Plane No Gain program is about he business aviation community defining itself, and we have a great story to tell," Bolen concluded. "It's important that we keep finding new ways to tell this story, and out new print and tv ads are key to that effort." 2012-10-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/New Study Highlights Business Aviation Value During 'The Great Recession'.htm?m=51&s=412&id=408 Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Washington, DC, October 30, 2012 - The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today welcomed a new study showing that even during the worst economic times since the Great Depression, companies that relied on business aviation outperformed the field in important measures of shareholder value and recovered from the recession more quickly than their peers across a range of industries representing the U.S. economy. The study, entitled, Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times, is the fourth in the Business Aviation Users study series to be completed by NEXA Advisors, LLC. The study concludes that companies in the S&P 500 that use business aviation achieved superior financial performance in a number of key measures and also displayed superior ability to respond to the severe downturn.  "This answers the question as to why so many American enterprises continue to depend upon business aviation, even in - and perhaps, especially in - tough economic times," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.  The study found that generally speaking, companies not using business aviation during the recession lost profitability, employees, and even dropped off the S&P 500 rankings at far higher rates than companies using business aviation, revealing that use of an airplane for business has a positive impact on enterprise resiliency following what NEXA termed "the Great Recession" period of 2007-2011.  For example, the analysis found that jobs at a diverse range of companies that use business aircraft, from consumer to energy, health care and industrials, not only recovered, but also have grown beyond pre-recession levels, while non-user companies have recovered at much slower rates.   Comparisons of employment matched the better performance of business aviation users in financial measures of shareholder value, including revenues, earnings and profit growth and market capitalization. The three previous NEXA studies, which analyzed Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 companies, S&P 600 small-cap companies, and government use of business aircraft at the federal, state and local levels, all concluded that business aviation contributes to private and public enterprises' ability to deliver greater value to shareholders and taxpayers.  The four studies make a convincing case that use of a business airplane is the sign of a well-managed enterprise.   "These studies make clear that business aviation delivers value, boosting efficiency, productivity and flexibility, enabling organizations to excel in good times, and especially in a turbulent economic environment," Bolen said. The earlier studies of large-cap and small-to-mid-size companies took place before the full impact of the downturn hit the U.S. economy, and found that the business aircraft users outperformed peer organizations in key financial and non-financial measures, including "best of" rankings. The metrics from this study, which compiles recession-era data, show that using business aircraft as a productivity enhancer brings an "inoculation  effect" that held through the toughest period of the severe downturn. The study was commissioned by NBAA in conjunction with the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies, and communities across the United States. The campaign is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. To learn more, visit www.noplanenogain.org. Review a full copy of Business Aviation: Maintaining Shareholder Value Through Turbulent Times. # # #  Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.  Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release email list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe.   2012-10-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA Unveils New 'No Plane No Gain' Advertising at 2012 Convention.htm?m=51&s=412&id=409Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org  Orlando, FL, October 30, 2012 – A new media campaign emphasizing the size, importance and diversity of the business aviation community was unveiled today during NBAA’s 65th Annual Meeting & Convention (NBAA2012), now underway in Orlando, FL. Six new print advertisements promoting the message of the No Plane No Gain program are featured throughout Convention site at the Orange County Convention Center in hanging signage, displays on the show floor and in the NBAA press room, as well as in trade publications and other media outlets at the event. Each ad features a real-world account of job creation, small business growth and other important roles served by the industry, all parts of the "diverse composite" of business aviation, according to NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. Communicating the value of business aviation in America today is the central mission of the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.  "We hope these advertisements help introduce – and reintroduce – business aviation to lawmakers and opinion leaders,” said Bolen. “We want to show the diversity of people and companies that are using business aviation to succeed, as well as to benefit their local communities and people across the United States." One advertisement features Dorette Kerr, manager of flight administration at John Deere Global Aviation Services. "In this ad, we highlight the many jobs in the industry, which may be jobs people don't think about, but are nonetheless important," Bolen noted. "We're also noting that having a business airplane helps John Deere compete on a global stage from its Moline, IL headquarters." Other print ads include: An ad featuring Viking Range Corporation, which tells of how the company uses its business airplanes to bring clients and distributors for product presentations to the company’s headquarters, located in Greenwood, MS, a town two hours from the nearest commercial airport.An ad featuring Ascension Aircraft CEO Jamail Larkins, who explains how his airplane allows his Georgia-based aviation business to compete against larger companies. “Business airplanes “aren't a reward for success, but a way to achieve it,” Larkins explains in the ad.  An ad featuring pilot and small-business owner Brad Pierce, who travels in his single-engine piston aircraft to keep his restaurant supply company agile against larger competitors.An ad featuring Desert Jet President Denise Wilson, whose charter aircraft company helps businesses operate more efficiently, while also providing much-needed jobs throughout Southern California.A sixth advertisement showcases the humanitarian roles that business aircraft play for local communities and individuals, such as providing critical medical transportation and relief support.  "Taken together, these ads highlight that business aviation is essential in supporting jobs, helping companies be nimble and competitive, connecting towns and cities, and providing humanitarian support," Bolen added. That message will also be shared through the Association's recently announced advertising sponsorship of the PBS series, The Aviators, a weekly program featuring stories from throughout the aviation industry. This sponsorship includes a 15-second advertisement, based on the campaign’s first television ad, “One Industry,” which was originally released in 2009 and broadcast on cable television and public affairs programming. View the original “One Industry” ad, and the version of the ad airing on The Aviators this broadcast season.  "The No Plane No Gain program is about he business aviation community defining itself, and we have a great story to tell," Bolen concluded. "It's important that we keep finding new ways to tell this story, and out new print and tv ads are key to that effort." 2012-10-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/New Season of PBS's The Aviators Takes Off With NBAA Sponsorship.htm?m=51&s=412&id=407 Contact: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org  Washington, DC, October 22, 2012 – As the third season of the PBS show The Aviators gets underway, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is delighted to announce its support for the show as an advertising sponsor. The Aviators series follows a group of pilots and aviation experts, and focuses on the size, diversity and importance of the aviation industry, including the business aviation segment; as the website for the show says, “The Aviators is for everyone who has ever gazed skyward.” New episodes of the award-winning show now are airing on PBS stations across the U.S. and are available for download on Apple iTunes. NBAA’s sponsorship of the program includes a 15-second advertisement that promotes the message of the No Plane No Gain program, which NBAA jointly sponsors with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.  In the ad, which will appear during four episodes of the show this season, a voice speaks over compelling video footage and still imagery of several airplanes and people in business aviation, informing viewers: “Business aviation: Dedicated to strengthening America’s businesses, enhancing productivity and communications, and providing relief to neighbors and communities in times of crisis.” The spot concludes with text inviting viewers to learn more by visiting the No Plane No Gain web site. View the spot in its entirety.  According the website for The Aviators, when the show is broadcast on 80 percent of PBS’s 354 Member stations across the U.S. each week, it attracts more than 10 million viewers. Since its launch on the iTunes website in 2011, all three seasons of the show have maintained a position in the site’s Top 50 Nonfiction TV offerings. “When NBAA and GAMA launched the No Plane No Gain campaign over two years ago, we said that print and broadcast advertising would be a central component in the program’s effort to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the importance of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “The campaign has produced a host of print and broadcast ads, and now, we’re delighted to have this opportunity to partner with a program that reaches such a wide audience, so that we can take our message to those who may not be familiar with business aviation, and highlight its role in supporting over a million jobs, helping companies succeed, connecting communities and providing assistance to humanitarian endeavors. The Aviators and NBAA really are working toward the same goal: Getting viewers excited about an essential American industry.” Learn more about The Aviators. # # # Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 9,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via email. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release email list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe.   2012-10-22http://www.noplanenogain-org/Two Greenville, SC Businessmen Take ‘No Plane, No Gain’ to Heart.htm?m=51&s=340&id=393Two businessmen who won a local learn-to-fly contest in Greenville, SC in June say they were inspired by the national No Plane No Gain campaign sponsored jointly by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Chris Beckman, of Beckman Precision, won a complete private-pilot course from Airwolf Aviation at the Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU). John Kamin, of Kamin Design Solutions, won an introductory flight lesson. The contest, which required a 150-word essay on how the winners would use an FAA pilot certificate for business or to build a career, was sponsored by Airwolf Aviation Services, Greenville Downtown Airport, Greenville Jet Center and Greenville Business Magazine. “Our business sells machine tools all over the Carolinas and Virginia,” said Beckman. “Having the ability to land at small-town airports will greatly reduce fatigue from getting up in the wee hours of the morning to drive from Greenville to anywhere else in our territory to make a 9 a.m. meeting.” Beckman said that before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks he would sometimes take airlines to the more distant points of his territory, but no longer. “After the terrorist attacks, it became such a hassle, fighting the lines, TSA inspections, delays. It just became not worth it, so we just drove everywhere. Lots of windshield time.” He added that airline trips often left him far from his customer’s locations. The entrepreneur had seen NBAA and GAMA advertisements for the No Plane No Gain campaign before, and when the Greenville learn-to-fly contest came along, he took it as a sign from above. “As I said in my essay, a pilot’s license will greatly improve our business. Being able to fly on our own schedule and go directly to our customers and vendors will be fantastic!  “The themes of the No Plane No Gain campaign ring true to businesspeople,” continued Beckman. “Face-to-face meetings with customers before the competition can arrive, the ability to reach smaller communities without all-day trips and having a schedule I can really call my own. That’s priceless.” Second-place winner Kamin has owned Kamin Design Solutions since 2007. He attended the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention in 2009 in Orlando, FL, but didn’t pursue flying immediately. This year, the learn-to-fly contest rekindled his desire to fly for business. “My major customer right now is in Florida. We have periodic meetings to go over designs, and being able to meet with your customers at their location of business is not just a nicety, it's a necessity.” In his winning essay, Kamin wrote, “Lots of times the meetings are on short notice, and having a pilot’s license will allow me to make more frequent visits to my customers at critical design stages and still stay price competitive.” Beckman is actively flying Cessna 172s at Airwolf Aviation in pursuit of his FAA private-pilot certificate and said, “I’m lovin’ it!” Kamin expects to start flight training soon 2012-10-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Lifting Our Communities To Much Greater Heights.htm?m=51&s=340&id=392By Brent Kisling ENID, Okla. — While airplanes are not the first thing Oklahomans generally think about when we think about our local economy, the truth is that our network of airplanes and airports across this vast state are crucial connectors for area businesses and industries, helping to support area jobs and aiding industries as they expand. The acquisition of GEFCO, a company based here in Enid, by Astec Industries, based out of Chattanooga, Tenn., is a perfect example. GEFCO is a local company that manufactures drilling equipment for construction, water well drilling, mining and oil and gas production. They have been a major employer in the area for many decades with more than 150 workers. Now, with this acquisition, Astec Industries plans to invest millions of dollars in the local facility and double its workforce. Throughout the process, travel on small aircraft, also known as general aviation, through the Enid Woodring Regional Airport was crucial to facilitating this acquisition and the ultimate expansion. This new parent company will use general aviation and the local airport extensively in the years ahead as the company grows and expands its economic footprint. Of course, GEFCO is not the only company with assets in Enid that utilize the airport regularly. Others include Ward Petroleum, Enivirotech, Aircraft Structures International, Hiland Partners, Johnston Enterprises, Groendyke Transport and AdvancePierre Foods. The Enid airport is a prime example of how general aviation and local airports support, sustain and encourage economic activity for communities. Across our state, the general aviation industry alone has an economic impact of $1.2 billion and the aviation and aerospace sectors employ more than 144,000 workers in the state. In addition to the vast business opportunities that exist at airports in Oklahoma and across the country, community airports and general aviation also play a vital role in public safety. Law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical responders, search and rescue teams, nonprofit organizations and natural disaster relief crews all rely on general aviation regularly. But despite all of the benefits of community airports and general aviation, many people are not aware of their value. In fact, a new proposal out of Washington, D.C., would place a $100-per-flight “user fee” tax on the small businesses, farms, nonprofit organizations and communities across the country that rely on these aircraft. To make matters even worse, this new tax system would create a new bureaucracy within the FAA to collect the taxes. The system that exists now is a fuel tax that is simple to comply with and administer, and is fair and proportionate to use.  Luckily, the importance of these airports and our air transportation system is not lost on our own state and local leaders here in Oklahoma. Gov. Mary Fallin has not only written to the president to ask the administration to recognize the critical importance of small aircraft to our local economy and communities across Oklahoma, but she recently declared August “Aviation and Aerospace Appreciation Month.” These are commendable steps that will help raise awareness about this crucial form of transportation for our state and the national economy. 2012-10-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Aviation Industry Up In Arms Over Obama Comments About Corporate Jet Users.htm?m=51&s=340&id=391By: FRANÇOIS SHALOM MONTREAL — The business aviation industry again has U.S. President Barack Obama in its sights. The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has fired off a letter to the White House complaining bitterly about the president’s comments on its industry during last week’s debate with his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney. At one point, Obama said “why wouldn’t we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? My attitude is if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it.”  The president was referring to his proposed reduction in tax writeoffs for corporate jet owners, as well as to proposed landing fees of up to $100 per flight. Lobby group NBAA and its members oppose the measures, charging that any additional burdens or restrictions on the sector imperils jobs in manufacturing and aircraft services, and would create a bureaucracy for collection of the fees. Critics of tax breaks the industry receives, though, argue that landing fees of up to $100 per flight are not excessive for owners or users of airplanes worth between $3 million and $60 million. So would adoption of the measures threaten jobs at Bombardier Inc.’s business aircraft division, the world’s largest maker of corporate jets? Not likely, said Danielle Boudreau, spokesperson for Bombardier Business Aircraft. But she added that most business aircraft users are small and medium-size firms, not big corporations, and anything that adds to their burden acts as a brake on their airplane-buying decisions.  “We would never go as far as commenting on the U.S. president’s views,” Boudreau said. “Obviously, we do support business aviation. It’s an integral part of communities all over the world, allowing them to serve destinations that aren’t served by commercial aircraft.” She echoed the NBAA’s view that business aviation is unfairly tarnished, mostly by the media, with little corresponding appreciation for the economic benefits it provides. Bombardier employs about 15,000 people in the Montreal area, most of them at its business-jet unit — the company does not break it down precisely because some workers perform functions for both divisions, business and commercial. NBAA president Ed Bolen complained that Obama’s statement “was misleading and easily misconstrued. Equally important, at a time when both candidates claim to be putting job creation at the top of their agenda, it is unfortunate that the president chose to target our industry, which supports 1.2 million American jobs and generates $150 billion in economic impact.” The issue was front and centre at last year’s NBAA convention in Las Vegas, after one aircraft-maker president fulminated against Obama in personal terms about the policy proposals. He was dumped as CEO by his company shortly thereafter. He urged members to help NBAA lobby Congress in its favour to defeat the proposals. Dan Hubbard, an NBAA spokesperson, said from Washington that his association is convinced the proposals would create a cumbersome bureaucracy. That claim is hotly disputed by supporters of the measures, who say that the fees would easily be collected by the existing aviation infrastructure, which would not need any additional staff. Hubbard noted that the NBAA is not opposed to any and all measures and has in the past supported bills that proposed fuel tax hikes. He added that his association could notionally support increasing fuel taxes to replace the proposed fees — but that he couldn’t pronounce his organization’s support until an actual bill is tabled. Such bills have failed in the past.  “We have what we believe is an effective and proven system for use of the aviation system,” Hubbard said. 2012-10-11http://www.noplanenogain-org/Barack Obama's Debate Remarks: More of the Same.htm?m=51&s=340&id=389 By Stephen Pope I was on a flight to Brazil as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney squared off in their first presidential debate in Denver last week, and so I missed the live airing of the event. But as soon as I arrived in Sao Jose dos Campos to meet with executives at Embraer (mostly to talk about the new Legacy 500 business jet before its first flight), the debate was the top topic on everybody's mind. The reaction by Ernie Edwards, president of Embraer Executive Jets, seemed to be a mix of frustration and mild bemusement. He was clearly upset by what the president had said, but not surprised. When I was able to watch the debate on YouTube later that day, I had a similar reaction. The frustrating part, for me, was that the president had avoided making any headline-grabbing observations about business aviation in quite a while, and now here he was choosing the first presidential debate to go back on the attack. In a scathing open letter after the debate, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen echoed the sentiments of the entire business aviation industry with this critique of Obama's remarks: "Your comments seemed to illustrate a complete lack of understanding about the importance of business aviation in the U.S., and appear to be at odds with your stated interest in promoting job growth, stimulating exports, driving economic recovery and restoring America to its first-place position in manufacturing." It's a great line, and I'm glad NBAA went on the record and said it. But I also know that Barack Obama certainly doesn't suffer from "a complete lack of understanding" about the value of business aviation. He flies aboard Air Force One, the greatest business jet ever conceived. He has been an eager and active user of business aviation since before he started campaigning for the highest political office - and he will continue to be after he leaves the White House. To put it plainly, Barack Obama understands what an incredible tool a business jet can be.  Let's look at what the president said during the debate: "Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? My attitude is if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it." Ah, the pre-packaged, carefully crafted debate sound bite, two memorable lines delivered, in this case, in the president's inimitably folksy way.  (For the record, Romney was guilty of much the same thing in the debate as he deftly channeled his inner Ronald Reagan and professed his love for Big Bird.) Obama's criticism was a wholly populist message designed to score points with his base. For the president, corporate jets are probably the easiest target on the planet. Of course he's going to go after them. The bigger question is, does the president really believe his own message? Does he really think that by attacking business aviation, eliminating tax incentives and imposing user fees on corporate jet flights that he will be helping the country? The answer is, yes he does. Whether you agree or not, it's a cornerstone of his worldview - as candidate Barack Obama said himself four years ago, on Oct. 13, 2008, speaking to "Joe Sixpack" at an election rally: "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." Since then, Obama's message and ideas about the direction of the country haven't changed one iota. There was nothing new in what the president said about corporate jets during last week's debate - and so there's really no reason for outrage. What we heard from the president's podium in Denver was merely more of the same. 2012-10-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA Challenges Obama's Debate Remarks.htm?m=51&s=340&id=388By: Stephen Pope The National Business Aviation Association slammed Barack Obama's remarks about corporate jets in last week's presidential debate with Mitt Romney, saying the president mischaracterized the role business aviation plays in creating jobs and improving the economy.  In an open letter to Obama, NBAA head Ed Bolen said the remarks show that the president is out of touch with reality. "Your comments seemed to illustrate a complete lack of understanding about the importance of business aviation in the U.S., and appear to be at odds with your stated interest in promoting job growth, stimulating exports, driving economic recovery and restoring America to its first-place position in manufacturing," Bolen wrote. Bolen was referring to Obama's response to a question from debate moderator Jim Lehrer about tax policy, in which Obama stated: "Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? My attitude is if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it."  Bolen first countered those remarks in a statement issued to news organizations before the Wednesday night debate had concluded, which noted that the business aviation industry is responsible for 1.2 million American jobs, and contributes $150 billion annually to the U.S. economy. "Mr. President, in your concluding remarks, you were quick to point to the auto workers you've met in Detroit's manufacturing plants, and you celebrated their role in 'helping to build America,'" Bolen's letter noted. "Business aviation workers like those in Wichita, Duluth, Savannah, Columbus, Vero Beach and other American towns deserve your support as well. Please consider promoting, rather than disparaging, business aviation - it's a great American industry." 2012-10-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cessna CEO Asks Wichita Mayor To Defend Business Jet Market.htm?m=51&s=340&id=386Minutes after President Obama said in last week’s presidential debate that corporate jet owners should pay more taxes, former Cessna CEO Jack Pelton was e-mailing Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer – asking for his help. Pelton asked Brewer, a Democrat, to tell other Democratic Party members about the positive impact that the business jet market has on jobs and the economy. The industry employs thousands of people in Wichita and around the country. Brewer, who attended the Democratic convention last month in North Carolina, responded to Pelton in an e-mail on Saturday, saying that he shares Pelton’s concerns. In 2009 and 2010, he sent letters to Obama, urging him to pay attention to the “economic value of this critical industry,” Brewer told Pelton in the e-mail. To read the rest of the article at: http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/08/2525616/cessna-ceo-asks-wichita-mayor.html 2012-10-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Advocates Criticize Obama Remarks.htm?m=51&s=340&id=387By Mary Grady, Contribution editor In last week's presidential debate, President Obama said people who operate business jets shouldn't be entitled to an accelerated-depreciation tax break. "My attitude is, if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it," President Obama said.  Jack Pelton, former Cessna CEO, was quick to respond with a letter to Carl Brewer, the mayor of Wichita, Kansas. "We cannot continue to be reflected by the President as an industry that is 'bad,' " Pelton wrote, according to the Wichita Eagle. “If this is the theme for the campaign, you can guarantee Wichita will suffer beyond what we have seen to date." More than 13,000 aviation workers in Wichita lost their jobs dung the economic downturn. Ed Bolen, president of the NBAA, responded the day after the debate with a letter to the White House. "I'm writing to convey my frustration at your disparaging remarks about our industry during last night's debate," Bolen wrote. "Your comments seemed to illustrate a complete lack of understanding about the importance of business aviation in the U.S., and appear to be at odds with your stated interest in promoting job growth, stimulating exports, driving economic recovery and restoring America to its first-place position in manufacturing." NBAA and other advocates have also protested the administration's user-fee proposals 2012-10-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Jet Set Grounds President Obama.htm?m=51&s=340&id=380By Kathryn Wolfe Corporate jet backers have a message for President Barack Obama: Your tax talk doesn’t fly with us. The business aviation lobby is again defending its image following the president’s call during Wednesday’s debate to end a tax break for corporate jet owners. Obama’s remarks came as he was outlining how he could help the economy by doing away with various forms of what he called corporate welfare — including tax breaks for Big Oil and corporate jets. “Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? My attitude is, if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it,” Obama said. The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which represents businesses that own private jets, called Obama’s comments “unfortunate.” “The president's comments completely mischaracterized the businesses and groups that depend on an airplane, the majority of which are small-to-mid-sized businesses, farms, flight schools, medical care providers and emergency responders that use the aircraft to connect communities and grow their businesses,” said Ed Bolen, NBAA’s president, in a statement. But aside from a continuing public relations problem, the business aviation lobby probably doesn’t have much to worry about. Obama and Democrats in Congress have sought repeatedly to eliminate a tax break for purchasing business jets, so far unsuccessfully. A proposal was included in Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget request. And Democrats pressed for it to be included in last year’s debt ceiling deal. The tax break in question allows taxes on corporate jets to be depreciated over a period of five years, as opposed to the seven years allowed for commercial airliners. Obama and Democrats have proposed bringing the corporate jet depreciation schedule in line with that of airliners. It’s estimated to save about $3 billion over 10 years. The business jet lobby is no stranger to criticism — in 2008, auto industry executives came to D.C. in a fleet of corporate planes to ask for a bailout, igniting a firestorm of outrage for both jet owners and auto executives that has continued off and on to this day. 2012-10-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Zinger From The President Stings Business Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=385Zinger indeed. During the debate between Republican candidate Mitt Romney and President Obama on October 3, the president hit a sour note with business aircraft owners. It’s reverberating throughout the business aviation industry. By characterizing corporate jet owners as those who could and should pay more taxes, the president failed to acknowledge that the vast majority of businesses that own and operate corporate jets are small to mid-sized companies — the very ones he wants to help navigate this fragile economy. These companies and entrepreneurs use business aircraft effectively and responsibly to explore new markets, serve existing customers and generate revenue and profits that ultimately lead to greater employment and economic prosperity, not to mention a favorable balance of trade. National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO, Ed Bolen, immediately responded with a letter to President Obama questioning his decision to mischaracterize business aviation. The NBAA released comments to the press as follows: “I’m writing to convey my frustration at your disparaging remarks about our industry during last night’s debate,” Bolen’s letter states. “Your comments seemed to illustrate a complete lack of understanding about the importance of business aviation in the U.S., and appear to be at odds with your stated interest in promoting job growth, stimulating exports, driving economic recovery and restoring America to its first-place position in manufacturing.” Bolen was referring to Obama’s response to a question from debate moderator Jim Lehrer about tax policy, in which Obama stated: “Why wouldn’t we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? My attitude is if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it.” Bolen first countered those remarks in a statement issued to news organizations before the Wednesday night debate had concluded, which noted that the business aviation industry is responsible for 1.2 million American jobs, and contributes $150 billion annually to the U.S. economy. “At a time when both candidates claim to be putting job creation at the top of their agenda, it’s unfortunate that the President tonight denigrated the business aviation industry, which is responsible for 1.2 million American jobs and $150 billion in economic impact. The President’s comments completely mischaracterized the businesses and groups that depend on an airplane, the majority of which are small- to mid-sized businesses, farms, flight schools, medical care providers and emergency responders that use the aircraft to connect communities and grow their businesses. That’s why dozens of governors have recognized the industry’s importance, and over 100 Mayors have written the President to ask him to stop attacking it at a time when many businesses and communities are still recovering from the economic downturn.” Elaborating on that statement today, Bolen’s letter points out: “Business airplanes are mostly used by small and mid-sized companies, which are very often based in places like Moline, IL and Greenwood, MS, where airline service is minimal or non-existent. Having an airplane means the company – and the jobs that come with it – can stay in those small towns.” In his letter, Bolen also questions the seeming disparity between the President’s comments, and his ostensible goal to promote American manufacturing. “Mr. President, in your concluding remarks, you were quick to point to the auto workers you’ve met in Detroit’s manufacturing plants, and you celebrated their role in ‘helping to build America,’” Bolen’s letter notes. “Business aviation workers like those in Wichita, Duluth, Savannah, Columbus, Vero Beach and other American towns deserve your support as well. “Please consider promoting, rather than disparaging, business aviation – it’s a great American industry,” the letter concludes.  October 4, 2012 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President, On behalf of the more than one million people employed in business aviation, I’m writing to convey my frustration at your disparaging remarks about the industry during last night’s debate. Your comments seemed to discount and ignore the importance of business aviation in the U.S., and appear to be at odds with your stated interest in promoting job growth, stimulating exports, driving economic recovery and restoring America to its first-place position in manufacturing. Mr. President, in your concluding remarks, you were quick to point to the auto workers you’ve met in Detroit’s manufacturing plants, and you celebrated their role in “helping to build America.” Business aviation workers like those in Wichita, Duluth, Savannah, Columbus, Vero Beach and other American towns deserve your support as well. In fact, America leads the world in business aircraft manufacturing, which supports countless highly skilled jobs, and is one of the few remaining industries that contributes positively to the nation’s balance of trade. It’s disappointing to know that you’ve chosen to vilify this essential American workforce instead of doing all you can to promote its growth as part of your overall goal of supporting a resurgence of manufacturing in the U.S. Of course, your negative remarks about business aviation aren’t limited only to the jobs involved in building aircraft, as important as those are. The fact is, business airplanes are mostly used by small and mid-sized companies, which are very often based in places like Moline, IL and Greenwood, MS, where airline service is minimal or non-existent. Having an airplane means the company — and the jobs that come with it — can stay in those small towns. Mr. President, I know you’ve heard from more than 100 mayors from across the country, who have talked about the importance of business aviation to their economic plans, to the overall health of the nation’s economy and transportation system and to American competitiveness. Please consider promoting, rather than disparaging, business aviation — it’s a great American industry. Sincerely, Ed Bolen President and CEO National Business Aviation Association 2012-10-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Group: Obama Off Base On Corporate Jet Breaks.htm?m=51&s=340&id=382By Linda Loyd President Obama's message to jet-setters: Pay your fair share. The president ruffled some high-flying feathers when he said that the United States should end tax breaks for the owners of corporate jets during Wednesday night's debate with Mitt Romney. "My attitude is, if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it," he said, discussing ways to reduce the federal deficit. Obama was referring to the accelerated depreciation of business jets. A national business aviation trade group, which represents owners of private jets, called Obama's comments "misleading." "The president's comments completely mischaracterized the businesses and groups that depend on an airplane, the majority of which are small- to mid-sized businesses, farms, flight schools, medical-care providers, and emergency responders, which use the aircraft to connect communities and grow their businesses," said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association. Under current law, companies that use jets for business purposes can depreciate taxes on corporate jets over five years, as opposed to the seven years allowed for commercial and charter airlines. Obama and Democrats in Congress say that eliminating a tax break for purchasing business jets, and bringing the corporate-jet depreciation schedule in line with that of other airliners, would bring in $3 billion over 10 years. Republicans and the business-aviation lobby say the accelerated depreciation promotes aircraft sales, which helps corporate jet manufacturers and adds jobs. "At a time when both candidates claim to be putting job creation at the top of their agenda, it's unfortunate that the president tonight denigrated business aviation, which is the manufacture and use of a small airplane for business reasons - an industry responsible for 1.2 million American jobs and $150 billion in economic impact," Bolen said. Business jets often fly into towns with little or no airline service, and "businesses are using their aircraft to create opportunities that will help keep them competitive in a still-challenging economic environment," Bolen said. Obama said oil companies should also pay more in taxes. "The oil industry gets $4 billion a year in corporate welfare. Basically, they get deductions that those small businesses that Gov. Romney refers to don't get," Obama said. "Now, does anybody think that ExxonMobil needs some extra money when they're making money every time you go to the pump? Why wouldn't we want to eliminate that? Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets?" 2012-10-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Former Cessna CEO Critical Of Obama’s Comment On Business Jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=383It didn’t take long for former Cessna CEO Jack Pelton to shoot off an e-mail to Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer following President Obama’s remarks during Wednesday’s debate about taxes paid by those who buy corporate jets. “We need your help,” Pelton told the mayor. “Within 30 minutes into the debate tonight, the President made the comment that people who own business jets should pay more taxes,” Pelton wrote. “This statement is simply ill informed as to who operate business jets and more important, damning to the great people who work on the production lines here in Wichita.” The industry continues to be at an “all-time low in this business climate and lack of recovery continues to plague local manufacturers,” he wrote. “What just infuriates me is the lack of understanding of the positive impact to our economy by our industry.” Read More: http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/05/v-print/2515477/former-cessna-ceo-critical-of.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy 2012-10-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Obama Blew It In Debate: NBAA.htm?m=51&s=340&id=390National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO Ed Bolen strongly condemned President Barack Obama's remarks in the first debate Aug. 3. He said the president made disparaging business aviation and mischaracterizing the industry. "At a time when both candidates claim to be putting job creation at the top of their agenda, it's unfortunate that the President tonight denigrated the business aviation industry, which is responsible for 1.2 million American jobs and $150 billion in economic impact," Bolen said.  "The President's comments completely mischaracterized the businesses and groups that depend on an airplane, the majority of which are small- to mid-sized businesses, farms, flight schools, medical care providers and emergency responders that use the aircraft to connect communities and grow their businesses. "That's why dozens of governors have recognized the industry's importance, and over 100 Mayors have written the President to ask him to stop attacking it at a time when many businesses and communities are still recovering from the economic downturn." Obama has also tried to impose a $100 take off fee on every business aircraft flight, further depressing the industry. 2012-10-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/The Debates Biggest Loser: The Wealthy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=379The wealthy had no friends in last night debate. From the battle over Donald Trump’s “small-ness,” to the disparaging remarks about beleaguered private-jet owners to taxing the top earners, rich people became a target for both sides in last night’s first presidential debate.  It’s no surprise that Obama took on the rich. But Romney, in his effort to shed his privilege and embrace the middle class, also played to the populists and shied away from any comments that might seem friendly to people like himself. The debate made it official: rich is a four-letter word in this election. It’s not just that both candidates want to be seen as champions of the middle class. They also want to be seen as enemies of the upper class, or at least not friendly toward them.  Who can blame them? No one should feel bad for the rich right now. And supporting the middle class is like being for puppies and children and family. Everyone’s for it. Yet last night highlighted just how far populism has come in this campaign.  It all started with The Donald. As the debate turned to taxing top earners, Obama said high earners are millionaires and billionaires, while Romney argued that many of those high earners are job-creating small businesses.  “Under Romney's definition,” Obama said, “there are a whole bunch of millionaires and billionaires who are small businesses. Donald Trump is a small business. Now, I know Donald Trump doesn't like to think of himself as small anything, but — but that's how you define small businesses if you're getting business income.” Romney didn’t exactly rally for the cause of Trump.  He argued that by targeting the Trumps of the world, Obama would hit small businesses instead. “The reality is it's not just wealthy people — you mentioned Donald Trump. It's not just Donald Trump you're taxing. It's all those businesses that employ one-quarter of the workers in America, these small businesses that are taxed as individuals.” Trump told CNBC in a statement, “It’s a great honor to be representing free enterprise in this country as a tremendous job creator. I greatly appreciate being mentioned by the president and Governor Romney in such an important event.” Clear, all publicity is good publicity for the Donald. But private-jet fliers got even less love last night. Obama repeated a longtime policy aim of stripping jet owners of tax incentives. “Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets?” he asked. “My attitude is, if you've got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it.” Once again, Romney failed to rise up in defense of the private-jet set. But the National Business Aviation Association did. Before the debate had ended, the NBAA — the advocates for private jets — issued the following statement: The president's comments completely mischaracterized the businesses and groups that depend on an airplane, the majority of which are small- to mid-sized businesses, farms, flight schools, medical care providers and emergency responders that use the aircraft to connect communities and grow their businesses. Take that Obama. When you’re trash-talking private-jet owners, you’re really just hurting farmers. Finally, on the subject of taxes, neither Obama nor Romney wanted to be seen as wealth-friendly, even though the top 1 percent of taxpayers pay more than 30 percent of the nation’s taxes. Obama wants to raise taxes on high earners and says Romney wants to lower them. Romney last night vowed not lower taxes on high earners, even though many in the GOP want to “broaden the base” and reduce the share of taxes paid by the top. “I cannot reduce the burden paid by high-income Americans. So any — any language to the contrary is simply not accurate,” Romney said. Romney also said the wealthy still wealthy, and they’re going to stay wealthy no matter who takes over the White House.  This stands in stark contrast to the argument from many in the GOP that the 1 percent are job creators who need more encouragement, lower taxes and less uncertainty in their lives so that they can invest and hire. “High-income people are doing just fine in this economy,” Romney said. “They'll do fine whether you're president or I am.”  There are a lot of wealthy voters and financial backers, however, who beg to differ. 2012-10-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Biz Av Rep Reaction To Obama: Don't Touch Our Tax Breaks.htm?m=51&s=340&id=381It didn't take long. Within minutes of the end of the presidential debate last night, the business jet lobby was readying a response to President Obama comments that millionaires should be willing to pay more taxes on their winged limos. We caught up this morning with Dan Hubbard, spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association and here's some of what he had to say: "It's clear that President Obama either doesn't understand or doesn't want to understand the importance of business aviation to citizens, communities and companies all across the country. "The manufacture and use of small airplanes for business supports more than a million jobs (1.2 million) and generates more than $150 billion each year in economic activity and helps companies of all sizes compete, especially in this very challenging economic environment. "It's clear that President Obama chose to single out an important American industry with some mischaracterizations in his debate remarks last night." Hubbard said earlier in his presidency Obama signed onto legislation extending the accelerated depreciation tax provisions for business aircraft, noting that his experts had said it would help maintain and create jobs and boost the economy. - Bob Cox   2012-10-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Private Jet Company Clips Obama On General Aviation Comments.htm?m=51&s=340&id=384By Keith Laing A private jet company is chiding President Obama on Thursday for remarks he made in his debate with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney about tax breaks for owners of non-commercial airplanes. In an exchange with Romney about U.S. tax policy, Obama said he would he end tax reductions for private jets as part of his plan to reduce the federal deficit.  “Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets,” Obama said. “My attitude is if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it.” But Chicago-based Jet Support Services, Inc. said Thursday that Obama’s comments were an attack on an industry that creates 1.2 million jobs. “President Obama clearly does not understand the full economic impact that the business aviation industry has on the broader U.S. economy,” JSSI Chairman Lou Seno said in a statement. “These tools of commerce are not toys for the rich; rather, they are vital assets that allow small and mid-sized businesses to sell both domestically and globally.” The private jet industry has frequently criticized Obama for comments about the amount of taxes that are paid by the owners of non-commercial, or general, aviation aircrafts. The industry has also opposed a proposal from Obama to increase a per-flight fee on private jets as much as $100. The proposal was originally one of Obama's recommendations to the now-defunct supercommittee of lawmakers that was tasked with recommending $1.5 trillion or more in cuts from the federal deficit last year. It was included in the 2013 budget Obama proposed to Congress earlier this year. Seno said Thursday that “business aviation is one of the few bright spots in both domestic manufacturing and our export economy, contributing to $150 billion in the industry’s overall economic impact. “It’s an industry that supports 1.2 million American jobs, and President Obama’s decision to demonize it last night jeopardizes those jobs,” he said. GOP nominee Romney focused his answer to the deficit question on a broader plan to reduce federal debt levels. “I'm glad you raised that,” Romney said to moderator Jim Lehrer. “And it's…a critical issue. I think it's not just an economic issue. I think it's a moral issue. I think it's, frankly, not moral for my generation to keep spending massively more than we take in, knowing those burdens are going to be passed on to the next generation. “They're going to be paying the interest and the principle all their lives,” Romney continued.  “And the amount of debt we're adding, at a trillion a year, is simply not moral.” He did not make mention of the private jet industry. 2012-10-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/My Voice: General Aviation - Expanding Horizons.htm?m=51&s=340&id=377 Noncommercial flights important to economy in S.D., across nation Recently, according to news reports, a hiker in Badlands National Park fell and slid into a crack in a rock, suffering injuries to his leg and back. Among the first to respond was Black Hills Life Flight, an organization that specializes in aerial medical transportation. They, along with the South Dakota Air National Guard, helped to hoist the man to safety in the nick of time. While this is definitely a rare situation, the truth is that every day, aircraft and airports across our state are used to carry out emergency medical, fire fighting and disaster relief operations. Rapid City Regional Airport is home to a slurry-tanker base, where the U.S. Forest Service monitors and responds to wildfires across five states. The South Dakota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, also based at the Rapid City Regional Airport, assists in a wide variety of natural disaster relief and Homeland Security efforts and also educates young people about aviation. In addition, the South Dakota National Guard Detachment 48 Operational Support Airlift is based at the airport, which assisted in the recovery efforts in response to flooding in Pierre last year. The truth is that throughout our state and the nation as a whole, the adaptability of general aviation makes it an excellent resource to organizations that perform critical public safety functions.  In the same way that general aviation allows communities to connect to critical services, these aircraft and airports help local businesses and the communities that depend on them to expand to new markets, serve customers and support local jobs. For example, Fugro Horizons, an aerial photography and mapping company, is based at Rapid City Regional Airport, and through the use of 12 aircraft, uses the latest technology in optical sensing to provide geospatial information to clients. In addition, the aerial application of crop protection products is extremely important to our local economy and our national food supply. In fact, 85 percent of the companies that own and operate general aviation aircraft are small- to mid-sized businesses which use these aircraft to visit multiple locations in a single day, travel to locations with limited access to commercial aviation and carry tools and demonstration materials that could not be transported commercially. All told, in South Dakota, the general aviation industry accounts for $303 million of economic activity annually, and the aerospace and aviation sectors support 1,846 jobs. Across the country, the general aviation industry has an economic impact of $150 billion per year and supports 1.2 million jobs. Despite the enormous benefits of general aviation to our communities, the industry still faces many challenges. The economic downturn has deeply affected the industry, and the president’s recently released budget includes a $100-per-flight “user fee” tax that would devastate the general aviation industry. Fortunately, Gov. Dennis Daugaard recently sent a letter to President Obama outlining the critical importance of general aviation in South Dakota and throughout the country. With this step, Daugaard joins a growing number of elected officials in acknowledging the critical importance of our national infrastructure and air transportation system. Bert Corwin of Rapid City is the former president of the Rapid City Airport Board and a member of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. 2012-09-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/General Aviation Helps Lift Communities To New Heights.htm?m=51&s=340&id=378BY BRENT KISLING Airplanes aren’t the first thing we generally think about when we consider a local economy. Think again: The network of airplanes and airports in Oklahoma are crucial connectors for businesses and industries, helping support area jobs and aiding industries as they expand. A perfect example is the acquisition of GEFCO, a company based in Enid, by Astec Industries of Chattanooga, Tenn. GEFCO is a local company that makes drilling equipment for construction, water well drilling, mining, and oil and gas production. It’s been a major employer in the area for decades and employs more than 150 workers.  With this acquisition, Astec Industries plans to invest millions of dollars in the local facility and double its workforce. Throughout the process, travel on small aircraft (also known as general aviation) through the Enid Woodring Regional Airport was crucial to facilitating this acquisition and the ultimate expansion. Astec will use general aviation and the local airport extensively in the years ahead as the company grows and expands its economic footprint. GEFCO isn’t the only company with assets in Enid that use the airport regularly. Others include Ward Petroleum, Enivirotech, Aircraft Structures International, Hiland Partners, Johnston Enterprises, Groendyke Transport and Ad- vancePierre Foods. The Enid airport is a prime example of how general aviation and local airports support, sustain and encourage economic activity for communities. Across the state, the general aviation industry has an economic impact of $1.2 billion. The aviation and aerospace sectors employ more than 144,000 workers in Oklahoma. Community airports and general aviation also play a vital role in public safety. Law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical responders, search-and-rescue teams, nonprofit organizations and natural disaster relief crews all rely on general aviation regularly. Despite all the benefits of community airports and general aviation, many people aren’t aware of their value. A new proposal would place a $100-per-flight “user fee” tax on the small businesses, farms, nonprofits and communities that rely on these aircraft. Worse, this new tax system would create a new bureaucracy within the FAA to collect the taxes. The current system is a fuel tax that’s simple to comply with and administer. It’s fair and proportionate to use. Luckily, the importance of these airports and our air transportation system isn’t lost on state and local leaders. Gov. Mary Fallin has written to the president to ask the administration to recognize the critical importance of small aircraft to our local economy and communities across Oklahoma. She also declared August “Aviation and Aerospace Appreciation Month.”  These are commendable steps that will help raise awareness about this crucial form of transportation for our state and the national economy. Kisling is executive director of the Enid Regional Development Alliance. 2012-09-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Thanks For The Lift.htm?m=51&s=340&id=375We wouldn't get anywhere (fast) without it — the aviation industry. Eleven aviation companies service Ketchikan. Some provide daily flights in and out of Ketchikan to both big and small communities, while others strictly fly visitors on charters to Misty Fiords National Monument, camp sites, fishing holes and similar remote sites. Alaska Airlines is the largest. The smallest, if they aren't still, might have started as one-man (or woman) operations. In any case, they're all providing a service we often take for granted and couldn't appreciate more, particularly when we want to get somewhere quickly. Aviation is an economic engine here and around the state, generating 47,000 jobs and $3.5 billion annually. It supports the oil, fishing, and mining industries, as well as other industries that Alaskans depend upon. Those industries rely on aviation for the transport of people and cargo. The aviation industry is dependent on Alaska's 255 airports, most of which are in small rural communities. Without working airports, 82 percent of Alaska's communities would be without a year-round means of travel from their rural homes. September is General Aviation Appreciation Month, according to the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The state has joined with the Alaska Air Carriers Association, Alaska Airmen's Association, Alaskacraft Owners and Pilots Association, Alaska Airports Association, Federal Aviation Administration and Alliance for Aviation Across America to recognize the significance of aviation in our state, according to Gov. Sean Parnell. We Alaskans rely on the aviation industry in a myriad of ways; from the trips we take to visit family, to fun in the sun, to all sorts of entertainment, to conducting business. For many, the premier destination is simply Alaska's great outdoors. The industry affects everyone differently. But the one commonality is that Alaskans in this industry of hard-working, dedicated aviators deserve our appreciation, for they make it possible for us to fly.  That's no small feat, whether the destination is Petersburg in an hour or Paris the next day (or two). Because of aviation, we get there. 2012-09-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Michigan, Connecticut Governors Recognize Value of Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=376Despite deep divides between Democrats and Republicans, governors in both parties recently reaffirmed the value of aviation. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, both recently recognized the value of aviation to their states by proclaiming September as aviation month – becoming the 43rd and 44th states respectively to recognize the importance of all general aviation (GA), including business aviation. “Michigan is home to 235 public-use airports, 70 licensed flight schools, 225 licensed aircraft dealers, 6,800 registered aircraft and 16,000 licensed pilots,” Snyder said in his declaration of September as “Michigan Aviation Month.” Michigan ranks ninth among all 50 U.S. states in the number of airports per land area, with one public-use airport for every 249 square miles. Only 19 of those airports are classified by the FAA as eligible to receive any scheduled airline service.  Review the Michigan proclamation  Just over two months ago, Snyder demonstrated his understanding of the industry’s importance by signing HB 4025, which dedicates 4 percent of the 6 percent tax on aviation fuel for airport maintenance, repair and construction. According to NBAA Midwest Regional Representative Bob Quinn, the law authorizes up to $10 million, which can be used to leverage as much as $90 million of federal funds for airport projects. In his proclamation, the governor also noted the importance of the Michigan Air Tour, this year scheduled for Sept. 21-23. The air tour is an annual event that celebrates Michigan aviation with a group of pilots flying GA aircraft around the state, exploring different Michigan airports and experiencing first-hand the economic importance of GA to the state and communities. The first state Air Tour was in 1929. Even before the first Air Tour, Michigan aviation was strongly linked to Henry Ford. Better known for automobile production, Ford’s company made Liberty aircraft engines for World War I aircraft, followed in 1926 by the groundbreaking Ford Tri-Motor commercial transport. In Connecticut, Malloy said in his proclamation of “Aviation Appreciation Month” that, “This month is an opportunity for aircraft owners, pilots, aviation enthusiasts and others to share an appreciation for the freedom of flight, the camaraderie of the aviation community, as well as the past and future of aviation in Connecticut.” Review the Connecticut proclamation  GA is particularly important in Connecticut because, of the state’s 21 airports, only the ones in Windsor Locks and New Haven are classified as commercial service (airline) airports. The rest are GA only, used by businesses to quickly reach customers, for medical evacuation and by recreational pilots.  Connecticut has at least 88 aerospace-related employers, according to the Manta business directory, making aviation one of the most vibrant industries in the state. In his proclamation, Governor Malloy confirmed the economic benefit of aviation and aerospace businesses in the state. “Aviation is inextricably linked to economic development in the State of Connecticut, and we support the many workers employed here in the aviation industry,” the governor said. “We celebrate aviation and the many ways in which it enriches our lives.” Connecticut also was home to Igor Sikorsky, who developed the first viable American helicopter in 1939, the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300. A few years later Sikorsky produced the Model R-4, which was the world’s first mass-produced helicopter. Sikorsky also developed the famous Pan American Airways flying boats.  In addition to Michigan and Connecticut, the list of states that have officially recognized GA’s value includes: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 2012-09-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Oklahoma Governor Proclaims August 'Aviation Appreciation Month'.htm?m=51&s=340&id=374By Janice Wood  Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has declared August “Aviation and Aerospace Appreciation Month.” The proclamation highlights the important role of general aviation and local airports in supporting business, ranches and farms, and medical services, as well as the overall economy. In Oklahoma, the general aviation industry generates $1.2 billion annually in total economic impact, while the aviation and aerospace industry as a whole supports over 115,000 jobs. “I am proud to join pilots, businesses and airports in recognizing the tremendous impact of commercial and general aviation on our state,” Fallin commented. “For many Oklahoma communities, general aviation in particular is an economic driver, and supports jobs, businesses and vital services throughout our state. I am proud to join other governors around the nation in recognizing this vital form of transportation.” “We commend Governor Fallin for recognizing the immense value of general aviation and local airports to communities around Oklahoma,” said Selena Shilad, Executive Director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. “General aviation and local airports support businesses and job growth, and serve as a lifeline for small communities throughout the state.” “In Oklahoma, there are 139 public-use airports, 11,000 general aviation aircraft and nearly 8,000 pilots across the state,” stated Craig L. Fuller, President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). “These airports and aircraft support local commerce, help to facilitate medical care and disaster relief, and connect communities in Oklahoma with the rest of the country. We look forward to working with Governor Fallin to increase awareness about the importance of the general aviation industry.” 2012-08-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Time To Spotlight State's Vital Asset.htm?m=51&s=340&id=373Earlier this year, a boy hiking with his family became stuck on a rock while hiking near Gold Bar. The story was reported in the Everett Herald, Seattle Times, and local TV stations, and caught national attention. In the end, the child was brought to safety due to the heroic efforts of the Gold Bar Fire Department, and the Snohomish County Sheriff's office with its Search and Rescue Unit, assisted by the Sheriff's helicopter. While this is certainly a unique circumstance, the truth is that every day, across our state and our country, small aircraft and helicopters are used to address emergency, humanitarian, disaster relief, search and rescue, law enforcement, angel/mercy flights, agricultural and logging activities, news reporting, business and local commerce and various other important needs. At my own airport, Harvey Field, in Snohomish, the National Guard, Sheriff, Angel Flight, Air Lift NW air ambulance, agriculture aerial spray operators, and news helicopters regularly establish a base to carry out these types of operations. For example, during the spring and early summer months, agriculture spray planes routinely stage operations at Harvey Field to work the Snohomish River Valley farmland crops and when the Snohomish River floods, Harvey Field becomes a staging area for emergency helicopter operations aiding levy monitoring and emergency patrol personnel and the associated recovery efforts that save lives and property. The same speed and versatility that make these aircraft a vital resource for public safety and humanitarian efforts also makes them an indispensable tool for business and local commerce. General aviation and local airports allow businesses to meet with new customers in multiple locations, allow sales personnel and managers to reach far-off plants and visit communities that are not served by commercial airlines. Especially in rural areas, this helps businesses look beyond the horizon and grow into new markets without leaving their hometown communities.  In fact, the business aviation industry is much more diverse than most people realize; 85 percent of businesses that own and operate aircraft are small to mid-sized businesses. Aviation plays a vital role in our state's response to emergencies and natural disasters and many communities depend on it for the continued flow of commerce and tourists. Washington state is home to 137 public-use airports, serving over 20,000 pilots and more than 7,500 general aviation aircraft. The general aviation industry is a significant economic engine; public-use airports support 248,500 jobs, $15.3 billion in wages, and $50.9 billion in total economic activity in this state. Across the country, the industry represents $150 billion in economic activity per year and supports 1.2 million jobs. Gov. Gregoire has demonstrated great leadership by declaring June "General Aviation Appreciation Month" here in Washington state. By doing so, she has taken an important step in raising public awareness of the critical role general aviation and our local airports perform for the people of Washington state. From ensuring public safety, to creating business opportunities in communities throughout the state, general aviation is a vital asset that deserves the governor's acknowledgement. Kandace Harvey of Snohomish is the President of the Washington Airport Managers Association, the Manager of Harvey Field and a member of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. 2012-08-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/Orangeburg Has Significant Place In S.C. Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=372One might say Gov. Nikki Haley will be flying high Monday night with her national profile. She addresses the Republican National Convention at 10 p.m. as a darling of the right and champion of development, with no business more in the spotlight than South Carolina’s aerospace industry fueled by Boeing and its big-time footprint in South Carolina. But aviation in the state is about more than the big jets being built in Charleston Recently, national aviation organizations recognized Haley for declaring Aug. 13-18 “Aviation Week.” Her proclamation highlighted the role that all aviation, including general aviation, plays in supporting businesses, farms, emergency response and the overall economy. Aviation in South Carolina provides thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, with general aviation alone contributing $417 million in economic activity, according to the Alliance For Aviation Across America. “The alliance thanks Gov. Haley for her support of aviation and specifically, general aviation, in the state of South Carolina,” said Selena Shilad, executive director. “General aviation and local airports are invaluable for business and job growth, acting as a lifeline for small communities throughout the state.” “Throughout South Carolina, 54 public-use airports support more than 3,000 general aviation aircraft and 6,600 pilots,” said Craig L. Fuller, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. “These airports and aircraft expand local commerce, help facilitate medical care and disaster relief and connect communities of South Carolina with the rest of the country.” Among the 54 airports is Orangeburg Municipal, a city of Orangeburg facility about which Airport Commission member B. Reese Earley recently wrote extensively in The Times and Democrat. The title of his article: “So you didn’t know Orangeburg has an airport?” Earley took readers on a tour, offering information that few not directly associated with the facility would have. If you’re interested in aviation, and even if you’re not so much so, you’ll find his article insightful. We’ve attached it to this editorial at TheTandD.com<http://TheTandD.com> and urge you to take a look. Meantime, consider that the local airport’s estimated impact is significant: $1.5 million in direct output, of which $125,000 is paid to approximately four direct full-time employees, and 15,800 visitors arriving at the Orangeburg airport each year, generating another $1 million in indirect aviation-related. According to an Airport Commission publication that cites methodology approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in reaching its conclusions: “Including the multiplier effect, the airport tenants and visitors at Orangeburg Municipal Airport generate $4.3 million in total economic output, of which $1.9 million in payroll is paid to 68 full-time equivalent jobs.” While one may not think of Orangeburg and airport traffic in the same light, aviation is significant here and around the state. Orangeburg Municipal and its two runways accommodate flights directly related to business and industry in our community, and serve as key ingredients on any list of community pluses for economic development. A first-class airport system is essential in South Carolina and Orangeburg is a player in that system with a quality facility. 2012-08-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/Clearing Skies for Private Jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=371The private jet industry has been a bit more optimistic lately, in part because of business travelers like Mark Dowley who use it to patch holes in the domestic air travel system. Mr. Dowley, an executive for a private equity firm and a marketing consultant, said he still flew commercial planes on the long, nonstop routes that airlines offer in abundance. But he will sometimes take a business jet to a smaller destination — the kind of place that could take an additional three hours or more to reach by commercial plane. So he may fly commercially from New York to San Francisco for a meeting in San Jose, and then fly by private jet to San Diego for more meetings. He said he used private jets “as a filler” to circumvent time-consuming airline schedules that often require inconvenient connections, even on short hops. He buys hourly flight time on a light jet through NetJets, the leading player in the fractional ownership market, which also sells per-hour private jet flying through its Marquis jet-card program. He said he flew more than 300,000 miles a year for business, about 90 percent on commercial jets and 10 percent on private jets. “Commercial air is more cost-efficient, but private is a massive timesaver,” Mr. Dowley said. “I’m very judicious with the private flying time, though, to manage the cost.” The industry has been struggling since the recession hit and criticism arose over corporate executives’ use of private jets. But deteriorating commercial airline service has underscored one of the rationales long cited for flying privately: the efficient use of business time. According to the annual forecast by Honeywell, deliveries of business jets this year will probably grow only slightly over last year’s total of fewer than 650 planes, which in turn was down about 15 percent from 2010. The peak year was 2008, when 1,139 jets were delivered. NetJets, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, remains the market leader. But the second-largest company in the fractional-share market, Flight Options, reported that its business had grown for three consecutive years. Kenn Ricci, chairman of Flight Options, which operates a fleet of more than 100 private jets, said his company had a 53 percent increase in new fractional owners last year, when it took delivery of 14 new jets. Those were among the more than 140 it had on order. “We have stabilized the business and made Flight Options into a much better company than it was — a good alternative,” Mr. Ricci said. NetJets, which has more than 700 jets in its fleet, is also growing. In June, it announced orders and options to buy up to 425 new jets, which it called the largest airplane purchase in private aviation history.  NetJets said the deal, with a value of $9.6 billion at list prices, included up to 200 Bombardier Challenger 300s, 75 Challenger 605s and 150 Cessna Citation Latitudes, with deliveries starting in 2014. All are in the supermidsize and midsize cabin categories, which typically carry eight to nine passengers. That transaction followed another big one last March, when NetJets announced orders and options for 120 Bombardier Global jets, with a total value of $6.7 billion at list prices. Aircraft in the Global series are large-cabin jets that typically carry about 13 passengers and cost $48 million to $58 million each. With flying ranges of up to 6,600 miles, these so-called heavy-metal jets are becoming increasingly popular as business aviation expands globally. Slightly more than half of global business-jet deliveries are made in the United States, with the next biggest proportion, about 17 percent, in Europe, where the industry has been battered by the economic downturn. “We take a global view, with our large operations in the U.S. and also in Europe, and expanding operations in China,” said Jordan Hansell, chief executive of NetJets. “We’re looking at more than just the U.S. aviation market, which is holding its own.” NetJets, Flight Options and a third big player, FlexJet, a unit of Bombardier, dominate the fractional-ownership market, which NetJets popularized starting in 1986. Rather than buying an entire airplane, fractional owners purchase a share, starting at one-sixteenth or one-eighth, of a certain model. Share ownership ensures a customer the availability of that model of plane on short notice for a specified number of hours a year. A one-eighth share typically equals 100 flying hours a year. Besides buying a share of the plane prorated on its overall price, customers pay an hourly fee when flying and a monthly maintenance fee. The companies offer other options, including so-called jet cards sold in hourly blocks, usually in increments of 25 hours, but without the same rights as ownership. Even at this less expensive end of the business, flying privately is not cheap. A 25-hour Flight Options card for a speedy, seven-passenger Hawker 400XP light jet, for example, costs $110,000, plus fuel and taxes. Jet cards are typically used by people who fly fewer than 50 hours a year.  “It’s very hard to justify all the costs,” Mr. Dowley acknowledged, “but I’m in the service business and in the private equity business, where you have multiple clients and multiple issues.” “The commercial schedule is just so grossly inefficient,” he said, that augmenting it with private jets makes economic sense.  Over all, the cheapest per-seat method of private flying is charter aviation, in which travel is usually sold on a per-flight, on-demand basis. (XOJet, a leader in the on-demand charter business, said recently that its flight hours in the first half of 2012 were up 55 percent from the same period in 2011.)  The most expensive private-jet option, of course, is outright ownership of a plane. This end of the market remains the most severely affected since the recession, both by basic economics and by the populist criticism that developed against the high-flying rich. Mr. Ricci estimated that while the fractional-share market was finally growing again, it had shrunk from about 450,000 hours a year just before the recession to about 350,000 hours now. “If you’re operating a business, it doesn’t take long for your employees to realize you’re still flying in the corporate jet,” he said. “That’s maybe not the example you want to set. We still have customers that will do business flying commercially, and they’ll have either a card or a small fractional share that they use for their personal travel, and they’ll ask not to have that go through their office. They still try to keep that low profile.” 2012-08-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/South Carolina Governor Asserts Value of Business Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=370For the second consecutive year, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has declared her state’s appreciation of all general aviation (GA), including business aviation and community airports. “Aviation plays a vital role in the economy of South Carolina, providing many thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity,” Haley wrote in her Aug. 2 proclamation designating Aug. 13 to 18 “Aviation Week” in the state. She had previously issued an Aviation Month proclamation in June 2011. Both proclamations mentioned the need for communities throughout the state to have aviation access to support business, tourism, air cargo, law enforcement and medical rescue operations. All those benefits echo themes of the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, a joint effort of NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, which educates policymakers and opinion leaders on the importance of business aviation to individuals, businesses and communities. Review the South Carolina proclamation NBAA Southeast Regional Representative Harry Houckes said that one of business aviation’s best examples in South Carolina is the state government’s own Aeronautics Commission, which provides on-demand transportation for state officials and business prospects. The commission was one of just two NBAA Member Companies to receive the Association’s 75-Year Safe Flying Achievement Award in 2010. “South Carolina is clearly an outstanding leader among state aviation commissions,” said Houckes. South Carolina has, in recent years, been actively recruiting aviation-related industries, and this summer, Haley traveled to the Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom to recruit more aviation businesses. The state is already home to the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center in Greenville, a major aircraft maintenance and modification center that hosts more than 80 companies, many of which have international operations. Separately, GKN Aerospace announced in late 2011 that it will open a new $38 million facility in Orangeburg County, creating as many as 278 aviation engineering and maintenance jobs. The company expects to build components for the new HondaJet at the facility. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen thanked Haley for her official recognition of the industry’s value. “Governor Haley clearly understands the importance of business aviation, which is a proven generator of good jobs, and also helps connect communities in the state, especially those towns that do not have airline service,” he said. Other states that have officially recognized GA's value include: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.   2012-08-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/‘No Plane, No Gain’ Message Shared With Florida Aviation Leaders.htm?m=51&s=340&id=367NBAA brought the message of the “No Plane, No Gain” advocacy campaign to the Sunshine State recently, informing attendees at a Florida aviation conference how they could make their voices heard in promoting the benefits of business aviation.Lisa Piccione, NBAA senior vice president, government affairs, spoke with attendees at the Florida Airports Council's 43rd Annual Conference and Exposition, held July 22 to 25 in Naples."It is extremely important that NBAA partners with other aviation organizations across the country to amplify our voices and convey the importance of business aviation at the local, state and federal levels," Piccione said. "NBAA brings a strong national perspective to the issues and challenges facing the industry, and in turn these regional groups bring a critical local focus and perspective to these issues."Billed as the largest single-state aviation conference in the United States, the recent Florida meeting brought together several hundred state airport managers and personnel, as well as the suppliers and vendors who keep those facilities ready and able to support the thousands of aircraft utilizing those airports each day.Piccione noted that Florida "is a microcosm of the nation" for issues affecting the general aviation community, including business aviation. "All aspects of the aviation community are represented in the state, including manufacturing and support," she said. "Floridians have also experienced firsthand the benefits of business aviation in times of crisis, including emergency relief and disaster assistance. Those are some of the many powerful examples that we cite with the No Plane, No Gain" program.Formed in partnership between the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and NBAA, the No Plane No Gain initiative promotes the many positive contributions that business aviation provides to citizens, companies and communities across the United States. The program seeks to dispel misperceptions about the industry, and to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the essential nature of business aviation in the U.S.The presentation to the Florida Airport Council was one of about 20 similar talks Piccione gives each year to update people in the industry about the progress of the No Plane No Gain campaign. She also encouraged those attending the Florida airports gathering to reach out to their local, state and federal officials to promote the industry’s benefits."People at the local level are the ones with the power," Piccione concluded. "The strongest voices come from those back home, and people need to share with their elected representatives information about the jobs and services that business aviation provides to their local communities. It is critically important that they make their voices heard."2012-08-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/MIDLANDS VOICES: General aviation is a boon to Nebraska.htm?m=51&s=340&id=368By Ronnie MitchellThe writer is director of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics. The department oversees the state’s 81 public-use airports, manages three airports and staffs a team of pilots providing air transportation for state officials.The summer of 2006 was exceptionally dry in western Nebraska. In late July of that year, five wildfires erupted, threatening Chadron State College, the town of Chadron, and the entire western region of the state. With dry, windy conditions present, the fires quickly made it to the edge of the campus of Chadron State College, burning more than 60,000 acres.Given Nebraska’s thriving agricultural industry that utilizes aerial application of crop protection products, aerial applicator pilots from across the state were called upon to help contain the flames and protect homes and buildings. Were it not for the use of these aircraft and the help of local first responders and businesses, the damage would have been disastrous to the campus and town.This is only one example of the countless ways small aircraft support and protect communities throughout Nebraska on a consistent basis.General aviation aircraft assist operations of law enforcement, emergency medical responders, search and rescue, non-profit organizations, fire fighters, literally saving lives and helping to support local communities in dozens of ways on a daily basis.Community airports are often transformed into command centers during natural disasters, where they can receive and distribute medical and basic living supplies. Local businesses use these aircraft to visit distant job sites, serve customers, carry out repairs and deliveries and explore new markets in a reasonable amount of time.Business aviation allows companies to travel where commercial aviation is limited or non-existent, make multiple stops in a single day and carry tools and equipment that would not be allowed on a commercial flight.Not only that, but the general aviation industry is a significant economic driver for our state and country. Nationwide, the industry accounts for $150 billion in economic activity every year and supports more than 1.2 million jobs.In Nebraska, general aviation has an economic impact of $721 million and the air transportation industry supports over 5,000 jobs. The general aviation manufacturing sector is one of the only segments of American manufacturing that still has a positive balance of trade.But the industry has faced many challenges in the past few years, beginning with the recession. The economic downturn hit general aviation especially hard, and the industry has still not fully recovered, although many are optimistic about the next few years.In the last two years, more than 13,000 jobs have been lost in general aviation manufacturing.In addition, negative misconceptions have further hurt the industry, while the government’s proposal to institute a “user fee” tax on all take-offs and landings would have a devastating effect on many of our local businesses and small communities throughout Nebraska. Our charter companies, aerial applicators, mercy mission flights and general aviation flights would all be impacted by these taxes, and this would represent a huge administrative burden on aviation businesses that would now be responsible for keeping track of hundreds of new taxes, billed months after the fact.Thankfully, we have elected officials who have recognized the importance of community airports and general aviation. Recently, Gov. Dave Heineman chose to recognize this vital industry and educate the public about its value by declaring the month of May to be “General Aviation Appreciation Month.” In addition, U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns (co-chair of the Senate General Aviation Caucus) and U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson and other leaders recently highlighted the importance of the industry during a Jobs Creation Day at Duncan Aviation in Lincoln.We in Nebraska must continue to build on these efforts and urge leaders around the country to recognize the critical importance and lifeline the general aviation industry represents for our nation.2012-08-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/General Aviation: A Lifeline For Small Communities.htm?m=51&s=340&id=369 Every day, general aviation, or small aircraft, shuttle patients to trauma centers and specialized medical care facilities in order to quickly provide patients with the care they require. A couple years ago, my father ended up being one of those patients.  He had broken his hip, and because of the severity of his injury, needed surgery as soon as possible.  With ambulances unavailable due to the remoteness of the area, a plane was able to take him to the nearest hospital that could help him – over two hours away by car.  There is no telling what would have happened if we did not have a plane to get him to surgery in time. Across Nevada, these type of aircraft and the airports they depend on not only support a host of important medical services, but also public safety, law enforcement operations, disaster relief and fire fighting.  Due to a particularly dry winter, fire fighters across our region have already had to battle multiple serious blazes, some which have already destroyed homes right here in Nevada.  In addition to the expertise and heroism of these brave fire fighters who put their lives on the line to help fight wildfires, aircraft are helpful in dispersing water and fire retardants. These fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters fly out of airports such as Lincoln County Airport based in Panaca, and play a significant role in containing and fighting wild fires. However, these aircraft are also an important tool for businesses of all sizes from Las Vegas to Elko. General aviation allows our businesses to grow, meet with multiple customers in one day, travel where there is little or no access to commercial flights, reach far-off plants, and deliver tools and demonstration equipment.  These aircraft not only support tourism to Las Vegas, but also to more remote towns around our state to hunt, fish, and enjoy the wildlife our state offers.  And, general aviation accounts for $150 billion in economic activity across the country each year, supporting 1.2 million jobs, including over $720 million in economic activity annually right here in Nevada. In spite of all of these benefits, unfortunately, many lawmakers and the general public are still not aware of the many benefits of this form of transportation.  For example, the President’s budget proposal released earlier this year includes a user fee tax, which would be extremely detrimental to businesses and organizations around our state that rely on general aviation.  This toll-like tax would put a fee on each flight, hurting small and medium-size businesses just as they are beginning to recover from the recession, and would require a whole new bureaucracy in the FAA to administer these new fees and taxes. For all of us in Nevada, air transportation supports medical, fire fighting, law enforcement and commerce for local communities and economies across our state.  I hope that our leaders and lawmakers will recognize and support the invaluable role that these airports and aircraft have for our state and our country. Wendy Rudder, President - Nevada Airports Association 2012-07-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Bremerton Airport Is Huge Economic Engine, Says State's Top Aviator.htm?m=51&s=340&id=366BREMERTON — It's not every day 30 people show up to a sleepy, midsummer meeting of the Port of Bremerton commissioners. But that was the case Tuesday evening when the state's top aviation official showed up to explain how important Bremerton National Airport is to the local economy. "The value far exceeds whatever that cost may be," Tristan Atkins, director of the Department of Transportation Aviation Division, told the crowd of politicians, pilots and curious onlookers. Atkins is visiting some of the state's 135 public airports to share the results of a study his office just released spelling out the value of those airports. He'll use the study to promote future investment in aviation in Washington. For instance, he hopes to take a proposal to the 2013 Legislature that would redirect a larger portion of an excise tax paid by aircraft owners away from the state's general fund and toward aviation. Right now, the general fund receives 90 percent of the tax, and aviation gets what's left. Atkins wants to make it 50-50. "My approach is not to increase taxes, but simply to restructure the existing system," he said. Runways and taxiways at airports across the state need repaving and upgrades, and there's just not enough money to do all that's needed, he said. "If we don't do something about it now, it's going to cost us more in the future," said Atkins, who before taking his current position last year was the longtime commander of the Washington State Patrol's fleet of planes. Bremerton National's runway was repaved in 2009, but portions of it hadn't received a new top coat in 30 years. According to the new study, 549 jobs — direct and indirect — are generated by activity at Bremerton National. That translates to $25 million in annual wages and $83 million in annual economic activity.  Statewide, he said, public airports account for 248,500 jobs, $15 billion in wages and $51 billion in economic activity. Most of that takes place at Washington's "Big Four" airports — Sea-Tac International, Paine Field, Boeing Field and Renton Municipal. More about Bremerton National:  * Some 194 aircraft are based there. Most are single-engine aircraft, but three jets, 11 multi-engine craft, five helicopters and one glider call the airport home, too.  * Because there's little surrounding Bremerton National, it's seen among pilots as a favored place to train new pilots.  * Each year, Bremerton National has about 65,000 takeoffs and landings. The study also mentioned two other much smaller aircraft facilities in Kitsap County. Apex Airpark near Silverdale has 55 aircraft based there. Some 19,600 takeoffs and landings occur there annually, and the small airstrip is responsible for 14 direct and indirect jobs. The Port of Poulsbo's seaplane base has about 275 takeoffs and landings each year, but only has a small economic impact. More on the DOT study, called the Aviation Economic Impact Study, is at the Aviation Division's website at www.wsdot.wa.gov/aviation.  Most of the study was funded by the Federal Aviation Administration. 2012-07-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Travel Set To Fly Higher?.htm?m=51&s=340&id=365By: Patrick Anderson 'The marketplace is going global...' You can tell a lot about the business climate from the way executives travel. In the years before 2008, business leaders needing to meet a client, check out a hot prospect or tour a factory often used their corporate jet to get them there. During the recession, many of those Gulfstreams and Cessnas were grounded, dealing a blow to general-aviation manufacturers, their suppliers, after-market companies and the many service businesses linked directly and indirectly to private air travel.  According to the National Business Aviation Association trade group, executive flight hours in corporate planes, charters or shared private planes – anything but commercial – declined 35 to 40 percent between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of last year. And with that decline, new plane orders to business-aircraft makers fell precipitously, resulting in the loss of 20,000 American manufacturing jobs over the same period, the Aviation Association said. So with the economy now on a slow climb upward and commercial airfares also rising, many in the aviation world see corporate travel as a good bet to pick back up. The announcement this month that NetJets, a private-plane-sharing company owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., had placed a $9.6 billion order for up to 425 new business jets, described by the company as “the largest aircraft purchase in aviation history,” pointed toward a rebound. But local and national business aviation-industry representatives say the recovery has been unsteady both on the manufacturing end and for aviation services.  “It’s been a mixed picture for flight hours and new airplanes,” said Dan Hubbard, senior vice president for the National Business Aviation Association. “We have seen flight hours come off of the bottom and incrementally start to increase again. But analysts estimate we are still 10 to 15 percent off the pre-recession peaks.” Where Hubbard sees encouraging signs of activity is in emerging markets in Asia and South America, along with some demand from American corporations looking for faster and more efficient ways to access those foreign markets. “We see some firming up of sales in long-cabin, long-range aircraft,” Hubbard said. “We see some companies saying they want to explore other markets and in order to get them there quickly and back, they need an aircraft capable of going a long range. The marketplace is going global and companies are looking for opportunities.” That’s reflected in the NetJets orders, which include 275 Bombardier Challengers and 150 Cessna Citation Latitudes, longer-range planes than the older models they are replacing. Cessna, which is owned by Providence-based Textron Inc., unveiled a new longer-range version of the Latitude earlier this year with an eye toward the Asian market.  Cessna’s manufacturing is based in Wichita, Kan., but in May the company announced an agreement with the Aviation Industry Corp. of China to have final assembly of Citation aircraft at a plant in China. Although the deal calls only for the final assembly of Cessna planes in China, and only those for the Chinese domestic market, the move has caused some to wonder if eventually that country will make a larger move in aircraft manufacturing. Cessna first-quarter revenue increased $113 million from the first quarter of 2011 as Citation jet deliveries rose from 31 to 38. According to Hubbard, over the last decade, the United States has moved from representing a majority of business-aviation travel to between 30 and 40 percent. Eventually, general-aviation airports in Rhode Island and New England hope to take advantage of some of the longer trips being made, but it has been slow going so far.  “I would say in 2012 we have seen things pick up, but it is still slow, only an improvement from the last couple of years, which were just generally down,” said Holly Whitaker, founder of the Business Aviation Professionals of New England and president of Exclusive Air, a New Hampshire-based charter brokerage. It sort of gets a little blip up, and then down, and then stays a little higher next time – but not big improvements.  On the positive side, Whitaker pointed to the recent groundbreaking in Westfield, Mass., of a new $20 million hangar and service facility by Gulfstream for its new G650 long-range business jets. The new hangar is projected to result in 200 construction jobs and create 100 new permanent, full-time jobs. On a smaller scale in Rhode Island, Alhambra Building Co. is developing a new business-aviation park at Quonset State Airport in North Kingstown that will greatly expand both hangar space and the services available to business travelers. On the other end of the market, Tanury Industries of Lincoln, an electroplating and metal-coating company, continues to take advantage of the demand for extravagant, luxury aircraft overseas. Tanury refinishes the metal interior fixtures of jets with precious-metal coatings. “We see it picking up some, and we are quoting an awful lot,” said Tanury President Thomas Tanury, who added that one of the contracts he is competing for is to refinish a 747 plane with 5,000 square feet of carpeted space. “Aviation is not going to go way,” Tanury said. “[Customers] are buying lots of planes and the emerging markets are doing well even if domestic is not.” 2012-07-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Most Governors Recognize Positive Impact Of Aviation In Their States.htm?m=51&s=340&id=364Forty State Chief Executives Have Signed Proclamations Extolling Aviation, 29 Single Out GA Advertisers learned long ago that to be able to say "four out of five" in almost any venue shows pretty strong support for a product or service, so when the Alliance for Aviation Across America on Tuesday announced that four out of every five US governors, 40 in total, have signed proclamations recognizing the value of aviation to the national and their local and state economies, it would certainly be considered pretty good news for the industry. The majority of those proclamations, 29 in total, have specifically recognized the general aviation. The general aviation industry not only supports over 1.2 million jobs and $150 billion in economic impact, but these aircraft and the airports they utilize lifeline to many rural communities, supporting health care, disaster relief, law enforcement and a host of other important services and resources. Most recently, Governor Christine Gregoire of Washington and Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada have recognized this important industry by designating June as “General Aviation Appreciation Month” and “Aviation Appreciation Month” respectively. “This is a significant milestone in our efforts to educate the public and raise awareness about general aviation,” stated Selena Shilad, Executive Director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. “It demonstrates that there is a growing understanding around the country by governors and other local officials who understand the critical importance of general aviation and local airports for the economy and rural communities throughout their state.” In addition to these proclamations, Governors John Lynch of New Hampshire, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, C. L. “Butch” Otter of Idaho and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota have all sent letters to President Obama outlining the important role of general aviation to the national and local economies, as well as the need to protect this industry from burdensome taxes. In addition, just this February more than 100 mayors sent a letter to President Obama highlighting the critical importance of general aviation and local airports to their local communities. 2012-06-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Four Out Of Every Five Governors Recognize Value Of General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=363By: Janice Wood WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Alliance for Aviation Across has noted that four out of every five US governors, 40 in total, have signed proclamations recognizing the value of  aviation to the nation and their state economy. The majority of those proclamations, 29 in total, have specifically recognized the general aviation. The general aviation industry not only supports over 1.2 million jobs and $150 billion in economic impact, but these aircraft and the airports they utilize are lifelines to many rural communities, supporting health care, disaster relief, law enforcement and a host of other important services and resources. Most recently, Governor Christine Gregoire of Washington and Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada recognized this important industry by designating June as “General Aviation Appreciation Month” and “Aviation Appreciation Month” respectively. “This is a significant milestone in our efforts to educate the public and raise awareness about general aviation,” stated Selena Shilad, Executive Director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. “It demonstrates that there is a growing understanding around the country by governors and other local officials who understand the critical importance of general aviation and local airports for the economy and rural communities throughout their state.” In addition to these proclamations, Governors John Lynch of New Hampshire, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, C. L. “Butch” Otter of Idaho, and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota have all sent letters to President Obama outlining the important role of general aviation to the national and local economies, as well as the need to protect this industry from burdensome taxes. In addition, just this February more than 100 mayors sent a letter to President Obama highlighting the critical importance of general aviation and local airports to their local communities. Listed below are the states that have passed proclamations: ·         Georgia ·         West Virginia ·         Alaska ·         Vermont ·         North Dakota ·         Arkansas ·         Tennessee ·         Washington ·         Ohio ·         Kentucky ·         Wisconsin ·         New Mexico ·         Maryland ·         New Jersey ·         Minnesota ·         Texas ·         North Carolina ·         New Hampshire ·         Missouri ·         Kansas ·         Mississippi ·         Colorado ·         Illinois ·         South Carolina ·         Florida ·         South Dakota ·         Wyoming ·         Delaware ·         Montana ·         Virginia ·         Idaho ·         Pennsylvania ·         Massachusetts ·         Louisiana ·         Iowa ·         Nebraska ·         New York ·         Maine ·         Indiana ·         Nevada ·         Washington Formed in 2007, the Alliance for Aviation Across America is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of over 5,900 individuals representing businesses, agricultural groups, FBO’s, small airports, elected officials, charitable organizations, and leading business and aviation groups that support the interest of the general aviation community across various public policy issues. For more information: AviationAcrossAmerica.org 2012-06-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/National Aviation Organizations Applaud Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval For Declaring June .htm?m=51&s=340&id=362 Submitted by Alliance for Aviation Across America Washington, DC – Today, national aviation organizations commended Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval for declaring the month of June “Aviation Appreciation Month.” In Nevada, the industry plays an important role in the local economy, generating an annual economic impact of $31 billion and employing more than 25,000 people. General aviation specifically supports over 3,000 jobs and generates $721 million annually in economic activity.  “We applaud Governor Sandoval for recognizing the significant economic contribution that aviation, and general aviation specifically, supports in the state of Nevada,” stated Selena Shilad, Executive Director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. “Across the state, these aircraft and airports serve as a literal lifeline to communities, supporting businesses, charities, medical organizations, law enforcement, farmers, and other crucial services. We also thank the Nevada Airport Managers Association for its continued efforts in support of this key industry throughout the state.”  “The state of Nevada is home to 49 airports, which are utilized by more than 7,000 pilots and over 2,000 general aviation aircraft. General aviation is a critical part of the local economy and state infrastructure, supporting small businesses, agriculture and access to local communities throughout Nevada,” stated Craig L. Fuller, President and CEO of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). “We look forward to working with Governor Sandoval to highlight the importance of general aviation and local airports.”  “Across Nevada and the country, business aviation is instrumental in providing businesses with access to far off markets, allowing them to visit customers in their local communities, and the use and manufacture of these aircraft supports 1.2 million jobs and $150 billion in economic activity annually,” stated Ed Bolen, President and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). “We look forward to continuing to work with the Governor and officials around the country to raise awareness about the value of this critical business tool.”  “Our country's network of airports serves as a vital link between communities and the rest of the country. Nationally, general aviation airports sustain millions of jobs, supply essential services to rural areas, and help to support local businesses,” stated Henry Ogrodzinski, President of the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO). “We welcome this proclamation by Governor Sandoval and look forward to continuing work with Nevada State Aviation Manager Eric Glick and other issues on issues affecting general aviation in Nevada.”  James K. Coyne, President and CEO of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), stated, “We commend Governor Sandoval for proclaiming June ‘Aviation Appreciation Month.’ This proclamation will help to raise awareness in Nevada and around the nation about the critical importance of general aviation and local airports, including their role in supporting life-saving services and commerce in all 50 states.”  “Here in the United States, the unique capabilities of general aviation aircraft, and helicopters specifically, provide vital life-saving services to the citizens of Nevada and help to support businesses, hospitals, law enforcement and disaster relief,” said Matt Zuccaro, President of the Helicopter Association International (HAI). “We thank Governor Sandoval for this proclamation. We appreciate the warm welcome we've received as we prepare to host HELI-EXPO in Las Vegas next March, and look forward to working with Gov. Sandoval in the future to further highlight the tremendous operational and economic benefits of these aircraft provide to the people of Nevada.”  Formed in 2007, the Alliance for Aviation Across America is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of over 5,900 individuals representing businesses, agricultural groups, FBO's, small airports, elected officials, charitable organizations, and leading business and aviation groups that support the interest of the general aviation community across various public policy issues.  2012-06-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/New York Struggles To Capture Lost Aircraft Orders.htm?m=51&s=340&id=361Over the last 10 years, New York's airports lost 698 private aircraft, but don't blame the recession: Connecticut posted a net gain of 31 during that time Aviation groups have been quick to blame the disparity on the Empire State's 8.625 percent sales tax on aircraft purchased by private aviation companies and housed in the state. For aircraft owners and operators, the tax could make leasing hangar space in New York for a new jet unaffordable, said Bill McCone, vice president of business development in the Northeast for Sheltair, which provides hangars and offices for private jet owners. Private aircraft can cost anywhere from $2 million to $30 million, he added, meaning the tax on a purchase could easily tack an extra million or two onto the price tag. That's prevented fixed-base operators like Sheltair from bringing more aircraft and charter flight companies to Long Island's three general aviation airports - Francis S. Gabreski in Westhampton, Long Island MacArthur in Islip and Republic in Farmingdale. Vermont is the only other state in the Northeast that charges sales tax on plane purchases, leaving many options outside New York's borders.  Airports in Connecticut, for example, have seen a "huge influx" in the number of aircraft purchased and based there, due, at least in part, to the sales tax exemption in the state, said Dean Saucier, Northeast representative for the National Business Aviation Association. Given Connecticut's close proximity, these airports have been able to serve the New York markets while circumventing the state's sales tax. Each aircraft generates more than $1 million in economic activity and creates five direct jobs - pilots, mechanics and flight attendants –along with a host of indirect jobs, according to Joseph Loccisano, president of the Long Island Business Aviation Association. That means those 698 lost aircraft have cost New York $698 million and almost 3,500 direct jobs since 2002, he said. A bill seeking to exempt the purchase of aircraft from the state sales tax has been pushed through the state Senate but is currently stalled in the state Assembly. The sales tax exemption bill, dubbed the New York Aviation Jobs Act, has been trying to gain legs in the Assembly for years, repeatedly failing to make it out of the Ways and Means committee. A spokesman for Assemblyman Herman Farrell Jr., D-Manhattan, and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the assemblyman was "still studying the proposed exemption," but could not offer additional insight. Critics of the bill have cited the state's fiscal straits. New York garners between $3 million and $15 million annually in tax revenue from the sale of private aircraft. McShane said SheltAir, which leases hangar and office space at Gabreski, MacArthur and Republic airports, is planning to add hangar space at MacArthur and Republic, but the amount will depend heavily on whether New York can compete effectively with nearby alternatives like Connecticut and New Jersey that don't tax aircraft purchases. McShane declined to give specific numbers for the upcoming projects, but said keeping the sales tax in place would minimize the build-out. Local airplane parts distributors would also benefit from a sales tax exemption. As more planes are bought and housed on Long Island, the need for parts and maintenance increases. Loccisano, who manages 11 aircraft, said he always seeks parts for his planes from Long Island vendors like Cosgrove Aircraft in Hauppauge and Consolidated Aircraft Supply in Ronkonkoma, due to their close proximity. "I don't want to have to wait for the parts I need now," he said. Steve Matza, president of Consolidated Aircraft, said his company is already fairly busy, but could see an increase in business from a sales tax exemption. The state's legislative session ends in two weeks. If no action is taken on the bill, it will not be able to be submitted again until January 2013.  Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Smithtown, a member of the Ways and Means committee, said he supports the bill, but isn't overly optimistic that it will get to the Assembly floor. "This is the type of thing the speaker's office would control," Fitzpatrick said. "The buck stops with him. " Copyright 2012 Dolan Media Newswires 2012-06-14http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Trade Show Draws More Attendees, Prompting Optimism.htm?m=51&s=340&id=358By: Mary DiduchIndustry officials look to encourage votes for allies in Congress.A business aviation forum and trade show at Teterboro Airport drew large numbers of attendees Thursday - an indication of an uptick in an industry focusing on the 2012 elections.About 2,400 private aviation professionals checked out more than 130 industry-related vendors, informational sessions and 35 aircraft on display during the National Business Aviation Association's Business Aviation Regional Forum.  The NBAA hosts four regional forums around the country every year.NBAA President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Bolen said the general aviation industry - which suffered a downturn in 2008 as the financial crisis deepened and corporations slashed private air travel - has seen slight increases in flight hours, though it has not returned to pre-recession levels."What you will see is a lot of optimism going forward that's tempered by the realism that what happens in the overall U.S. economy and the overall world economy is going to be reflected in our industry," he said. through air traffic at Teterboro - the busiest general aviation airport in the nation - fluctuates monthly, overall flights have increased annually, said Renee Span, Teterboro Airport manager, during an information session.The airport had more than 152,000 takeoffs and landings last year, a 2 precent increase from 2010, and a rise from the airport's 2009 low of fewer than 138,000 takeoffs and landings.  The airport is expecting another increase this year, she said.Given the upcoming election season, Bolen said the NBAA this year is looking to reach out to policymakers about the importance of private aviation for businesses, in an effort to change the negative image it got during the financial crisis. "The people who will decide the cases, who will determine the regulations and laws that will affect our industry are in the jury box. They're our elected officials," he said.One issue the industry is concerned about is the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme, a program intended to address climate change by taxing aviation emissions on flights from the United States to Europe, said Bolen, who recently testified on the issue before the Senate.  The NBAA does not endorse candidates or parties, said Bolen. However, the organization is working on helping its members know where their candidates stand on general aviation issues.  About one-third of congressional members are part of the general aviation caucus, which advocates for the industry in Congress, he said.Event attendee Tony Ryan, president of Carolina Corporate Jets, based in Mooresville, S.C., said that although general aviation businesses are picking up - his company has sold four Citation aircraft in the past two weeks - he hopes more pro-business and pro-aviation officials are elected in November."Once businesses are doing better, the industry will follow suit," he said.Andrew Ponzoni, a spokesman for aircraft manufacturer Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. located in Teterboro, was displaying two of the company's business jets &X and a $33 million Falcon 2000 LX. He said there has been more interest in the company than in the past years.Ponzoni said the United States is recovering in aircraft sales, but it still lags behind stronger markets such a China and India. 2012-06-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Flying Solo And Going In Style.htm?m=51&s=340&id=359By: Steve StrunskyState Transportation Commissioner and jet-rated pilot Jim Simpson was like a kid in a candy store.Simpson, who used to fly his own planes on business trips, was at a National Business Aviation Association conference at Teterboro Airport yesterday, roaming the tarmac amid dozens of gleaming new corporate and personal aircraft."No pictures of me boarding a private jet with a woman who's not my wife," joked Simpson, who followed a high-heeled aviation executive up the the stairs of a $56 million Gulfstream G550, before ducking into the plane's roomy wood and leather-trimmed cabin.Ah, that new-jet smell.The state Department of Transportation has jurisdiction over 44 small airports and 4,700 private aircraft in New Jersey, and Simpson was among several government and industry officials who addressed yesterday's gathering, emphasizing the key role of general aviation in the broader economy."Its really helped me build my business," said Simpson, who learned to fly and bought a prop plane and a twin-engine jet to shuttle between United Van Lines franchises he ran before getting into government.  "I gave up golf for flying, I love flying that much.""Flying is hours of boredom, punctuated by moments of stark terror," said Simpson, who counts comedy as yet another passion.  "For those of you who don't fly, it's better to be down here and wishing you were up there, than up there and wishing you were down here."Teterboro alone supports 15,000 jobs and $1.8 billion in annual economic activity in the region, according to the NBAA.  Dassault Falcon, whose $52 million 7X competes with the G550, has its Western Hemisphere headquarters at Teterboro and employs 450 sales and service workers in New Jersey, said Paul Florek, a company vice president.Just 10 miles from Manhattan, Teterboro is a favorite landing strip for business executives, dignitaries and wealthy individuals traveling in and out of the New York region."It's a high concentration of wealthy individuals," Florek said.Teterboro is one of five airports operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in addition to the agency's three major hubs, Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy International, LeGuardia, and a fourth commercial airport in Rockland County, Stewart Airport. Teterboro is the Port Authority's only "general aviation reliever," helping the major airports avoid the gridlock that would occur if more private jets had to use them, addressed the conference.Nationwide, Baer said, each general aviation aircraft in service generates $1 million in economic activity and five jobs.Yesterday's event drew 2,400 aviation professionals and jet shoppers, a record number of attendees for a regional NBAA conference, the group said.  Copies of Business Aviation Insider, Professional Pilot and other trade publications were laid out near the registration desk inside a sprawling hangar.  The conference's 130 exhibitors included PNC Aviation Finance, FlightDocs ("Exceptionally Efficient. Extra Secure."), and Winslow Liferaft Co. A large banner hung over the area where Simpson and other officials spoke read, "No plane, no gain."Outside, 35 prototypes and demonstration aircraft were on display, accompanied by test pilots and other company representatives smiling behind aviator sunglasses.  Models ranged from the Cirrus SR-22T, a four-seater with its own parachute that the Duluth, Minn., company sells for about $350,000 to the big Embraer Lineage 1000, a private version of the Brazilian manufacturer's Embraer 190 regional airliner, which, like the Gulfstream and the Dassault, is also priced in the $50 ,million-plus range.Mark Bennett, a regional sales rep for Eclipse Aerospace, stood by a sleek-looking Total Eclipse, an updated version of the twin-engine, five or six-seat Eclipse 500, painted in metallic silver and priced at $2.15 million.  The Albuquerque, N.M.-based company markets its product as a new class of aircraft known as a VLJ, or very light jet, designed for maximum fuel efficiency.  Bennett said the Total Eclipse weighs in a ta mere 6,000 pounds, not quite lighter than air, but not much heavier than some SUVs."My Chevy Suburban's probably darn close to that," he said.2012-06-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Air Support For Our Local Communities.htm?m=51&s=340&id=360Just over a year ago, when a devastating tornado ripped through Joplin, Mo., only 500 miles southwest of here, organizations and individuals from around the region and the nation flocked to the Midwest to help with the rescue and recovery efforts. As is often the case with natural disasters, many local airports and groups such as Chicago Executive Airport, the Palwaukee Composite Squadron of Civil Air Patrol and Aerobridge helped transport vital medical and other supplies to the affected areas and evacuated people who were injured and displaced by the tornado. Around the country, the speed and versatility of general aviation make it an essential resource for public safety, disaster relief and health care. From wildfires and lost hikers out West to oil spills and hurricanes in the Gulf, general aviation saves lives. The same speed and versatility that make general aviation a lifesaving force also make it an indispensable tool for the business world. General aviation is an industry that produces $150 billion a year for the American economy and supports more than 1.2 million jobs across the country. Chicago Executive Airport, located in the Northwest suburbs, alone has an economic impact of more than $330 million and supports more than 2,400 local jobs. More than 50 firms in the region, representing more than 12,600 employees and 1.3 billion in total sales, rely on Chicago Executive Airport for their transportation needs. Businesses at the airport spend millions of dollars every year in the local economy. The airport does not rely on any local public funding while offering jobs and economic opportunity for the Prospect Heights area. In addition, the general aviation manufacturing here in the United States remains one of the few industries that contributes positively to the balance of trade. Yet many still do not understand the importance of these aircraft and the local airports and businesses that depend on them for both our local and our national economy. Challenges remain on the horizon. In fact, President Obama recently included a “user fee” tax in his proposed budget for next year, which would cripple the general aviation industry as a whole with new taxes for each take-off and landing. These new taxes would not only come at a time when many of our nation’s small businesses are struggling to recover, but they would represent a bureaucratic burden on operators who would have to keep track of hundreds upon hundreds of new fees. That is why recently more than 100 mayors from across the country, including myself, sent a letter to President Obama outlining the critical importance of general aviation to communities like ours, and the nation as a whole. General aviation and airports across the country greatly benefit their communities in so many ways, whether it be supporting local commerce, helping companies to reach far off plants, or for law enforcement, medical care, disaster relief, blood and organ transport or flight training. As the mayor of a city with one of the country’s premier general aviation airports, I have seen firsthand how important the industry is to our local community and the nation, and I encourage our president to recognize the importance of this important lifeline to local communities around the country. • Nicholas Helmer is mayor of Prospect Heights.2012-06-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/New Study Highlights Business Aviation Value to Local, State, Federal Governments.htm?m=51&s=412&id=356For Immediate Release    Contact: Dan Hubbard(202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Washington, DC, June 7, 2012 — The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today welcomed a new study showing that local, state and federal government use of business aircraft increases agency or departmental efficiency and provides significant taxpayer value. The study, entitled, Government Use of Aircraft: A Taxpayer Value Perspective, is the third in the Business Aviation Users study series completed by NEXA Advisors, LLC. The study concludes that business aircraft provide strong returns on an organization’s investment in the asset. The two previous studies, which analyzed Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 companies and S&P 600 small-cap companies, concluded that business aviation contributes to companies’ ability to deliver greater shareholder and enterprise value. All three studies make clear that the use of a business airplane is the sign of a well-managed enterprise. “These complementary studies highlight the importance of business aviation, and demonstrate that the value of business aircraft in boosting efficiency, productivity and flexibility is realized by businesses and government organizations alike,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. The latest  NEXA study finds that “government use of aircraft provides taxpayer value by providing public safety and security, supporting more efficient, effective government, protecting public health and welfare, facilitating economic growth, improving tax dollar efficiency, promoting good government relations, and improving compliance.” The study provides evidence that use of aircraft in the conduct of government business has grown in recent years, and that the more than 2,000 aircraft in public use contribute to the ability of civil servants to deliver many critical public services, including: • Providing state and federal government officials with secure and efficient transportation• Supporting constituent services in communities with limited or no airline service• Supporting emergency preparedness and disaster response• Supporting law enforcement and highway patrol• Transporting cargo, parts, and mail• Fighting forest fires• Supporting border patrol• Supporting counterterrorism and other security initiatives The findings in the study are based on a “utilization, benefits, and taxpayer value” framework that its authors developed. The authors worked with the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) to conduct an in-depth survey of state government agencies, to gain an understanding of how state governments use GA aircraft. The study includes excerpts from numerous government officials who utilize general aviation in the execution of their mission. “It was a pleasure to assist with this study because states play an important role in serving the public interest while working with FAA to ensure safe and secure airports,” said NASAO President and CEO Henry Ogrodzinski. “They recognize that government aviation is fast, cost effective and highly efficient. The study was commissioned by NBAA in conjunction with the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies, and communities across the United States. The campaign is jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. To learn more, visit www.noplanenogain.org. Review a full copy of Government Use of Aircraft: A Taxpayer Value Perspective # # #Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release e-mail list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe.  2012-06-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Forum Puts Focus On Corporate Influence On Industry.htm?m=51&s=340&id=357By: Katie EderWhile general aviation in New Jersey continues to grow, the state needs to attract more businesses to remain competitive, industry officials said today at Teterboro Airport during a regional forum that drew more than 2,400 attendees.  "We're at a point in our state where corporations and aviation really matters. Demand for general aviation is fixed on a statewide basis, so we have to steal business from other states to grow aviation," New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner James Simpson said.  "If we have jobs, we'll have the aviation...There would be no aviation but for business."Simpson said retaining companies that will utilize general aviation airports - like Realogy Corp., which will continue to use services at the Morristown Municipal Airport, in Hanover, when it relocates its corporate headquarters to Madison - is key to growing the industry.According to Susan Baer, director of aviation at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, each business jet equates to $1 million in economic activity and five new jobs in the region, and the Port Authority's  five airports - which will handle mor than 109 million passengers this year - generate $5 million for the regional economy every 45 minutes.Teterboro Airport manager Renee Span siad the airport has grown to become one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country, ending 2011 with 152,000 flights.Simpson said "boneheaded decisions" at the state and local government level have wasted funds that could have been better invested in the general aviation industry.  He noted that, at one point, New Jersey "almost put its flight school in Princeton out of business."Simpson said he is now working with First Aviation President and CEO Bill Thomas to "navigate the bureaucracy" of the state's Department of Environmental Protection to expand Teterboro Airport."At the end of this year - unless Congress takes action - is the biggest cut in the nation's defense budget, and the biggest tax increase," said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association, which sponsored the event.  "We're facing a $100 per-flight fee and an extended depreciation schedule for general aviation airplanes.  This is an industry that's a positive and should be promoted, not a negative that should be taxed."2012-06-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Lawmakers Attend General Aviation Jobs Rally.htm?m=51&s=340&id=352Senators Mike Johanns and Ben Nelson joined the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and more than 400 workers, state and local officials and aviation enthusiasts Friday at Duncan Aviation for a general aviation (GA) jobs rally. The rally was held inside Duncan Aviation's new paint hanger at the lincoln Airport in Lincoln, Neb.Johanns, co-chair of the Senate GA Caucus, and Nelson recognized the impact GA has on the quality of life in Nebraska and the state's economy. "General aviation plays a critical role in our economy-from job creation to transportation," Johanns said. " I was glad to help from the Senate's General Aviation Caucus to promote policies that support the hardworking men and women who deliver goods and services across Nebraska and the globe, lifting our economy at the same time.""General aviation is critical to the state of Nebraska," said Nelson."It keeps America connected and infuses urban and rural areas with much-needed tax revenue and jobs. I support general aviation and the critical services and jobs it provides to our communities, large and small."Two of GAMA's members, Duncan Aviation and Hamilton Sundstrand, have facilities in Nebraska. Both had representatives on hand to talk about the role their companies play in the state's economy.Todd Duncan, chairman of Duncan Aviation, remarked, "We play a key role in helping companies of all types and sizes compete using their business aircraft in a marketplace that demands speed, flexibility, efficiency and productivity. In the current economic climate, Duncan Aviation is proud to be expanding and adding jobs in the communities where we are located. We thank our senators for their efforts in protecting this industry.""Our Nebraska operation manufactures core components for a wide range of vital aircraft systems," said Justin Keppy, vice president of manufacturing for Hamilton Sundstrand.  "We are proud of our employees' contributions to the aerospace industry and the local community and appreciative of the senators' focus on this industry."GAMA's President and CEO Pete Bunce closed with, "We are fortunate to have with us members of Congres who understand the vital role general aviation plays as an essential form of transportation and as a creator of well-paying jobs. General aviation is woven into the fabric of this state and we are fortunate to have strong leadership in Senators Johanns and Nelson who recognize general aviation's importance to the Nebraskan economy."GAMA is an international trade association representing over 75 of the world's leading manufacturers of general aviation airplanes and rotorcraft, engines, avionics, components and relative services. GAMA's members also operate repair stations, fixed based operations, pilot and maintenance training facilities and they manage fleets of aircraft. For more information: GAMA.aero2012-05-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Planes On The Plains Help Nebraska's Economy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=354By: Senator Ben NelsonLincoln, Neb. —Nebraska is sometimes referred to as “The 500 Mile State” because it’s about 500 miles from east to west borders.  Our land area total is about 77,000 square miles making us 16th in the nation in total land mass. In a large rural state like Nebraska, if it wasn’t for general aviation and the small prop driven planes many people use to get around it would make it difficult for many businesses to thrive, search and rescue operations to be carried out, hunters to get to remote areas, public officials to meet with constituents and many others who need to travel long distances quickly.    I got thinking about this at a recent rally in Lincoln for general aviation attended by electrical engineers, fuel suppliers, mechanics, and other Nebraskans who are involved in this vital industry. Small Airports Dot the State There are dozens of public use small airports that can accommodate small planes that span the state from Cozad to Columbus, from South Sioux City to Sidney, from Beatrice to Burwell. They literally run the length of the alphabet beginning with Albion and continuing through to York, and we’re better off because we have them. General aviation is a critical component in Nebraska’s infrastructure – and general aviation is an irreplaceable part of Nebraska’s economic machinery. Our state wouldn’t have much of an economy without general aviation.  It keeps people and goods moving. It enables trade and communication – both essential to economic growth. It keeps commerce flowing and empowers new business. Economic Boost from Air Services I have seen first-hand how aviation encourages investment and creates opportunities for economic growth – all across our state. General aviation provides both urban and rural Nebraska communities with much-needed tax revenue and jobs. General aviation helps Nebraska’s businesses grow and remain competitive, and it helps attract new businesses to our state. Access to general aviation is very important to companies determining where to locate their Nebraska operations. Air services are necessary for growth sectors - on which Nebraska’s future economic success will depend – like high-tech companies and financial services. Nebraska’s Production Aviation stimulates Nebraska’s Gross Domestic Product, and directly contributes to it, too.  Last year, general aviation contributed more than 721 million dollars to Nebraska’s economy – that’s nothing to laugh at.    General aviation supports the employment of tens of thousands of Nebraskans, and directly employs around twelve hundred Nebraskans – in manufacturing alone! It just cements the fact that general aviation is inseparable from Nebraska’s economic health and vitality. This is why my commitment to Nebraska aviation has been unwavering. It is essential to keep Nebraska’s general aviation, manufacturing, and operating community strong.  Keeping general aviation strong keeps Nebraska strong. Planes on the plains are essential to Nebraska’s economy, now and in the future.2012-05-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Groups Rally At Duncan In Support Of Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=355By: Matt Olberding How important is general aviation to Nebraska? Judging by attendance at a Friday rally at Duncan Aviation, it's pretty important.Several hundred Duncan employees, elected officials, businesspeople and other dignitaries gathered at Duncan's new paint hangar to rally in support of the general aviation industry and the jobs it supports in the state.The rally was a joint effort among Duncan; aviation manufacturer Hamilton Sundstrand, which has a plant in York; and the General Aviation Manufacturing Association.Pete Bunce, president and CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturing Association, pointed out that between Duncan and Hamilton Sunstrand, general aviation accounts for more than 1,400 direct jobs. Duncan employs about 1,200 people in Lincoln and Hamilton Sundstrand has 220 in York.But Bunce said the impact of those companies goes far beyond the state.He said one out of five aircraft Duncan works on is from a foreign country.Justin Keppy, vice president of manufacturing for Hamilton Sundstrand, said the York operation shipped more than 3.8 million aviation parts around the world last year.Bunce, noting the public relations beating general aviation took during the recession, said it's important to make Congress and the White House understand the importance of the industry.To that end, he lauded Nebraska Sens. Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns for their support of general aviation.Nelson, a Democrat, said general aviation is critical to the state and the nation. "It keeps America connected and infuses urban and rural areas with much-needed tax revenue and jobs," he said.Johanns, a Republican who is head of the general aviation caucus in the Senate, said the image of general aviation as providing toys for rich people and corporate executives is an erroneous one.It's more about the jobs the industry provides and the boost it gives to the economy, he said."When I look out in this crowd, I don't see any jet-setters," Johanns said.He noted where the rally was being held: inside Duncan Aviation's new paint hangar, which is the first part of an expansion that it hopes will produce hundreds of new jobs.Duncan also is hoping to get started this year on a 40,000-square-foot maintenance hangar that, like the paint hangar, will allow it to work on larger planes.Duncan officials originally thought it would be at least another couple of years before they needed the maintenance hangar, but an increase in business led them to speed up their plans."In the current economic climate, Duncan Aviation is proud to be expanding and adding jobs," said Todd Duncan, chairman of the company.2012-05-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Airplane Helps Firm Compete In A Global Economy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=351A recent column critical of Liberty Mutual's use of business aircraft ("Soaring greed," Brian McGrory, Metro, April 18) acknowledges that an airplane is an important asset in today's globally competitive economy.But the column did a disservice by falling to go on to acknowledge a few simple facts: We know that companies value productivity, flexibility, and dependability in their business dealings and business travel. These are the hallmarks of business aviation.A business airplane allows employees to conduct business en route, make multiple stops in a day, reach a community with little or no scheduled airlines service, or reach a client in need of quick response.In fact, approximately 95 percent of the companies ranked by leading business magazines as America's "most productive," "most admired," "best brand," or "best customer service companies" rely on business aviation.Here's the bottom line: In Boston, and at Hanscom Field, business aviation helps Massachusetts companies compete and succeed, especially in a tough economy.Ed BolenPresident and CEONational Business Aviation Association2012-04-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/Opinion Flew By Some Key Facts.htm?m=51&s=340&id=350Concord —The writers of a recent commentary (“Close loopholes for luxury jets,” Feb. 26) disregarded the reality of what a vibrant community airport like Lawrence G. Hanscom Field and the business aviation community located there actually deliver to the community. “Business aviation” is the term used to define the mostly small airplanes flown for business reasons. The increased hangar space that Massport is planning at Hanscom will enable the many businesses that locate airplanes there to grow, retain and hire employees, and contribute to the economic prosperity of the community. Available data highlight the value of aviation activity at Hanscom: The latest Massachusetts Department of Transportation study of aviation impacts shows that in 2010, Hanscom Field’s civilian operations contributed more than $249 million to the region’s economy. The writers also failed to mention that Hanscom Field is already home to the largest number of aircraft in New England, the vast majority are of which are single-engine airplanes rather than so-called “luxury jets,” (261 single-engine, 38 multi-engine and 77 jet aircraft), and many of those aircraft serve local companies that create stable jobs in Concord and surrounding communities. Contrary to the personal opinions of the commentary authors, the majority of people who fly on business aircraft at Hanscom Field and other U.S. general aviation airports are not upper-level executives. They are mid-level employees, including salespeople, engineers, and technicians who typically use the travel time for working or meeting with colleagues or customers. Companies operate airplanes for business because they boost productivity, and are flexible and dependable — attributes every successful business prizes. These are the hallmarks of business aviation. In fact, approximately 95 percent of the companies ranked by leading business magazines as America’s “most innovative,” “most admired,” “best brand,” or “best customer service companies” rely on business aviation. Successful, efficient businesses rely on these “flying offices” to transport employees to multiple locations in a single day, conduct business in confidence and security, and provide the flexibility needed to take advantage of business opportunities or customer needs, sometimes on a moment’s notice. Reliability is also a consideration. Consider that nearly one quarter of all airline flights are delayed and more than 3 percent are cancelled. Because of the airlines’ record passenger loads, if your flight is cancelled or a delay causes you to miss your connection, the odds of you getting on the next flight are significantly reduced. When the future of a company and its employees is dependent upon you reaching a destination on time, business aviation can be the most prudent transportation option. The case for business aviation is clear: Business aircraft serve important roles in helping companies compete and succeed — a fact that’s especially important in our current economic environment. The planners at Massport should be applauded for taking steps to expand hangar space at Hanscom Field so this general aviation airport can continue to serve the growing needs of eastern and central Massachusetts, and continue providing business and economic development opportunities to communities like Concord well into the future.   Ed Bolen is president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association, Washington, D.C.   2012-03-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Forum: Corporate Jets Provide Competitive Edge.htm?m=51&s=340&id=348Once again, the use of business aircraft is vilified in the media and the reader is left without a perspective on the benefits these important competitive assets provide to 3M and companies of all sizes in Minnesota and across the U.S. (3M execs are cutting costs, but flying high," Star Tribune, Feb. 5).Clearly, a global company such as 3M gets a tremendous return on investment with its business aircraft. The company has operations in more than 64 countries, sells products in nearly 200 countries, and counts 65 percent of its revenue from international operations. Its business airplanes are used to reach its overseas markets, traveling internationally 60 percent of the time. Quite simply, the airplanes allow the company to reach those markets as quickly and efficiently as possible.Looking beyond 3M's story, we know that all companies prize productivity, flexibility and dependability in their business dealings. There are the hallmarks of business aviation. In fact, approximately 95 percent of the companies ranked by leading business magazines as America's "most innovative," "most admired," "best brand," or "best customer service companies" rely on business aviation.The airplane is a productivity booster. The majority of people who fly on business aircraft are not upper-level executives -- they are midlevel employees, including salespeople, engineers and technicians who use the travel time to continue working, meeting with, or assisting customers.The passengers often depart early in the morning, and sometimes stop at several locations during the day, before returning to their starting point the same night. When traveling aboard business aircraft, employees can meet, plan and work with each other en route.In addition to the productivity business aviation fosters, companies point to flexibility as a key factor. Businesspeople don't always know in advance where or when opportunities will present themselves.  So companies need to be nimble enough to move quickly.  Business aviation allows companies to respond to changing demands and circumstances.Reliability is also a consideration. Consider that nearly one-fourth of all airline flights are delayed and more than 3 percent are canceled. Because of the airlines' high passenger loads, if your flight is canceled or a delay causes you to miss your connection, the odds of you getting on the next flight are significantly reduced. When the future of a company and its employees is dependent upon you reaching a destination on time, business aviation can be the most prudent transportation option.There are other compelling reasons why a company like 3M relies on business aircraft. Access to communities with little or no airline service is critical, especially as the airlines continue cutting service to smaller markets. Business aviation serves 10 times the number of communities (more than 5,000 airports) than do commercial airlines (about 500 airports).Yet another key fact to understand about business aviation is that it is an important contributor to our economy. Business aviation contributes $150 billion to the U.S. economy every year, and provides more than 1.2 million high-wage, stable jobs. The vast majority of general aviation aircraft worldwide are manufactured, operated, serviced and maintained in the United States.In short, the case for business aviation is clear: Business aircraft serve an important role in helping companies compete and succeed -- a fact that's especially important in our current economic environment. For a well-respected and admired Minnesota company such as 3M that needs to remain competitive in today's changing global economy, every available resource is required to increase productivity and efficiency -- including the use of business aircraft.2012-02-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Two Governors Call On President To Support Business Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=344Governor Mary Fallin (R) and New Hampshire Governor John Lynch (D) have written to President Obama asking for his support for all of general aviation, including business aviation.  The governors' letters remind the president of the industry's essential rolehttp://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Mary+Fallin/08IA3NC8x68X3/12012-01-28http://www.noplanenogain-org/NH, Okla. Governors To Obama: Drop Private Jet Tax.htm?m=51&s=340&id=343By Keith Laing President Obama should leave a per-flight fee on private jets that could be as high as $100 in the hangar, a bipartisan pair of governors are arguing. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) and New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) said in separate letters to Obama this week that general aviation, as non-commercial flights are usually referred to, has been unfairly criticized in the president's populist pitches to voters ahead of his re-election bid. Obama has frequently accused Republicans of protecting tax breaks for private jet owners in his push for more "fairness" in the federal tax system. But Lynch said “general aviation has been hit hard by the economic downturn. "General aviation aircraft and the airports they use represent a critical link to emergency services, economic opportunity and global markets," he wrote to Obama. "It is important that this infrastructure remain in place and that we maintain it at a level that allows it to operate safely and efficiently.”  Fallin agreed, arguing that while she agreed that “putting our nation’s financial house in order must remain the top priority in Washington," it should not be done by increasing taxes on private flights. "Doing so through new tax burdens on a critical sector of our economy will do more economic harm than good and put thousands of jobs at risk," she wrote. "For this reason, I oppose the imposition of new 'user fee' taxes on general aviation aircraft operators in any form.” The private jet flight tax proposal was one of Obama's recommendations Obama to now-defunct supercommittee of lawmakers that was tasked with recommending $1.5 trillion or more in cuts from the federal deficit last year. Obama  also recommended a $7.50 increase in the security taxes commercial airline passengers pay each way on trips. The airline industry opposed the suggested hike, arguing it would cost companies $36 billion.2012-01-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Oklahoma's Gov. Mary Fallin Opposes User Fees For General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=345In a letter to President Barack Obama's administration, Gov. Mary Fallin voices her opposition to a proposed user fee on general aviation aircraft.The Alliance for Aviation Across America on Thursday publicized letters from Fallin and New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch supporting the general aviation industry and opposing the proposed tax."While general aviation is one of the most important sectors of our economy, and in fact is one of the few manufacturing sectors that contribute positively to the balance of trade, it has been hit hard by the economic downturn," Fallin states in her letter, which was written in November but made public Thursday. Placing a new tax burden on this segment of the economy will do more harm than good and put thousands of jobs at risk, she added.In September, a petition signed by nearly 9,000 people asked the White House to abandon plans to add a $100 per flight fee and instead tax aviation fuel. A response from the White House says they believe the tax is a fair way to continue to fund air traffic services, and the fee would generate an estimated $11 billion over 10 years. The response was signed by Dana Hyde, associate director for general government programs for the Office of Management and Budget.According to the Alliance for Aviation Across America, Fallin, a Republican, and Lynch, a Democrat, join a growing list of state and local officials who support protecting general aviation from such fees.2012-01-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Oklahoma Governor Joins Opposition To General Aviation User Fee.htm?m=51&s=340&id=346A proposed user fee on general aviation aircraft, opposed by some Wichita-area business leaders and politicians, has a new critic.The Oklahoman reports Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin wrote a letter to President Obama's administration saying the fee would harm "one of the most important sectors in our economy and "one of the few manufacturing sectors that contribute positively to the balance of trade." New Hampshire Gov. John H. Lynch also sent a similar letter to the president.The proposal would add a $100 per flight fee instead of taxing aviation fuel.2012-01-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/OK: Oklahoma's Gov. Mary Fallin Opposes User Fee For General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=347The Alliance for Aviation Across America on Thursday publicized letters from Fallin and New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch supporting the general aviation industry and opposing the proposed tax."While general aviation is one of the most important sectors of our economy, and in fact is one of the few manufacturing sectors that contribute positively to the balance of trade, it has been hit hard by the economic downturn," Fallin states in her letter, which was written in November but made public Thursday.  Placing a new tax burden on this segment of the economy will do more harm than good and put thousands of jobs at risk, she added.In September, a petition signed by nearly 9,000 people asked the White House to abandon plans to add a $100 per flight fee and instead tax aviation fuel.  A response from the White House says they believe the tax is a fair way to continue to fund air traffic services, and the fee would generate an estimated $11 billion over 10 years. The response was signed by Dana Hyde, associate director for general government programs for the Office of Management and Budget.According to the Alliance for Aviation Across America, Fallin, a Republican, and Lynch, a Democrat, join a growing list of state and local officials who support protecting general aviation from such fees.2012-01-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Governors Call On President Obama To Protect General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=342Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and New Hampshire Governor John H. Lynch both recently sent letters to President Obama calling on the administration to recognize the vital importance of general aviation for the economy and communities around the nation. The release of the letters comes following recent reports that the administration is likely pursuing a "user fee" tax on these aircraft, which would be extremely harmful to businesses, organizations and individuals across the country that rely on general aviation, as well as the general aviation manufacturing industry as a whole. Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire specifically stated in his letter to the President: "General aviation has been hit hard by the economic downturn. General aviation aircraft and the airports they use represent a critical link to emergency services, economic opportunity and global markets. It is important that this infrastructure remain in place and that we maintain it at a level that allows it to operate safely and efficiently." The industry represents 1.2 million jobs and approximately$150 billion in economic impact. The industry has recently seen thousands of lay-offs as a result of the economic downturn and an increasingly negative environment toward general aviation. In fact, 85% of the companies that rely on general aviation are small- to mid-sized businesses that use these aircraft to reach plants, markets and customers in other regions of the state or country. These businesses would be decimated by a proposed user fee, which would result in an increased tax and huge administrative burden on businesses, farms and organizations that are already struggling as a result of the economic downturn. General aviation operators currently pay into the air transportation system through a fuel tax, which is simple, efficient and easy-to-use. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin specifically highlighted the need to protect this industry against burdensome taxes which may further harm the industry and impact the economy: "Putting our nation's financial house in order must remain the top priority in Washington at this time. However, doing so through new tax burdens on a critical sector of our economy will do more economic harm than good and put thousands of jobs at risk. For this reason, I oppose the imposition of new "user fee" taxes on general aviation aircraft operators in any form." The bi-partisan pair of governors join a growing list of state and local officials that have highlighted the need to protect general aviation. In September, more than 70 mayors from 44 states sent a letter to President Obama, denouncing recent attacks on general aviation, and calling on the President to highlight the importance of the industry for communities around the country. In addition, 36 states around the country have passed proclamations recognizing the importance of general aviation to the economy and local communities. 2012-01-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/Flying High In The Corporate Skies.htm?m=51&s=340&id=341By Mark R. Smith, Editor-in-Chief Economic development officials often trumpet the importance of a city's major commercial airport to its bottom line. There's not much to argue with them about on that front, especially in Maryland, where BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport seems to be setting passengers records [practically] every month. It's now kicking off its latest expansion, with this investment reaching the $100 million mark. While the business community and the public are often well aware of such news, the less heralded corporate [or general aviation] sector of the industry also pumps up that bottom line, with that sector accounting for a substantial amount of business. For instance, a 2005 study from the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) that was conducted in sync with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association indicated that general aviation annually supports more than 1 million jobs and generates about $150 billion in economic activity. While the general public has an image of well-heeled corporate types exercising their privilege by jet setting around the globe to meetings or [more likely] a weekend of leisure in some exotic locale, industry sources stress that rich folks aren't the most consistent users of private aircraft. Core BusinessIt's true that the usual passengers on general aviation flights aren't those high-falutin' flyers. "Most flights," said Patrick Sniffen, vice president of marketing for Orlando-based Signature Flight Support, "move teams of middle managers." So what services, exactly, do Signature [a fixed-base operator, or FBO] and similar companies provide for their clientele? They fuel, hanger and, at some locations, maintain aircraft; as well as serve as a concierge for passengers and crew. That means booking hotel rooms and providing catering and ground transportation services, worldwide. For instance, Signature "works with Hertz on a national basis and even has a proprietary booking system," said Sniffen. To illustrate, at Signature's base at BWI Marshall, General Manager Dawn Gallina's staff of 32 workers provides ground operations for the aircraft from the time it arrives until it departs. Also on site at BWI Marshall is Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG), a sister company which often works with the larger groups (like sports charters) or for the big commercial carriers like Delta and Southwest. The requests that the related companies get from clients range from critical to almost inconsequential. "We get airlift demands and move sick patients," said Gallina, "and we've also taken customers to dental appointments or to pick up their drycleaning." Job GeneratorSignature operates globally from 107 locations, so the company is able to, as Sniffen said, "connect the dots. So if a plane flies from Baltimore to San Francisco, we can handle the customer's needs in both cities. That's what usually happens." While there are numerous other major players on the corporate side of the aviation business that have larger network footprints, Signature is the largest international player, and also operates from 59 sites in the U.S. That's still significant, considering that there are more than 2,000 FBOs in U.S. That may sound like a huge amount, but Sniffen said that it really isn't. "Consider how many smaller general aviation airports there are in this country," he said. "They may not be served by the large commercial airlines and these smaller airfields bring business to smaller communities. "Without general aviation and its support services," including FBOs like Signature, "the country, as a whole, would suffer," he said, deeming general aviation "an economic generator that isn't promoted to its full potential. "Someone with a King Air aircraft, for example, can take a few key staff into virtually any community with a general aviation airport (which often ranges between $7,000 to $12,000, round-trip)," he said, "and create jobs in an area that may be suffering from a lack of economic development or offshoring." Sniffen pointed to the failures of the textile and manufacturing industries to support his point. "Many of the jobs in those industries jobs were offshored," he said, "but now, a company can go back into those communities and develop new business. And look at the Honda and BMW plants in Greenville, S.C.," he said. "Planes have connected a [basically] rural community to create a number of fairly high-wage jobs." Doing It AllOne locally-based corporation that stands as proof of general aviation's impact is Annapolis-based ARINC. Its ARINC Direct division supports about 2,700 aircraft in business aviation and employs 40 FAA-certified dispatchers. Like Sniffen, Bob Richard, senior director of ARINC Direct, stressed that "Many corporations use corporate aviation to transport mid-level executives. Some even operate their own daily shuttles, including a dozen that we deal with." What ARINC Direct and similar entities do is act as an airline dispatch office. "We're their IT [information technology]department and their flight operations center," he said. "A major Fortune 500 [company] doesn't operate its own airlines. They contract with a company like ours for those services." "Those services" can encompass just about anything, including weather briefings, flight plans, safety management services, risk analysis and mitigation, and providing a source for a credit facility. That last service is crucial, since most fuel providers won't take a regular American Express or Visa card for [up to] a $40,000 fill-up for a large aircraft. Then there's the matter of foreign travel. "When you fly over other counties' airspace, like Russia or Cuba, you need to pay for permits,"Richard said. Then there are the services ARINC Direct provides that are among those "that the public associates with ARINC, like communications services for the cabin and the flight deck, data services for the systems onboard the aircraft, weight and balance computations, and runway analysis. Then comes the paperwork, which is sent in a package that the client picks up upon arrival at the airport. ARINC Direct operates worldwide, with its busiest airports being White Plains, N.Y., and Teterboro in N.J., "because that's where all of the corporate traffic gets to New York City," Richard said. Interestingly, it's somewhat unusual that the corporate flights go into the local commercial airport, as is the case at BWI Marshall. "And we have no closer relationship with BWI Marshall than any other airport," he said. Up in the AirDan Hubbard serves as the senior vice president of communications for the NBAA, which represents 8,600 companies "that rely on a small aviation airplane to do business." Hubbard said the NBAA commissioned two studies more recently (in 2009 and last year, both of which were conducted by Nexa Advisors) that indicate that "many companies that do not use business aviation perhaps should." So the association implemented an advocacy campaign, "No Plane, No Gain," which is aimed toward assisting Washington's policymakers "in understanding the many ways that business aviation is essential in America. The studies have also helped us inform people in the business world of how the aviation business can support their objectives," Hubbard said. That message is crucial to industry growth, especially as the economy continues crawling toward recovery, said Eric Byer, vice president of government and industry affairs for the National Air Transportation Association in Alexandria, Va. "We've had a rough last three or four years between the economy lagging and President Obama criticizing our industry," Byer said. "He has made proposals to add user fees to general aviation operations and to tax the use of corporate aircraft, without realizing the trickle down effect on different components of the industry. However, Byer also noted a recent uptick. "We're now seeing everything from corporate users to charter operators to casual weekend flyers slowly getting back in the swing of things," he said. The two best indicators, he said, are the 5% to 10% increases in operational activity and fuel sales [respectively] in the Northeast and in Florida last year from 2010 figures. So, Byer sees a brightening horizon. "I'm confident that we'll see at 10% increase in usage and fuel sales this year," he said, "and I think 2012 will be rebound year for the corporate air industry." 2012-01-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Guest Column: Aviation Is Key Part Of Economic Recovery.htm?m=51&s=340&id=340By U.S. REP. PAUL GOSARSpecial to the CourierAmerica takes pride in the fact that it is a mobile society. Americans can travel from place to place relatively cheaply and easily in a way that previous generations could never have dreamed and in ways people in other countries can only envy.In modern times, one of our most important forms of transportation is our aviation system. No other form of transportation can transport people as quickly and inexpensively as our aviation system. Arizonans benefit culturally and socially from this mobility. However, perhaps most importantly in difficult times like this, aviation is absolutely critical for business, the economy, and job creation.Arizona's economy as a whole is greatly enhanced by aviation, and this fact is especially true of Arizona's First Congressional District.Arizona's First Congressional District is the largest district in the state. While all districts are roughly equal in population, the First District makes up roughly half of the state's land mass because it includes the vast majority of Arizona's rural areas. These areas are some of the most beautiful places in the country where many Arizonans choose to live their lives.Yet, without transportation to and from these areas, business would be stifled, production of valuable resources would be hampered, and maintaining the great quality of life experienced by many Arizonans who live in these areas would be impractical, if not impossible.Indeed, our aviation system is central to the district's economy and way of life. There are over 20 community and rural airports in the district and these are vital to the regional economy. They provide transportation for businessmen and women to come to and from the district and also provide transportation for goods and services to and from the district. Additionally, our aviation system allows for tourists to visit the many beautiful natural and cultural attractions in the district.Some truly unique opportunities, such as tourism flights over the Grand Canyon, play a central role in the district's unique character and identity. This sort of tourism is as important to the economy as the goods and services transported out of the district through aviation. So while aviation is important for the state, it is absolutely vital to the people of our district, whom I represent. That is why I am a big supporter of aviation and a member of the Congressional General Aviation Caucus.Let's look at the facts: Arizona as a whole benefits enormously from aviation. According to the 2008 Arizona State Airports Systems Plan by the Arizona Department of Transportation, the total economic impact of aviation on the Arizona economy is $38.5 billion. It generates $1.8 billion in tax revenue. Aviation supports 470,000 jobs, paying out $14.7 billion in wages. In addition, there are three Air Force bases in Arizona that likewise bring jobs and extraordinary men and women to our communities.Arizona's First Congressional District also benefits in several unique ways from aviation. For example, tourism flights over the Grand Canyon are a major draw for tourists and produce thousands of jobs for Arizonans. Additionally, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott is one of only two aeronautical universities in the nation and has the nation's only master's degree program in safety science. As such, ERAU benefits the district both economically and culturally while attracting businesses and students to the district.The bottom line is that aviation in all its forms, be it business, tourism, entertainment, education, or the military, is uniquely important to Arizona's First Congressional District. As the U.S. representative of the district, it is my responsibility and privilege to assure that aviation is encouraged and allowed to flourish. The people of Arizona's First Congressional District would expect no less, and I do not intend to let them down.2011-12-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/CNBC Interview Highlights No Plane No Gain Message.htm?m=51&s=340&id=338The value of business aviation in supporting jobs and boosting business efficiency was highlighted in a December 6, 2011 CNBC interview given by Kenny Dichter, founder and former CEO of Marquis Jets and a former Vice Chairman with NetJets. Business aviation is “a good thing for our economy,” Dichter said, adding that the people working in business aviation “are hard working people.” He added that business aircraft are “a great efficiency tool” for companies. To watch the video, click here.2011-12-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/CNBC Interview Highlights No Plane No Gain Message.htm?m=51&s=340&id=339The value of business aviation in supporting jobs and boosting business efficiency was highlighted in a December 6, 2011 CNBC interview given by Kenny Dichter, founder and former CEO of Marquis Jets and a former Vice Chairman with NetJets. Business aviation is “a good thing for our economy,” Dichter said, adding that the people working in business aviation “are hard working people.” He added that business aircraft are “a great efficiency tool” for companies. To view the video, click here.2011-12-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cessna Mustang, Time Machine.htm?m=51&s=340&id=336By Matthew StibbeLarry Stoddard is the CEO of RelaDyne, a distributer of lubrication for industrial machinery. General aviation is very important for him to be able to visit multiple clients in a single day; often in rural areas were access to a commercial airport is very limited.He flies a Cessna Mustang, which is a six-seat, very light jet. Starting at around $2.65m, it is an entry-level jet compared to larger, pricier aircraft. It's very much a personal plane."I use it primarily for business travel," says Stoddard. He and his wife own the plane and they only use it for business when it makes commercial sense, charging the company on a flight by flight basis.The biggest benefit is efficiency. "Many of the businesses we visit are in small markets that are not well-served by big commercial airports," he explains. So he can use the plane to take a team in and out in a day or he can use it to visit three or four companies in a couple of days. "It would take a week to do this commercially."Saving time saves money. Multiply four people's salary cost by the number of days wasted travelling and add in the extra cost of hotels and, if you like, the opportunity cost of having senior managers on the road longer than they need to be and the cost of commercial travel quickly exceeds the price of a trip in the Mustang.Stoddard and his wife, who is also a pilot (she used to fly Emerson Fittipaldi!) fly around 150-200 hours a year. They also use the plane for family holidays and, for a private pilot, a Mustang is very desirable as it is designed for single pilot operations. Or, to put it another way, it's the plane I would fly if I had the money. Bigger planes tend to need salaried pilots and operations departments.Right now, Reladyne is working on a deal with a company that is in a remote location. To fly there commercially would involve three changes and an hour's drive. "Without the plane, it's literally a nine-hour trip,"says Stoddard, "and we've been there several times in the last three months. With the Mustang it's about two hours and my team can work during the flight. I simply don't think we could have done it without this aircraft."2011-11-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Five Hours by Car vs. 90 Minutes by Private Plane.htm?m=51&s=340&id=335By Matthew StibbeWhen most people think of business aircraft, they think of swanky multi-million dollar jets with gold taps. But that's not the story for John Alston, CEO of IT firm ClubDrive Systems.He flies a piston-powered Cirrus SR-22 four-seater for work and for fun and he shares the cost with other owners thanks to fractional operator AirShares Elite. (It's the same type of plane I fly.)The SR 22 starts at around $449,900 and costs a few hundred dollars an hour to operate. It has a maximum range of just over 800 nautical miles and a cruise speed of around 180 knots."It's a kind of time machine," says Alston. For example, one recent client visit took 90 minutes each way by Cirrus, flying into a local airport. By car it would have taken four to five hours each way - in other words, the plane turns a tiring two- or three-day trip into a day return."My customers are trusting me with their data and applications," he explains, "They need a face to put to the name. They're not going to hand over the keys to their business if they don't know you and trust you."The 500-hour pilot also uses the plane to fly mercy missions for Angel Flight, a charity that arranges free air transportation for any legitimate, charitable, medically-related need. Because the Cirrus can use many more airfields than commercial airlines, Alston can be a real help for his sick passengers. For example, flying a sick child from a remote area to a specialist treatment centre.Ultimately, though, his pilot's licence and plane is a competitive advantage for his business: "There are other companies that do what I do but without the plane, they can't do it as quickly and responsively as we can."2011-11-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/Riding high: For some, business commute is airborne.htm?m=51&s=340&id=337Aviation lawyer Greg Winton charges by the hour, including time in transit, so his clients actually prefer that he jump into his airplane for a trip to their office. A trained flight instructor and qualified commercial pilot, Winton commutes to business meetings at least twice a month in his six-seat Piper Lance. Business aviation is a slowly growing trend among small companies, according to the National Business Aviation Association.   The popularity of corporate flying rises and falls with the economy. After the market failed in late 2008, flight hours declined by about 40 percent, NBAA spokesman Dan Hubbard said. Since early 2010, NBAA has seen a gradual turnaround, Hubbard said, but estimated hours flown still sit about 25 percent below 2007.   The General Aviation Manufacturers Association calculated 2,971 registered active general aviation aircraft in Maryland in 2009, about 300 more planes than registered in the previous two years. General aviation is on a downward trend, GAMA Communications Director Katie Pribyl said. While there are some signs of recovery, the business of flight is "not out of the weeds yet," she said.   Benefits of small- business aviation Boni Caldeira sells airplanes, so he regards flying himself to client meetings as a company demonstration. Some potential customers who join Frederick-based Caldeira on business end up buying planes for their companies, he said.   Caldeira, a regional sales manager with Cirrus Design Corp., flies a company plane to neighboring states, when flying commercial would be inconvenient. "For a short trip, it's really annoying to have to put up with ... layovers and fewer direct flights," he said. New Era Custom Design and Cabinet Works Inc. President John Gage uses his Beechcraft Baron twin-engine piston at least once a week for business travel. This past week, Gage flew to Princeton, N.J., and Philadelphia for client meetings and site consultations. He can usually find an airport 10 to 15 minutes from his final destination, and often uses the airport's courtesy car service or rents a vehicle for the day. "It's a huge time-saver," Gage said. "I like to be home at night." Convenience is a draw for many small businesses. "I'll fly to Ithaca, N.Y., to get some business done, then fly to Pittsburgh, and I'll be home for dinner," Caldeira said.   Commercial airlines offer limited service to upstate New York, he said.   "There is no train that goes there. The bus takes forever. It's six hours to drive." Instead of landing at larger airports like Dulles International or Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, pilots can touch down in Frederick, he said. "From a local economy standpoint, the more businesses that choose to travel privately, the better for the local area."   The Frederick Municipal Airport is not known as a flight commuter hub, but the option is available. "At the end of the day, it's an airport with a runway and fuel and services. There is no reason why that can't be done," Airport Manager Kevin Daugherty said. Pilots can store planes at the airport for a day, as Gage used to do, but that is rare. Few people can afford the cost of fuel or the aircraft itself, Daugherty said. Once a new airport control tower opens next year, Daugherty expects to attract more business operators. About 17,000 business aviation planes are operated by about 15,000 individuals or companies in the U.S, according to NBAA. That number has increased incrementally, Hubbard said, from about 15,000 planes in 2004. Costs ground businesses in recession Some companies purchase fleets of wheeled vehicles for travel; others are drawn to advantages of flight. A business might look at productivity when considering an aircraft purchase, Hubbard said. "A company might say, 'Well, the plane was instrumental in helping us land this deal/client/customer. We were able to respond to a customer's inquiry immediately. Could we have done that with a car?'" New Era's work is largely limited to the Washington area, but employees sometimes get to pile into Gage's six-seater for out-of-town installations. Piloting his plane saves the company time and expenses, Gage said. "It means a lot to clients to know that I can be there on short notice, to work out problems (or) check out field conditions," he said. Winton calculates that his business trips cost about $200 per hour for fuel and maintenance costs. General aviation costs are usually computed by the hour, Pribyl said. Cost-per-mile varies greatly depending on the model of airplane. According to Business & Commercial Aviation magazine, 2010 per-mile fuel costs for a 600-mile trip might equal about $2.37 for a single turbine engine Cessna Caravan, close to $2.70 for a twin-turboprop Beechcraft King Air and about $2.10 per mile for a light jet. Factoring in the purchase of a plane, aviation is not a cheap option. But small-business pilots find it expedient. "This way, I am in the air within five to seven minutes from starting my engine," Winton said. "I never have to take off my shoes and belt." The future of business aviation is uncertain, according to NBAA, but Hubbard mentioned some factors that could drive growth. As business moves faster and becomes more competitive, the marketplace looks to expand opportunities, he said, and small airplanes can make companies more nimble and competitive. Also, during the recession, commercial airlines cut service to some areas, Hubbard said. "A business airplane may not be only the prudent option, but may be the only option." 2011-11-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/New Study Highlights Aviation Industry's Economic Impact, Benefits.htm?m=51&s=340&id=332HARRISBURG – An economic impact study commissioned by PennDOT reveals that Pennsylvania’s aviation industry is creating jobs and significant revenue that reinforces the impact of airports on local economies. “This study proves that investments we’re making in aviation in Pennsylvania are paying dividends for Pennsylvanians,” said PennDOT Secretary Barry J. Schoch. “Airport access stimulates businesses, supports five percent of the state’s workforce and provides transportation options.” The study found that Pennsylvania’s public-use airports support approximately 304,462 jobs, generate $9.2 million in annual payroll and produce $23.6 billion in annual economic activity. Approximately 1,000 Pennsylvania businesses were surveyed to measure the importance of certain factors when planning relocation or expansion. A sizable majority — 78 percent — said having a commercial service airport nearby is an important factor in choosing a business location, while 54 percent said having a general aviation airport is important. “When you consider that people, cargo, mail and many other goods pass through airports, it’s no surprise that businesses say that airport access is essential to their bottom line,” Schoch said. The study was funded by a federal grant to PennDOT. As part of the project, a database was also developed so the department can update each airport’s information annually to track economic benefits. PennDOT’s Bureau of Aviation manages programs supporting aviation operation and development in the state through grant funding, inspections, technical guidance and more. The bureau administered $11.5 million in state funding for ongoing projects in the fiscal year ending June 30. Pennsylvania has 15 airports with commercial service and 118 general aviation airports and heliports. To view the Economic Impact Summary Report or the Technical Report listing the impact of each of the state’s airports, visitwww.dot.state.pa.us, click on “Aviation & Rail Freight” and then the “Bureau of Aviation.” For more information, call 717-783-8800.2011-11-02http://www.noplanenogain-org/'No Plane, No Gain' Goes Local.htm?m=51&s=340&id=331Starlink Aviation vice president of sales and marketing Brenda Libby and Charlie Bravo Aviation CEO René Banglesdorf have partnered with NBAA and the “No Plane, No Gain” advocacy campaign to launch a grassroots effort to educate policy and business decision makers at the national, state/provincial or local level about business aviation. The goal, they said, is “to develop an easy-to-use presentation for those in the business aviation industry to use in their personal spheres of influence.” Banglesdorf said, “If each of us can take [the No Plane, No Gain] data and reach the decision makers in our communities, we can give our industry a huge shot in the arm.” According to Libby, “We saw a significant increase in charter activity in Montreal when I took the time to present the benefits of business aviation and dispel the myths often presented in the media, to the local business community. Business leaders and decision makers understand the vision quickly.” Libby and Banglesdorf are gathering names and contact information so they can invite interested volunteers to a webinar early next month. During the web conference, participants will see the final multimedia presentation and receive suggestions for implementing a program in their local area.  2011-10-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Op-ed: Elevating General Aviation to New Heights in Virginia.htm?m=51&s=340&id=330Since the early days of flight, when the Wright Brothers built and flew the world’s first Military Airplane at Fort Myer, Virginia in 1908, aviation and our local airports have been an important part of the fabric of our communities.  Throughout the commonwealth our network of airports supports businesses, allows for the transport of goods, and provides critical services to our communities, enhancing safety, health and the overall welfare of towns across the state. Therefore, it is fitting that Governor Bob McDonnell recently declared “General Aviation Appreciation Month”. Across the Commonwealth, our 66 public use airports are a resource for our communities as well as locally based businesses generating much needed jobs.  Virginia is home to over 14,000 registered pilots and over 6,000 general aviation aircraft, serving as a lifeline for our local communities. It is often said that, “If you put one mile of asphalt on a road, you can travel one mile, but if you put one mile of asphalt on an airport, you can travel anywhere in the world”.   While most individuals usually think about commercial air service, general aviation airports around the state support local businesses, allowing them to reach far-off plants, customers and goods, as well as serve as a lifeline for law enforcement, emergency medical transports, agriculture, health care, tourism and other important services.  For example, Hanover County Airport alone estimates over 43,000 general aviation operations over a 12 month period ending in February 2010 delivering over 38,000 visitors and creating 29.4 million in economic impact.  Statewide, general aviation airports alone generate $728 million annually in economic activity, plus over 5,000 well-paying jobs with a payroll of $213 million. In addition, organizations such as Mercy Medical Airlift and Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, based in Virginia Beach, help patients with financial constraints to get much-needed medical care.  The organization relies on volunteer pilots with general aviation aircraft to fly patients to distant medical facilities when they need it.  Between July, 2009 and June, 2010, Mercy Medical Airlift provided transportation to 22,204 patients across the country.  During the 2010 calendar year, the service provided by Mercy Medical Airlift generated a public benefit of $4.2 million across the country. Mercy Medical Airlift is only one example of the many charitable organizations that rely on access to our aviation network, providing vital services to our community members in need. By declaring the month of August “General Aviation Appreciation Month,” Governor McDonnell has taken an important step in recognizing the importance of general aviation to our state. For Virginia, maintaining a strong, secure and robust air transportation system should be an important part of any efforts to stimulate and protect our local and national economy. This proclamation shows just how big of a part general aviation plays towards such a goal. Hank RempeHank Rempe is the manager of Hanover County and Lake Anna Airports, and the secretary of the Virginia Airports Operators Council. He is also a member of the Alliance for Aviation Across America. 2011-10-06http://www.noplanenogain-org/Obama Deficit Plan Subject Of Aviation Dispute.htm?m=51&s=340&id=328The general aviation community is in an uproar over the Obama administration's inclusion of a $100 user fee as part of a larger deficit reduction plan. The discontent centers on several paragraphs in the 80-page economic growth and deficit reduction proposal released about a week ago. It states general aviation users "currently pay a fuel tax, but this revenue does not cover their fair-share-use of air traffic services." The administration went on to propose "a new mandatory surcharge for air traffic services." The $100 per flight fee, would be payable to the Federal Aviation Administration by general aviation operators who fly in controlled airspace. Numerous exemptions include: military and government aircraft, recreational piston aircraft (Piper-type planes), air ambulances and aircraft operating outside controlled airspace. The new fee would generate an estimated $11 billion over 10 years and finance roughly three-fourths of airport investments and air traffic control system costs, the plan stated. On Sept. 19, the Maryland-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association joined with eight other aviation-related groups in opposing user fees. The group cited bi-partisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives for per-gallon fuel charges rather than a per-flight tax that would impose a "significant administrative burden" and "necessitate the creation of a costly new federal collection bureaucracy." Chris Dancy, an AOPA spokesman, said it is true the fuel tax is not providing sufficient revenue, but the industry disagrees on how much of a gap exists. He said the group supports increased fuel taxes because the rate has not changed since 2007 and noted George W. Bush also proposed user fees — unsuccessfully — during his presidency. "We do recognize the deficit is a significant issue and there is going to have to be some contribution from virtually every segment of the economy," Dancy said, but added user fees are viewed negatively because they could open the door to additional fees in the future. "We see that as the camel's nose under the tent," he said. On Tuesday, Washington-based Aviation Across America released a letter to the president signed by nearly 80 mayors in 44 states, including James P. Councill, of Franklin, and Petersburg City Manager William E. Johnson. It cited the value of general aviation to the American economy — a $150 billion impact annually — and suggested the industry is already struggling under current economic conditions. In a teleconference, Selena Shilad, Aviation Across America's executive director, took umbrage with what she characterized as Obama's classification of general aviation aircraft owners as "wealthy CEOs deserving of added taxes." She said the user fee would "decimate" the industry. According to a recent economic impact study by the Virginia Department of Aviation, the state has 66 airports — all of which offer general aviation services. The state's 56 general aviation-specific airports contribute $728 million in annual economic activity, the report stated. The department of aviation did not respond to a request Tuesday for comment on the user fee proposal. Several Hampton Roads officials, with airport's in their jurisdiction, declined to comment because they were not up to speed on the issue. Ken Spirito, executive director of the Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport, said he does not believe "taxing general aviation is the answer to deficit problems. We need bigger picture, long-term proposals. Corporate aviation is very important to the economy." Spirito said general aviation comprises about 56 percent of the airport's activity while commercial airline and military flights account for 19 percent and 25 percent respectively. To date, in 2011, there have been 82,100 general aviation flights compared to 24,550 commercial and 38,204 military, he said.2011-09-28http://www.noplanenogain-org/Taxes On General Aviation Would Hurt Small Business.htm?m=51&s=340&id=329By Selena Shilad, Executive Director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America The Hill’s “GOP: Obama’s anti-corporate jet talk is killing aviation” (Sept. 21) article rightly highlighted the greatly harmful impact of new taxes on general aviation.  The truth is that these small “general aviation” aircraft are crucial to the productivity of many small businesses, allowing them to reach far-off customers and plants, support jobs and serve as a lifeline to many communities for healthcare, disaster relief, law enforcement and many other crucially needed resources and services. All told, general aviation represents $150 billion in economic activity and 1.2 million good jobs nationwide. Adding to this good-news story is the fact that general aviation is one of the few manufacturing sectors that contributes positively to our nation’s balance of trade. That said, your article unfortunately missed the mark when suggesting that general aviation owners and operators somehow do not pay their “fair share” of the costs of the air traffic control system. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: according to Federal Aviation Administration data, general aviation operators pay for 8.6 percent of all the taxes going into the Airport and Airways Trust Fund, which is roughly equivalent to their costs. The lion’s share of the costs of the air traffic control system is driven by the commercial airlines’ operations at congested hubs. In addition, a new per-flight user fee President Obama recently proposed for the people and companies that use general aviation would not only heap a huge administrative burden on those who rely on an airplane, it would require the creation of a huge new bureaucracy to collect and administer the new fees. There is simply no good justification for heaping additional taxes and fees and red tape onto an industry that supports manufacturing jobs and helps companies of all sizes succeed. Instead we should be doing everything possible to stimulate our economy, minimize government spending and support job creation.  Washington, D.C. 2011-09-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/GOP: Obama's Anti-Corporate Jet Talk Is Killing Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=326By Pete Kasperowicz Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) on Wednesday said President Obama's repeated calls for higher taxes on corporate executives who use corporate jets is killing the U.S. general aviation industry, as are new and proposed rules that raise taxes and invade the privacy of corporate jet users."He demonizes general aviation users," Pompeo said of Obama on the House floor. "He calls them corporate fat cat jet owners at every turn. But it's not impacting the folks who use those as business tools. It's impacting the people who build these airplanes."His rhetoric kills sales of American manufactured goods, and with them the jobs that are created when those airplanes are built," he added.Aside from Obama's rhetoric, Pompeo noted that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in August issued a new rule making it harder for private jets to keep their flight patterns private. "This is an unprecedented step that will facilitate serious violations of privacy, and it doesn't help create jobs in America," he said, adding that he has introduced legislation to reverse this rule.Pompeo also criticized the Obama administration's proposed $100 tax on general aviation users."At a time when America's got unemployment of one in six or more, it's no time add taxes on folks who are trying to fly their airplanes around this country, to get from Topeka to Des Moines, to get to small towns, to support American manufacturing," he said.The Obama administration proposed a $100 tax on general aviation users last week, as part of its plan to pay for his jobs proposal and find a total of $3 trillion in deficit reduction."General aviation users currently pay a fuel tax, but this revenue does not cover their fair-share-use of air traffic services," the proposal says. "To reduce the deficit and more equitably share the cost of air traffic services across the aviation user community, the Administration proposes to establish a new mandatory surcharge for air traffic services. This proposal would create a $100 per flight fee, payable to the FAA, by aviation operators who fly in controlled airspace."The administration estimates that this increase would generate $11 billion over the next decade. 2011-09-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Corporate Jet Owners Hit Back At Obama.htm?m=51&s=340&id=327Corporate jet owners are fighting back at President Obama, who has made them a poster child for tax reform. The Alliance for Aviation Across America, which represents non-commercial business aviation, says Obama should stop his criticism of corporate jets owners and drop his plans for imposing user fees on their air travel. The Washington, D.C.-based group argues Obama’s proposed user fees would hurt the economy and cost jobs. “The president has consistently referred to businesses that use general aviation aircraft as wealthy CEOs who deserve additional taxes,” Alliance Executive Director Selena Shilad said on a conference call Tuesday. “It makes no sense to move from the existing fuel tax mechanism.” The group released a letter on Tuesday signed by mayors in 43 states calling on Obama to leave corporate jets out of his populist pitch to voters. Obama has been barnstorming the country in support of his jobs bill, which he proposes to pay for with higher taxes on the wealthy. As part of the deficit-reduction suggestions the president made recently to the supercommittee of lawmakers tasked with cutting $1.5 trillion or more from the federal deficit, Obama proposed a per-flight fee on private aircraft that could be as high as $100. The administration has said the fee would generate $11 billion over 10 years. Obama has backed up his proposal to high corporate jet owners with higher fees with tough rhetoric against Republicans. During the debate over raising the federal debt ceiling this summer, the president frequently accused Republicans of preferring to preserve tax breaks for wealthy private jet owners than average Americans. In one news conference, he invoked tax breaks for corporate jet owners six times in about an hour’s worth of remarks. But members of the Aviation Alliance, including mayors of small towns whose airports handle a large share of private airplane traffic, warn that all noncommercial plane users are not wealthy. “I cringe every time these types of comments are made,” said Carl Brewer, the mayor of Wichita, Kansas. Wichita is home base for several major private aircraft manufacturers like Cessna and Beechcraft, and is nicknamed “the Air Capital of the World.” Brewer said the general aviation industry generates $10.4 billion of economic activity and 47,000 jobs in Kansas alone. That makes Obama's remarks and tax proposals “something that's a real challenge for us in the state of Kansas,” he said. Obama's jobs plan is estimated to cost $447 billion. To pay for the bill and further reduce the deficit, Obama has proposed ending the Bush tax rates for wealthier taxpayers. He also wants to institute a “Buffett rule,” named after billionaire Warren Buffett, to ensure millionaires and billionaires don’t pay a smaller portion of their income in taxes than the poor and middle class. It’s unclear how the Buffett rule would work in practice. The moves by the president have been widely interpreted as a pivot toward traditional Democratic economic populism - and away from any effort to actually compromise with Republicans. The aviation alliance argues the general aviation tax structure is not in need of reform. “User fees would impose an unfair regulatory and financial burden on the millions of Americans who depend on small planes for their livelihood, and have the potential to ground small aircraft,” the alliance says on its Website.  “AAAA opposes this tax structure and supports the current ‘pay at the pump’ fuel tax system, as it is the simplest, most efficient way to pay into the Airport and Airways Trust Fund.” The group said that it was responding to Obama’s remarks about private airplanes Tuesday because of the tax proposal, but Brewer said the president has always singled out private planes for ridicule. The alliance, which was founded in 2007, began raising its concerns “immediately after the president was elected,” Brewer said, “and we’ve been addressing them every time he’s made these comments.2011-09-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Flying Is Effective For Business, So Back Off The Vilification.htm?m=51&s=340&id=325By: Tom Coble From Tom Coble, CEO of Coble Trench Safety in Greensboro and winner of the 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Carolinas: As the president and lawmakers return to Washington and turn their attention to job creation, one key item on the agenda should be to halt the class warfare rhetoric and vilification of the small aircraft used by businesses daily to connect citizens in many communities to goods, resources and services. The president and some in Congress have not only vilified the use of such aircraft, but have proposed additional taxes on aircraft use. While such rhetoric may score political points, it is a direct hit to the businesses that drive our economy and that need every possible tool to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive world. All over our country the use of general aviation allows businesses to reach distant plants and offices, visit with customers, and conduct meetings throughout different regions and often in one day. I personally pilot a Beechcraft King Air B-200 to 11 branch locations in six states. The orders of these planes help to support a thriving U.S.-based general aviation manufacturing industry that is one of the only manufacturing industries in the U.S. that contributes positively to the balance of trade. All told, the industry generates over $150 billion in economic impact and supports 1.2 million good, American jobs. These jobs include suppliers, manufacturers, repair stations and personnel at airports. In addition, 85 percent of the businesses that rely on general aviation are small to mid-sized businesses carrying everyone from technicians to middle management employees. Yet, this industry takes a beating from senseless and ongoing vilification, and our economy has suffered as a result. In the first 6 months of 2011, for example, general aviation shipments were down 15.5 percent from the same period in 2010, and this trend will continue if the president and our lawmakers keep it up. One particularly alarming manifestation of this wide-ranging demagoguery of general aviation has been the reinvigoration of a potential "user fee" tax on general aviation aircraft as part of the deficit reduction debate in Congress. This type of tax has been considered before, and each time has been dismissed with good cause. A user fee tax on every take-off and landing would have a devastating impact on the small businesses that comprise 85 percent of all business aircraft operations, as well as the countless farms across our country that rely on daily aerial spraying to maintain their crops. This proposal would require a bloated new bureaucracy within the FAA to administer these fees - and this at a time when the supposed justification for such taxes is reducing government spending. In addition, thousands of businesses around the country would suffer under an immense bureaucratic burden of trying to keep track of and administer all these taxes. We need to stimulate business growth. How can we as a nation look to businesses to once again hire and expand while we also vilify the very tools they count on to increase their productivity? It's about time we got our nation's businesses flying high again, and that means not taxing them to death and penalizing all the tools that are needed to remain competitive.2011-09-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Recognize Value Of Regional Airports.htm?m=51&s=340&id=324The aviation community commends Gov. Pat Quinn’s recent declaration recognizing the importance of general aviation and its vital role in Illinois. At Chicago Executive Airport, we believe the recognition is overdue. Chicago is well-known for having one of the busiest airports in the world. While O’Hare International Airport does an amazing job, other airports in the region play a significant supporting role. General aviation airports provide travelers with additional opportunities to access Main Street America, as well as the rest of Illinois. They are an essential part of America’s transportation system and contribute $6 billion each year to Illinois’ economy. That translates to $492 per capita — the seventh highest total in the country. Illinois is home to 27,000 pilots and 10,578 registered general aviation aircraft and general aviation accounts, with 3,100 full-time and 1,000 part-time jobs directly attributable to general aviation. Regional airports also support local businesses such as flight schools, medical care, farms and law enforcement, helping them connect to urban centers within and beyond the state. Indirectly, they cast a much larger footprint on the job market. Since 1981, Lifeline Pilots based in Peoria, utilizing regional airports, has provided free transportation to individuals requiring specialized medical treatment in other parts of the state or country. Traveling more than 1.7 million passenger miles, 550 active general aviation pilot volunteers conduct more than 500 missions annually taking patients to treatment facilities, reuniting family members and assisting in disaster relief operations. A strong, secure and robust air transportation system is an important part of stimulating the local and national economy. The governor’s proclamation is an important step in the right direction. Dennis G. RouleauAirport managerChicago Executive Airport2011-09-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Hundreds gather At GA Rally In Iowa.htm?m=51&s=340&id=321Hundreds of workers, state and local officials and aviation enthusiasts gathered Wednesday in Cedar Rapids for a GA rally. The event, held at the Rockwell Collins Flight Operations Center, was organized by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) in partnership with Rockwell Collins and Goodrich Corporation, both GA manufacturers with Iowa operations. Senator Charles Grassley and Representatives Tom Latham, Leonard Boswell, Steve King and Bruce Braley recognized general aviation’s tremendous impact on the state of Iowa as each spoke to the crowd.  The members of Congress were also joined by Iowa Department of Economic Development Director Debi Durham. “In the current economic environment, it is important that we capitalize on the things that are working. Fortunately, you don’t have to look any further than general aviation to find the perfect example,” said Rockwell Collins Chairman, President and CEO Clay Jones. “General aviation is one of the few manufacturing industries that provides a trade surplus for the United States and it supports more than 1.2 million jobs across the country. In Iowa alone, GA contributes $1.4 billion to the economy annually.” “We are proud to be part of the critical supply chain network that delivers cost effective, innovative solutions to manufacturers,” said Daphne Falletti, president of Goodrich Corporation’s Engine Components division. “The multiplier effect that is a hallmark of the GA manufacturing sector is a huge generator of jobs and economic activity in large and small communities around the country and the reason that over 2,000 Iowans are employed in this state by GA manufacturers.” “We are fortunate to have with us members of Congress who understand the role general aviation plays as an essential form of transportation and as a creator of jobs," said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. "We look forward to continued work with you to ensure a full recovery of our industry and a move toward a new period of growth and prosperity, here in Iowa and across the nation.”2011-08-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Manufacturers Counter Obama Visit to Iowa To Talk Up Corporate Jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=322By Keith Laing A day after President Obama visited Iowa, the makers of the corporate jets that have been the butt of frequent criticism recently by the president held a rally of their own in the key political state. The president's bus tour through the Midwest had rolled on to his home state of Illinois, but the General Aviation Manufacturers Association gathered supporters at the Rockwell Collins Flight Operations Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. GAMA spokeswoman Katie Pribyl told The Associated Press the event was intended to counter Obama's "negative rhetoric" about corporate jets. During the fight over the federal debt ceiling, Obama cited tax breaks for corporate jet owners an example of what could be set aside in an effort to raise revenues to lower the national deficit. "The tax cuts I’m proposing we get rid of are tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires; tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners," Obama said in a press conference in July in which he mentioned jets six times. "It would be nice if we could keep every tax break there is, but we’ve got to make some tough choices here if we want to reduce our deficit," he said. Aviation industry leaders said at the time they were offended by Obama's rhetoric, and Wednesday, organizers of the rally in Cedar Rapids said "In the current economic environment, it is important that we capitalize on the things that are working. "Fortunately, you don’t have to look any further than general aviation to find the perfect example,” Rockwell Collins Chairman Clay Jones said in a statement released Wednesday by GAMA. “General aviation is one of the few manufacturing industries that provides a trade surplus for the United States and it supports more than 1.2 million jobs across the country. In Iowa alone, GA contributes $1.4 billion to the economy annually.” Iowa lawmakers Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) and Reps. Tom Latham (R), Leonard Boswell (D), Steve King (R) and Bruce Braley (D) attended the GAMA rally Wednesday. 2011-08-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Jet Defenders Try To Send Obama A Message.htm?m=51&s=340&id=323By Ryan J. Foley CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa— Leaders of the corporate aircraft industry used a carefully orchestrated rally Wednesday to try to send a message to the White House to stop picking on their customers and give more support to a business they say boosts the economy and U.S. jobs. After President Barack Obama repeatedly singled out "corporate jet owners" as an example of wealthy individuals who should sacrifice tax breaks, a top industry lobbyist urged employees and their friends and neighbors to tell Obama to lay off the criticism. He noted that the president asked Iowa residents during a stop in Peosta on Tuesday for their ideas to help the economy recover. "Tell him, this industry is important. It needs to be supported," Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, told about 300 employees of aviation technology maker Rockwell Collins Inc. in the company's hangar at the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids. "He needs to know, if you go after our customers, you go after every one of us." Five members of Iowa's congressional delegation spoke at the rally, where employees were instructed by a lobbyist beforehand to applaud their words, make eye contact with the politicians and thank them for "fighting for your jobs." Banners reading "Iowa flown, Iowa grown" and "General Aviation equals jobs" were hung from the rafters, while speaker after speaker applauded an industry they said has a $1.2 billion economic impact on Iowa and supports 2,000 jobs in the state. Obama has proposed scaling back a tax break enjoyed by the private jet owners but not by commercial airlines to raise about $3 billion in additional revenue over the next decade. Even though that's a tiny fraction of the nation's deficit, the president has repeatedly hammered on the issue and other tax increases that he says the wealthy can afford as he paints Republicans as defenders of the rich. While the plan was not included in the recent deal that raised the nation's debt limit, the White House has said that a new committee of lawmakers that has been created to cut the deficit should consider it. The plan would require corporations that buy private jets to deduct the cost from their taxable income over seven years, the same as the airlines, instead of five. Bunce said Obama's plan would hurt small businesses that rely on the tax break to buy and upgrade their aircraft and make sure they have the latest technology. He repeatedly cited the example of farmers who use small planes to spray their crops. By coincidence, one U.S. government plane similar to Air Force One that is used to transport members of Obama's cabinet was parked at the airport during Wednesday's rally. Bunce pointed out the taxpayer-funded plane to the crowd and noted that government officials use it to conduct business across the globe in the same way that corporate executives use their planes. "It's a business jet," he said. Clay Jones, the chief executive of Rockwell Collins, which employs about 1,500 workers in Iowa, said the administration and Congress should "first, do no harm" and support U.S. industries that are already succeeding as they try to help the nation recover from a recession. He told his employees, "This rally is all about you." But Bunce and U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, also praised Jones for defending the use of corporate jets in congressional testimony in 2009 after auto company executives came under attack for using them to fly to Washington to ask for a federal bailout. Boswell recalled how Jones told members of Congress he used his corporate jet to have meetings in New York and Florida that same day, illustrating how such transportation is crucial for business and saves time. U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, told the crowd he has been troubled by the remarks by the president and said they must end. "Some people have picked out this industry to vilify and somehow think by demagoguing the issue they can have political gain. I don't understand it," Latham said as the crowd started to applaud. "The business aviation industry is a vital part of our economy."2011-08-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/First Six Months Of Year Prove Difficult For GA Manufacturers.htm?m=51&s=340&id=320By Mike Mitchell August 8, 2011 - The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) released the shipment and billings figures for the first half of the year. In the first six months of 2011, total general aviation (GA) airplane shipments worldwide fell 15.5 percent, from 936 in 2010 to 791 this year. Billings for general aviation airplanes totaled $7.3 billion, down 22.3 percent. Piston-powered airplane shipments totaled 387 units compared to 424 units delivered in the first six months of 2010, an 8.7 percent decrease.  Turboprop shipments declined 8.9 percent to 143 units in 2011, compared to 157 units during this same period in 2010. Business jet shipments totaled 261 units, a 26.5 percent decrease as compared to the 355 units delivered in the first six months of 2010. "These negative shipment numbers demonstrate precisely how ill-timed and potentially destructive the Obama Administration's rhetoric and policies toward corporate jets are for general aviation," said GAMA's President and CEO Pete Bunce. "This Administration has singled out business aircraft owners with political demagoguery. It is simply astonishing that they cannot connect the dots back to manufacturing jobs and realize they are doing more damage to an industry that has obviously not yet clawed its way out of this recession. Instead of demonizing our industry, President Obama should stand up for general aviation manufacturing jobs." Tom Buffenbarger, international president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, added, "If President Obama ever becomes interested in creating general aviation jobs rather than using the industry as a punching bag, we are ready to work with him to advance these job and business opportunities." Owners of business aircraft can depreciate their investment over five years. President Obama has proposed changing the depreciation schedule for general aviation aircraft to seven years calling the current five year schedule an "egregious" tax loophole. The depreciation schedule for general aviation aircraft has been in existence since the early 1980s.  Business aircraft are treated similarly to other assets such as cars, buses, trucks, and construction equipment, which can be depreciated over a five year period when purchased for business use. Many observers have criticized the Obama Administration's focus on this provision because of its minimal impact on reducing the federal deficit. General aviation (GA) is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights. The majority of the world's air traffic falls into this category, and most of the world's airports serve general aviation exclusively. General aviation is particularly popular in North America, with over 6,300 airports available for public use by pilots of general aviation aircraft (around 5,200 airports in the U.S., and over 1,000 in Canada). In comparison, scheduled flights operate from around 560 airports in the U.S. According to the U.S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, general aviation provides more than one percent of the United States' GDP, accounting for 1.3 million jobs in professional services and manufacturing. General aviation covers a large range of activities, both commercial and non-commercial, including private flying, flight training, air ambulance, police aircraft, aerial firefighting, air charter, bush flying, gliding, skydiving, and many others. Homebuilt aircraft, light-sport aircraft and very light jets have emerged in recent years as new trends in general aviation. General aviation involves a wide range of aircraft types such as business jets (bizjets), trainers, homebuilt, aerobatic types, racers, gliders,warbirds, firefighters, medical transports, and cargo transports, to name a few. The vast majority of aircraft today are general aviation types.2011-08-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Flight of Hypocrisy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=319Letter to the EditorSunday, July 24, 2011 Recently, President Obama gave a speech regarding the critical role of manufacturing jobs. He stood at an Alcoa aerospace aluminum-manufacturing facility and told workers he was going to grow ″good, middle-class manufacturing jobs″ like theirs. He championed their products and told them that ″every airplane in the world has some kind of Alcoa product in it.″ Obama continued, telling the workers they're ″responsible for the wings on Air Force One. I want to thank all of you for getting me here in one piece.″ The very next day, Obama held a press conference during which he demonized the people who purchase private aircraft! Obama denigrated the very segment of the aviation industry that buys Alcoa's products! I guess they didn't teach Economics 101 in Chicago's ″Community Organizer Training Course.″ When people stop buying aircraft, the aircraft are no longer needed. Then, the millions of people who manufacture  and support those aircraft lose their jobs. Business aviation employs more than 1.2 million Americans and injects more than $150 billion annually into our economy. It is one of the few remaining manufacturing industries that contribute positively to America's balance of trade. All the while, our hypocritical president, his entire family and countless other Obama appointees fly around the world on their own taxpayer-funded private aircraft! You are clueless, Mr. President. However, I've also made mistakes. For example, I used to think Jimmy Carter would go down as the worst president in U.S. history. Boy, was I wrong! Mike VargoSouth Park The writer, a West Point graduate, is director of sales and marketing for private aviation services provider Corporate Air LLC (corporateairllc.com), which is based at Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin.  2011-07-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/Private-Jet Firms Adapt To Turbulent Times.htm?m=51&s=340&id=318By Marla Matzer Rose Despite economic hurdles for private aviation, NetJets is proceeding with construction of a $21 million headquarters at Port Columbus. The bumpy road to recovery for private-aviation firms such as NetJets has developed another hurdle in recent weeks: a possibility of less-friendly tax breaks. As part of efforts to fix the federal budget, Democrats have proposed raising $3 billion by ending special deductions for private-jet depreciation. Whether this makes it in the final document is unknown, but it's another sign of the times for an industry that was walloped by the financial meltdown of several years ago. Jordan Hansell, CEO and chairman of Columbus-based NetJets, says recent political rhetoric is another example of "the serious misconception surrounding the business-aviation industry and those who utilize these services." The industry, he says, employs more than 1.2 million people and accounts for $150 billion of business activity. The U.S. also leads the world in business-jet manufacturing, with 60 percent of what's produced by these companies exported overseas, he said. But the industry isn't growing much, and that's a bigger concern. Flight activity by business aircraft was up a scant 1percent last month compared with June 2010 and it remains well below pre-recession levels, according to Cincinnati-based Aviation Research Group/U.S. "It's flat partly because of the economy and partly because using private jets is still on the down-low with a lot of people," said Dan Dugger, a former NetJets executive and founder of FracTrade, a broker of fractional ownership shares for private jets. Dugger was referring to ongoing jabs from President Barack Obama about "corporate jet owners." Recent changes at NetJets, which created the fractional-jet-ownership model 25years ago, show how operators are planning for the future while adjusting to the realities of today's market. "We've seen changes in how people are consuming private aviation. One of our benefits as a company is that we have the strength of Berkshire Hathaway behind us, and we have a full suite of products that can serve all these needs," said Adam Johnson, North American president of sales, marketing and service for NetJets. The company was acquired by Warren Buffett-controlled Berkshire more than a decade ago. NetJets has responded to continued tough times in several ways. During the past year, it introduced its own direct-financing plan in response to tightened bank credit. It's also started offering leases, instead of ownership contracts, for terms as short as one year, allowing companies that don't want to be tied up in the traditional five-year ownership contract a different option. The trade-off for gaining an early exit: Customers can't take advantage of the current accelerated-depreciation tax break on plane ownership, and their costs per hour are higher. NetJets also bought the Marquis Card program, which sells use of NetJets aircrafts in 25-hour increments. Though card programs have been popular and can charge a premium on a per-hour basis, they're not as desirable for operators as selling shares in a jet. NetJets, which has more than 700 jets and is several times larger than its nearest competitor, has expressed confidence in the future in two concrete ways: by moving forward with a new $21million headquarters building at Port Columbus and by placing orders for new aircrafts valued at nearly $8billion during the past nine months. Cleveland-based competitor FlightOptions also announced a plane order last week valued at $167million and has recalled some of the pilots it furloughed during the recession. NetJets also is having more luck selling some of its unneeded older aircraft that cost it hundreds of millions of dollars worth of write-downs during the past three years. "The trending is going the right way," said Chuck Suma, senior vice president of aircraft management for NetJets. "We're seeing values stabilize led by the larger aircraft." The growth of the international market for private aviation is helping. One broker who bought used aircraft from NetJets recently sent out an email promoting "NetJets Pre-Owned Private Jets Available for Immediate Delivery" to potential buyers in China and India. The severe downturn of 2008 and 2009 jolted the industry. Fractional-jet firms laid off thousands of workers, and NetJets experienced a management shakeup. Its recovery continues to be a work in progress, even as other parts of the larger economy show improvement. That's not a surprise, given that private aviation is considered a lagging indicator of the health of the economy. Despite the still-soft economy and political pressure, industry executives continue to see opportunity for smaller companies and upstarts to gain new customers. Avantair, a 7-year-old fractional operator based in Florida that flies only one type of high-performance propeller plane, was able to weather the downturn. Among the reasons: Its costs are lower and it didn't offer its owners the ability to get out of their ownership contract early, as NetJets and other competitors do. "About 70 percent of the people who buy from us are small-business owners. They're really careful about how they're spending their dollars; they're well-educated, they're seeking value," said Steve Santo, founder and CEO of Avantair. This month, Avantair announced a "90-day guarantee" for new owners. The program puts the buyer's $400,000 upfront investment into an escrow account and will return it if he or she is not satisfied within three months, Santo said. FracTrade has struck deals with Avantair and Flight Options to formally act as a broker for them, helping to guide owners into buying used aircraft shares in a way that benefits all parties, Dugger said. A major complaint of owners who wanted to get out of contracts earlier than five years during the recession was that they took a big hit on the resale value of their aircraft through companies such as NetJets. Mike Riegel, a veteran of the fractional industry and owner of Nevada-based consultancy Aviation IQ, isn't convinced that Avantair's move will gain the company new customers. But he expects to see a couple of upstarts enter the market in the coming year, with the advantage of lower costs and a more nimble business model. "I call it Fractional 2.0," Riegel said. "You need to bring in elements of what the major airlines do: leasing their aircraft longer-term from a third party and keeping a very limited number of aircraft types in service for a longer period of time." Riegel thinks this could grow the market after seven years of what he calls virtually flat growth. "Sooner or later, customers say, 'Yes, it's a good service. But we're not going to continue paying these enormously high prices.'" One thing everyone agrees on: Private aviation isn't going away. "The need for business aviation isn't changing," Suma said. "The demand is there. Nothing replaces being able to save time, work more efficiently and have face-to-face meetings in a competitive world."2011-07-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Corporate Jet Tax Hike Hits Ailing Plane Makers.htm?m=51&s=340&id=317WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama aims at corporate fat cats when he calls for a tax increase on companies that own private jets. But he hits an American manufacturing industry that is just starting to show life after years of slumping sales and thousands of job losses. Most business aircraft are made in America, and the companies and unions that produce them don't appreciate the president's rhetoric or his plan to raise taxes on private jet owners. They fear that both will hurt sales, costing them even more jobs. "I think it's just insulting," said Steve Rooney, president of District 70 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Wichita, Kan. "He acts like it is just a luxury for somebody to own a business jet when they're used as tools. And I don't think he realizes how many people that this industry employs and how much revenue is brought in here from those types of aircraft." Obama's proposal would scale back a tax break enjoyed by the private jet owners but not by commercial airlines. The administration has acknowledged it is more symbolic than substantive: The tax increase would raise $3 billion over the next decade, but that's a tiny fraction of the $4 trillion in deficit reductions that economists say are needed to put the government and U.S. economy on sound footing. Nevertheless, Obama hammers away at the issue on a regular basis, using it to portray Republicans who oppose tax increases as defenders of the rich, the kind of people who fly around in private jets. Obama said this week he wants to get rid of "egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits." The proposal, however, illustrates how difficult it is to limit even the most obscure tax deduction: All tax breaks benefit somebody, and some have deep tentacles that reach far beyond the high-flying executives targeted by the president. How corporate jets are treated by tax law reaches deep into the heartland, places like Wichita, Kan., where companies like Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier Learjet have been manufacturing private aircraft for years. "We are one of the few remaining manufacturing industries left in this the country, and it would seem to me it would be important to help us grow, not put impediments to our growth in place," said Shawn Vick, Hawker Beechcraft's executive vice president. Hawker Beechcraft went from 9,000 workers in 2008 to about 6,000 today, while Cessna cut its workforce in half, to about 8,000. In all, private plane manufacturers have laid off about 20,000 workers since 2008, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. They now employ 120,000 to 130,000 workers, and they support a business aviation industry that employs 1.2 million, said Katie Pribyl, spokeswoman for the manufacturers association. Industry analyst Brian Foley said business aviation is starting to show signs of recovery, but added, "It's still a little wobbly-kneed right now." "Anything to make the purchase less desirable is concerning to the industry because we're still trying to get our bearings," said Foley, who runs Brian Foley Associates in Sparta, N.J. Sales are down by more than half since 2008, though there has been a small rebound so far this year. In 2008, U.S. manufacturers shipped 3,079 general aviation planes, Pribyl said. They shipped 1,334 planes last year. In addition to the poor economy, many in the industry believe they have been tainted by unfair attacks on the image of corporate travel. Auto executives were derided for flying in private jets to Washington to lobby for government loans, and banks have been criticized for their corporate planes after taking government money. "The president is promoting a caricature of the industry that is very much at odds with reality of who the industry is," said Ed Bolen, president and chief executive of the National Business Aviation Association. "Most of these planes are operated by small and midsized companies." Obama's proposal would change the complicated rules that businesses must follow to deduct the cost of buying an aircraft from their taxable income. For tax purposes, the law currently distinguishes between private aircraft used by executives and commercial aircraft used by airlines. Under the decades-old law, corporations that buy private jets must gradually deduct the cost over five years. Airlines, however, must spread the deductions for buying commercial airliners over seven years, giving them smaller tax breaks up front and making them wait longer to realize the full savings. Obama wants companies that buy private jets to follow the same seven-year schedule as the airlines. The timing of the deductions is important to companies. If they can claim bigger savings up front, businesses can improve cash flow and use the money to generate additional revenue. Lengthening the depreciation schedule is considered a tax increase by both private analysts and government tax writers. Industry experts said the tax increase probably wouldn't be the deciding factor in whether a corporation buys an airplane. But it could affect when they buy it and how much they are willing to spend, said Gary Horowitz, an aviation and tax attorney at Wiley Rein LLP, a law firm based in Northern Virginia. "This is an expense that makes it incrementally more expensive to own an aircraft," Horowitz said.2011-07-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/NY Aviation Economic Impact Huge According To Study.htm?m=51&s=340&id=316ALBANY, NY -- A newly released study of New York airports and the aviation industry's contribution to the State's economy found that $50 billion in annual economic activity for New York State businesses is attributable to aviation. "The data contained in this long-awaited update of the "Benefits of Aviation" study released in 2003 reveals an aviation sector that is highly resistant to recessionary pressures and a smart investment for public and private capital," said Carl Beardsley, President of the New York Aviation Management Association. "The new study finds that convenient, affordable and safe commercial and general aviation air services are vital to the State's economic strength," Beardsley reported. The study, "New York State Economic Impacts of Aviation," funded jointly by the Federal Aviation Administration and NYS Department of Transportation, looked at 90 public-use airports across the State and the economic activity, jobs and taxes generated by the aviation sector. The evidence shows an impact greater than the level of public investment required to maintain the system in a state of good repair. The new 2010 data shows an increase of 47,000 in aviation employment over the employment level reported in the 2003 study. Some of the findings include: •In 2009, aviation facilities generated $50 billion in annual economic activity for New York State businesses, equaling 4.4 percent of the total gross State product; •Federal, state and local funding for capital improvements at airports accounts for approximately 1.2 percent of this total, most of which comes from user fees and taxes; •Approximately 394,500 jobs in New York State are related directly or indirectly to aviation, representing 4.6 percent of the 8.5 million jobs in the State. Payroll from aviation totals more than $18 billion, or two percent of total income in the State; •More than $4.5 billion in state and local tax revenues related to aviation were collected, roughly $4.1 percent of all 2009 state and local taxes; •Economic impacts from aviation in New York State account for 6 percent of the nation's total aviation economic impact; and •Fortune 500 businesses, such as IBM, Pfizer, Verizon, American Express, Time Warner, Eastman Kodak and others, are significant users of New York's aviation system and help sustain local economies. These businesses rely on commercial service and general aviation to meet their business transportation needs. State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo (D-Endwell), a leader on aviation issues and Co-Chair of the New York Legislative Aviation Caucus – a group of over 100 New York State legislators – said: "This report clearly illustrates the importance of airports and the aviation industry to our State's economy. It will also be valuable in our efforts to promote legislation, such as the Aviation Jobs Act, which will help support aviation and make New York competitive with neighboring states." State Senator William Larkin (R-Cornwall-on-Hudson), Co-Chair of the New York Legislative Aviation Caucus and the Senate sponsor of the Aviation Jobs Act praised the study's results. "The study shows the benefits of attracting aviation assets to New York as each business aircraft based in the State generates $1 million in spending and creates 5 direct jobs!" Senator Larkin pointed out. "New York needs to recognize airports and the aviation industry for the economic engines that they are and this study provides the numbers to back that up," the Senator said. "The data contained in the study will be useful in marketing the State's aviation assets and attracting private sector investment to New York airports," according to Beardsley. "This study underscores NYAMA's contention that increased public support for airports and aviation tax reform to improve our competitiveness with neighboring states should be the focus of State leaders and economic development officials to promote the aviation sector as an incredible economic driver for the New York," Beardsley concluded. The "New York State Economic Impacts of Aviation" report and related summaries can be accessed at this Web link: https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/operating/opdm/aviation/benefits2011-07-11http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aircraft Makers Defend Tax Break.htm?m=51&s=340&id=314By Jeremiah McWilliams The manufacturers of business aircraft aren't happy in the spotlight President Barack Obama recently turned on them. During a taut news conference June 29, Obama pointed to corporate jets as an example of a tax break that should be sacrificed in service of the national debt. The hubbub resonates especially loudly in Georgia. Savannah is home to Gulfstream Aerospace, and the state has nearly 7,000 manufacturing jobs in general aviation. That term refers to basically all aircraft not designated for the military or airlines. Georgia's general aviation manufacturing jobs add up to an annual payroll of $445.4 million, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. There are 5,970 active general aviation aircraft based in Georgia and 19,495 pilots in the state, the trade group told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. General aviation manufacturers across the country spend $312.7 million with Georgia suppliers every year. The industry argues that it does not necessarily conform to a "fat cat" generalization. Most business flights carry midlevel staffers rather than chief executives, and many fly into airports without commercial airline access. One of the more common purchases is the Cessna Citation Sovereign, priced at roughly $17.5 million. "People would be very surprised if they knew how many small-turbine and piston powered aircraft are used by businesses every day all across America," said Steve Champness, president of the Atlanta Aero Club."Corporate aircraft give American businesses an advantage over the rest of the world." The recent controversy in Washington centers on the accounting concept called depreciation. When it comes to the rules for depreciating aircraft, critics - apparently including Obama - see a loophole. Corporate jets are depreciated on a shorter schedule than commercial aircraft, giving a tax benefit to the buyers of corporate jets. Industry trade groups admit that they can't establish an exact link between accelerated depreciation and aircraft purchases. It's also unclear how much the "bonus" or "accelerated" depreciation outlined in a federal law last year saved Georgia companies, which are not obligated to report that number in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Here's what we know: Aircraft shipments rose in the fourth quarter of 2010. Various other metrics, such as flight hours and the number of layoffs, started to improve. The general aviation manufacturing industry delivered $7.9 billion worth of airplanes in 2010, with 62 percent of that value tied to exports, according to trade and labor groups. Gulfstream, which employs about 6,000 people in Georgia, referred questions to trade groups. In November, the company announced a $500 million, seven-year expansion project at its Savannah campus. That followed a $400 million project to prepare for the manufacturing of high-end G650 aircraft. Expansions in Savannah "helped accommodate the significant recovery in customer demand in 2010," the company said in a regulatory document. Depreciation 411 Depreciation is an accounting concept designed to match the cost of an asset with its useful life. For tax purposes, accountants use depreciation schedules to determine how much they can deduct for depreciation in a given year. Shorter depreciation schedules can be an incentive for businesses to make big purchases of equipment such as aircraft because the faster pace reduces short-term tax liability, giving companies more cash on hand. Last year, for example, Obama and other politicians lauded sped-up schedules for the purchase of business assets as job-creation measures. Section 401 of last year's Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act allowed owners of corporate aircraft to depreciate the entire investment in newly purchased aircraft in one year instead of five years, the previous standard. Now, general aviation companies worry that not only will that tax provision expire on Dec. 31, but business aircraft will be required to be depreciated on a seven-year schedule, the same schedule used for commercial aircraft. By the numbers A number of big Georgia businesses keep company aircraft in the Atlanta area. Coca-Cola Co. and its various divisions have six aircraft registered in Fulton County. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, that includes two top-of-the-line Gulfstream G550s, which list for $53.5 million. Cox Enterprises, the parent company of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has five aircraft in Fulton County, according to the FAA. Other companies with planes in metro Atlanta include Banc of America Leasing & Capital LLC, Kimberly-Clark, SunTrust Equipment Finance & Leasing Corp. and Waffle House. What comes nextObama is negotiating with Republican leaders over the terms of a measure to raise the federal government's debt ceiling. Elimination of tax breaks such as the corporate aircraft provision could be on the agenda, although details have not been hammered out. For the record The General Aviation Manufacturers Association and the National Business Aviation Association have been generous in their contributions to current lawmakers in both parties, according to an analysis by MapLight, a research organization based in Berkeley, Calif. From 2001 through 2010, the groups gave a combined $245,500 to Republicans and $225,060 to Democrats. What they're saying"If you are a wealthy CEO or hedge fund manager in America right now, your taxes are lower than they have ever been. They are lower than they have been since the 1950s. And they can afford it. You can still ride on your corporate jet. You're just going to have to pay a little more." - President Barack Obama "I'm not sure I think corporate jets are so valuable that they'd need a tax break. We could consider that." - Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee "The president has inexplicably chosen to vilify and mischaracterize business aviation -- an industry that is critical for citizens, companies and communities across the U.S. and one that can play a central role in the economic recovery he says he wants to promote." - Ed Bolen, president and chief executive of the National Business Aviation Association "The administration has a laudable goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years. How then can President Obama attack a manufacturing sector that exported over 60 percent of the value of its products in 2010? General aviation manufacturers can help the president meet his export goals, but not if this damaging rhetoric continues." - Pete Bunce, president and chief executive of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association "What this industry and its workforce requires is more time to recover, a chance to book more orders and the opportunity to recall more workers." - Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers 2011-07-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Industry Set For Fight To Keep Corporate Jet Tax Breaks.htm?m=51&s=340&id=315By ERIC LICHTBLAU WASHINGTON — President Obama used to like corporate jets. As a senator in 2005, he crisscrossed the country in them nine times to attend fund-raisers and other events, reimbursing the corporate jet owners at first-class rates. But Mr. Obama said he soon grew uncomfortable with the high-flying perk in his Senate days and started flying commercial. Now, as the president squares off with Republicans over the debt ceiling, he and fellow Democrats are looking to turn tax breaks for corporate jet owners — and yacht owners, too — into a potent political symbol of a tax system that Democrats say tilts toward the very rich. Mr. Obama and Democratic leaders have made a rollback of tax breaks for corporate jets a frequent talking point in recent days in their efforts to persuade Republicans to agree to raise taxes as well as make spending cuts as part of the budget talks. But the drumbeat from Democrats has set off a counterattack from a small but powerful group of jet manufacturers and users, who have contributed millions of dollars over the years to lawmakers from both parties. The debate is less about dollars and cents than it is about political imagery and a bit of class warfare. Ending special deductions for the depreciation of corporate jets would raise an estimated $3 billion in tax revenues — or, as the jet manufacturers point out, a fraction of one percent of the deficit the country is facing. “The president is vilifying an entire industry,” said Dan Hubbard, a senior vice president for the National Business Aviation Association, which represents 8,000 companies that use private planes. “This is an attempt to score some cheap political points on the back of an industry that employs 1.2 million people.” Jet industry officials, in buttonholing sympathetic lawmakers and organizing an e-mail campaign in the past week to maintain the tax break, are making the case that raising taxes on jet ownership would inevitably cut jet production, endanger jobs and affect ordinary Americans. Mr. Hubbard said it would be the Montana real estate broker, who relies on a plane to travel the state’s vast expanses, or the employee in Schenectady, N.Y., who makes jet upholstery, who would ultimately be harmed, not the jet-setting corporate executive that Democrats have focused on. He said the industry was surprised by Mr. Obama’s focus on private jets — the president mentioned the issue six times in a news conference last week — because it was Mr. Obama who had helped create an expanded deduction last year for the industry as a way of creating jobs. In fighting to hold on to the tax break, the industry has some major backers, with executives from Wal-Mart, J.P. Morgan and many other Fortune 500 companies all flying private jets. Warren E. Buffett, the Omaha investor who leads Berkshire Hathaway, bought a plane-sharing business, now known as NetJets, after using its planes for a number of years. Asked in a CNBC interview on Thursday about tax breaks for corporate jets, Mr. Buffett declined to take a direct position but said that “I don’t really see where a business aircraft is different” from other types of capital investments in how they should be taxed. Political action committees and employees for jet manufacturers and related aviation sectors accounted for more than $6.6 million in political contributions to federal lawmakers in the last decade, according to an analysis by MapLight, a nonprofit group that analyzes campaign finance data. But while Republicans accuse the White House of distorting the fiscal basis of the tax break for jets, they acknowledge that the issue carries a big political wallop in tough economic times. “President Obama and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are obviously using poll-tested rhetoric about only raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires and corporate jets,” said Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona. “That sounds good. They want ordinary Americans to believe they will not be affected by the president’s tax-increase proposals.” Indeed, the embarrassing image of executives from the Big Three automakers flying to Washington in private jets in 2008 to ask for private bailout money looms large in the current debate. Democrats figure that trillion-dollar deficits are a tough concept for Americans to get their arms around. Tax breaks for corporate jet fliers and yacht owners, they say, are much easier. “Yes, believe it or not, Uncle Sam subsidizes the purchase of sprawling, luxurious, 72-foot Viking yachts,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said on the Senate floor in arguing to close what he sees as tax loopholes for jet and yacht owners. “As long as your yacht has a place to sleep and a place to — how shall I put it — relieve yourself, you can classify it as your ‘second home’ and claim the mortgage interest deduction.” The Democrats’ scrutiny of tax breaks for jets, yachts and other luxury items is a calculated strategy meant to force the Republicans to give ground in their demands for big spending cuts in areas like Medicare, said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “This was a very clear symbol of the fact that Republicans are willing to protect big-money interests and loopholes at any cost,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “If Republicans are willing to dig in to protect tax breaks for corporate jets, they’re clearly not serious about deficit reduction.” 2011-07-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Leather Firm Fears Hit From Jet Write-Off Loss.htm?m=51&s=340&id=313JIM McGUIREGazette Reporter One of the few bright spots in what remains of the local leather industry is aviation upholstery, and officials of a Johnstown company that employs more than 100 people finishing leather for business jets are worried that federal tax changes could affect sales of the planes. Shipments of corporate jets from U.S. manufacturers more than doubled in the fourth quarter after President Barack Obama, as part of his stimulus plan, replaced the long-standing five-year tax write-off for corporations with a one-year write-off. So it was a surprise to the National Business Aviation Association, a trade group, when Obama spoke at last week's news conference to single out corporate jet write-offs as one of his targets for elimination, said NBAA spokesman Dan Hubbard, who said it sounded as though the president was vilifying the business jet industry. Corporate jets are not manufactured in Johnstown, but the upholstery leather for a majority of those planes is. "Anything that hurts the industry hurts Townsend Leather," said company Chairman Terry Kucel, who employs about 130 people at the Townsend Avenue plant. In 2008, before the recession took its toll, the plant employed 225. Kucel said he watched Obama's news conference and came away with the impression that the president was engaging in some class warfare rhetoric that may not reflect his actual intentions regarding the jet write-offs. Hubbard said the president's message conveyed the idea that eliminating or modifying the write-off would affect corporate titans but not middle-class employees at hundreds of companies that supply the industry. Actually, Hubbard said, the business jet industry is primarily an American enterprise and one that contributes about $150 billion annually to the U.S. economy while providing employment to about 1.2 million, including the Townsend staff. For many years, Hubbard said, tax laws provided a five-year depreciation write-off on business jets. There is a seven-year depreciation for commercial jets, he said. Last fall, the Obama administration was able to establish a new one-year write-off, which immediately stimulated sales, he said. Despite the president's remarks last week, Hubbard said there is still no direction from the White House regarding the president's intentions.Information circulating since the news conference, Hubbard said, suggests the possibility that Obama now favors imposing the same seven-year depreciation schedule afforded the commercial airline industry. "This is not good for an industry primarily based in the U.S.," Kucel said. Kucel said Townsend is the major upholstery leather supplier to at least seven aircraft manufacturers, including Bombardier/Learjet, Cessna, Gulfstream, Dassault and Boeing's business jet division. If jet purchase incentives are removed or weakened, Kucel said, Townsend will feel some of the pain. "We've been hit pretty hard already," he said, citing the impact of the 2008 recession. Since then, Kucel said, Townsend has made an effort to diversify into new products. As a result, the company may lessen the damage from changes in the jet tax write-off, he said. Still, Kucel said, "it would have a terrible effect on our industry." The NBAA and its members -- which include Townsend -- began a letter writing campaign this week targeting legislators. Townsend Vice President for Sales Geoffrey Peck composed a form letter asking elected officials "to stand with me, and other companies in the state of New York that rely on business aviation, to keep our company competitive and keep jobs in New York state." Peck cited Obama's news conference and the threat to tax depreciation schedules for business aircraft, and said it is "devastating that the president would attack our jobs and vilify an industry that is fundamentally American." Wally Hart, president of the Fulton County Chamber of Commerce, said changes to the national tax policy on jet depreciation "will trickle down to Fulton County." Though the Fulton County Chamber supports Townsend's efforts on this issue, Hart said national policy is decidedly "too far up the food chain" for the local chamber to have much influence. He said Townsend's concerns will be communicated to the national chamber. Statistics provided by the NBAA show that more than 1,300 general aviation aircraft (not including commercial airline and military planes) were shipped last year by U.S. manufacturers, including 364 business jets. In the third quarter of last year, 60 business jets were shipped, compared with 145 in the fourth quarter. More than half the general aviation planes manufactured worldwide in 2010 were made in America. 2011-07-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Corporate Jet Tax Gets Six Obama Mentions, Nicks Deficit.htm?m=51&s=340&id=309By Richard Rubin and Andrew Zajac June 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s proposal to end a tax break for corporate jet owners, a repeated refrain in his news conference yesterday, would achieve less than one-tenth of 1 percent of his target for reducing the federal deficit. Such a change would put $3 billion into the Treasury over a decade, said two congressional aides familiar with the proposal. Democrats want to require companies that use jets for business purposes to write off the cost over seven years, instead of the five years allowed under current law, said a congressional aide and a White House aide. Airplanes used for charter or commercial flights already must be depreciated over seven years. Obama mentioned the corporate jet break six times, criticizing Republicans’ unwillingness to include tax increases in legislation to raise the federal debt ceiling. Republicans are pressing for spending cuts in the measure, which must be passed before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department projects that the U.S. will no longer be able to meet its debt obligations. “It would be hard for the Republicans to stand there and say that the tax break for corporate jets is sufficiently important that we’re not willing to come to the table and get a deal done,” Obama said during the White House news conference. It would take much more than eliminating a break for corporate jets to complete the deal. The $3 billion proposal would generate 0.075 percent of the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that Obama is seeking through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. Stirring Reaction Obama’s comments on jets continued to stir reaction today. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, disparaged Democratic efforts to scale back tax breaks for corporate jets, yachts and charitable contributions by wealthy people. “We get $3 billion out of private planes?” Hatch told reporters. “Over 10 years? Give me a break.” Ending such tax breaks won’t “do anything about the real spending programs that really are driving us into bankruptcy,” he said. Hatch disputed the notion that Republicans would be put at political risk by opposing elimination of the tax breaks as Democrats strive to find revenue to cut the deficit. ‘Cheap Politics’ “We aren’t defending anybody,” he said. “We are saying that it’s cheap politics to selectively pick out people that the Democrats don’t like and then try to punish them by taking away various tax expenditures that may be good in certain cases.” Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland disagreed, telling reporters: “Add them all up, there’s substantial numbers.” “Every billion, of course, is important,” he said. The head of a key business aviation trade group said his members have been unfairly targeted by the president. “We’re obviously very upset that our industry is being singled out for what we view as political purposes,” said Pete Bunce, president of the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The group’s members include subsidiaries of General Electric Co., Boeing Co., and Textron Inc. Bunce noted that Obama was at an Alcoa Inc. plant in Bettendorf, Iowa, on June 28, emphasizing the importance of the company’s products to airplane manufacturers. ‘Scratching Our Heads’ Now, Bunce said, “he’s going after a segment of the aviation industry that uses Alcoa’s products. We’re just scratching our heads.” Obama mentioned corporate jet owners along with oil companies and hedge fund managers as those who should pay more in taxes, setting them in opposition to recipients of college scholarships and medical research grants who could lose benefits under Republican-sponsored budget cuts. Obama had featured provisions affecting those groups in his proposed fiscal 2012 budget; the corporate jet provision wasn’t included. Democrats are trying to probe the limits of Republicans’ insistence on avoiding tax increases, particularly after 33 Senate Republicans voted June 16 to end tax breaks for ethanol production. “It’s only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet owner that has done so well to give up that tax break that no other business enjoys,” Obama said. “I don’t think that’s real radical. I think the majority of Americans agree with that.” Previous Proposals Previous administration proposals to encourage business investment have benefited the aircraft industry. Under the tax law that Congress passed in December 2010, companies purchasing new equipment -- including jets -- can deduct the entire cost of equipment purchases in the first year instead of taking depreciation deductions over time. “It seems to me that the tax policy here is all over the map,” said Gary Horowitz, an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP in McLean, Virginia. Horowitz and other lawyers who advise companies on airline purchases said the proposed change would affect business decisions about when to buy aircraft. The change could cause companies to delay purchases or buy smaller planes than they would have purchased otherwise. The difference in depreciation schedules is a longstanding feature of the tax code. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and that’s been in the code as long as I can remember,” said Harry Ekblom, a partner at Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston. 1986 Overhaul As part of the 1986 overhaul of the tax code, Congress incorporated the depreciation schedules into the new law and gave the Treasury Department the ability to change the “class life” of assets that would “reasonably reflect the anticipated useful life,” according to the law. That portion of the law was scheduled to take effect in 1992. Congress repealed it in 1988, preventing the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service from changing the rules. “The current tax depreciation system is not conducive to economic growth, simplicity or fairness,” Thomas Neubig, who set up the depreciation office at Treasury, said in 2005 congressional testimony. Neubig, who is now at Ernst & Young LLP in Washington, said in his testimony that the current depreciation schedules are largely based on a Treasury Department study of corporate income tax returns from 1959. Neither the five-year nor seven-year schedule reflects the actual economic life of an airplane. “They last decades,” said Dan Hubbard, a spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association in Washington. Shawn Vick, executive vice president of Wichita, Kansas- based Hawker Beechcraft Acquisition Co., said Obama’s proposal “just seems out of step with the stated goals” of promoting job growth and strengthening the economy.2011-06-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Industry Assails Obama For 'Cynical' Call To End Corporate Jet Tax Break.htm?m=51&s=340&id=310General aviation employs 1.2 million Americans and generates $150 billion a year in revenue. President Obama praises it as one of America's industries that still maintains an advantage over other countries' manufacturers. So it disappointed several in the aviation industry when the president on Wednesday held up an obscure tax break for corporate jet owners as an example of why Congress should close tax loopholes as part of any deficit reduction deal. "While such talk may appear to some as good politics, the reality is that it hurts one of the leading manufacturing and exporting industries in the United States," wrote the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in a letter sent to the president. In a lengthy press conference, Obama repeatedly cast the debate over the deficit as a choice between ending tax breaks for jet owners and jeopardizing children's education and safety. "You go talk to your constituents -- the Republican constituents -- and ask them, are they willing to compromise their kids' safety so that some corporate jet owner continues to get a tax break?" Obama said, recalling his discussions with Republicans. Repealing such a tax break would add up to just $3 billion over 10 years, a tiny step toward the $4 trillion over 10 years that Obama and others are calling for in deficit reduction. The kind of tax break Obama criticized was actually granted to corporate jet owners in the Democrats' stimulus package in early 2009. That provision let companies take bigger deductions earlier for depreciation. Several organizations lambasted the president for his rhetoric. "The president has inexplicably chosen to vilify and mischaracterize business aviation -- an industry that is critical for citizens, companies and communities across the U.S., and one that can play a central role in the economic recovery he says he wants to promote," National Business Aviation Association President Ed Bolen said in a statement. He called on Congress to reject the call, describing the current tax structure for jet owners as a "proven formula for incentivizing the purchase of American products." "Equally alarming, the president's disparaging remarks reflect a total lack of understanding -- or a complete disregard -- for general aviation in the U.S.," Bolen said, describing his proposal as "bad policy and cynical politics." Ironically, Obama praised the U.S. aviation industry just minutes after describing its tax treatment as an example of what is wrong with the tax code. "Obviously, the airplane industry is an area where we still have a huge advantage. I want to make sure that we keep it," Obama said, as he called on Boeing, union workers and the National Labor Relations Board to resolve a contentious dispute that's dragged on for weeks. The president also plans to fly in the country's most famous personal jet -- Air Force One -- to get to Democratic National Committee fundraisers in Philadelphia Thursday night. In their letter, the aviation manufacturers and machinists and aerospace workers groups warned that "the rhetoric" could cause economic hardship. They noted that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently visited the aviation industry hub of Wichita, Kansas, and lauded the industry's work. Obama's comments Wednesday underscored the deep divide between Democrats and Republicans as they try to piece together stalled talks over deficit reduction. Republicans want significant spending cuts as a condition for supporting an increase in the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. They oppose tax increases, but Obama and congressional Democrats say revenue has to be on the table. Obama highlighted tax breaks for oil and gas companies as one possibility, but mentioned corporate jet owners no fewer than six times in his opening remarks. He pitched ending their tax breaks as far more palatable than making certain cuts to spending. "If we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil and gas companies that are making hundreds of billions of dollars, then that means we've got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship, that means we've got to stop funding certain grants for medical research, that means that food safety may be compromised, that means that Medicare has to bear a greater part of the burden," Obama said. "Those are the choices we have to make."2011-06-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/Obama's Taxing Corporate Jet Policy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=311By accusing Republicans of favoring corporate jet setters over kids, President Obama drew attention to his own use of similar policies to encourage investment, a reminder of the tension between deficit reduction and economic growth. While critics charge the president with flip-flopping, the story is more complicated. Obama included the tax break, called “accelerated depreciation,” in the 2009 economic-stimulus law to lower the cost of capital investments—including aircraft purchases—for millions of companies. Today, the administration is targeting a tax disparity dating back to 1987 that specifically favors business planes over commercial airliners. “Nine months ago, this president extolled the virtues of shortening depreciation schedules to stimulate jobs,” National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen said in a statement. “Now he seems to want to reverse course and push ahead with punitive treatment for general aviation, an industry that creates jobs, helps companies succeed, and serves communities all around America." Obama's support of the depreciation policy, used by President George W. Bush to stimulate the flagging airline industry after the 9/11 attacks, was originally intended to expire after a year, but the administration extended it for a second year in a bipartisan tax agreement struck in December 2010, citing the need for further economic stimulus. Now, Congress and the administration are focused on a deficit-reduction package that will allow an increase in the debt ceiling. Democrats are demanding a balanced approach that includes revenue increases as well as spending cuts, but Republicans are standing firm against tax hikes. Many economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, worry that overreliance on significant spending cuts could severely reduce economic growth. To gain more revenue, Democratic negotiators and Obama—who mentioned corporate jets six times during his press conference—want to end the special treatment of corporate jets, which depreciate for tax purposes two years faster than commercial aircraft. The reduction in the deficit is relatively small—it would save perhaps $3 billion dollars—but the political value is high: The White House argues that few Americans would support cuts to government programs they consider vital while profitable corporations avoid making a contribution to deficit reduction. However, the proposal does cut against Obama’s efforts to spur business investment. If the corporate jet loophole is closed, big companies won’t be the only ones who feel the pinch. Staff for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are touting a Wichita Business Journal story reporting that union leaders and Carl Brewer, the Democratic mayor of Wichita, Kan., object to Obama's remarks. “General aviation is a crucially important part of our national economy and an economic engine for thousands of communities across the nation, many of which would lose local manufacturing jobs or local business growth if faced with additional tax burdens,” Brewer said.2011-06-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Forum Recognizes Airport's Value.htm?m=51&s=340&id=307Nearly 2,000 people attended the NBAA regional forum at the Westchester County Airport earlier this month, where 130 business aviation vendors were represented.With more than 70,000 corporate and charter flights annually, the Westchester County Airport is a vital asset for the business aviation community.On June 8, the nearly 2,000 representatives of that community converged at the airport for the National Business Aviation Association's regional forum, which highlighted the industry's role in the county's continuing growth.The day-long event, held at Panorama Flight Service at the airport, included 130 vendors and featured a number of industry leaders who spoke on the importance of the Westchester County Airport to business aviation and the importance of business aviation to the county."(Westchester County Airport) is a significant contributor to the success of companies in the region and to the economy of the Northeast," said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen in a statement. "The airport, which is home to 80 businesses and 1,300 direct jobs, has doubled passenger traffic over the past five years and is benefiting Westchester and Fairfield counties with an estimated $600 million in direct and indirect employment."Speaking at the event, Bolen applauded the "No Plane, No Gain" campaign,which is a joint project of the NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association that is designed to promote the importance of business aviation to the general public and to public officials."We help companies compete in a fiercely competitive global marketplace," Bolen said. "If people understand business aviation is necessary, we've got a shot."However, Bolen directed sharp words toward the U.S. Department of Transportation for its stance on the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program.The BARR program was established by Congress in 2000, in response to the 1997 creation of an Aircraft Situation Display to Industry (ASDI) data feed by the FAA. The ASDI is used to display real-time flight tracking data over the Internet for commercial and private jets, with the exception of private jet owners who choose to opt out through the BARR program.The changes to the BARR program, which are scheduled to take effect Aug. 1, limit participation in the program to aircraft owners who have legitimate security concerns regarding data about their jet being available to the public."Some companies are concerned about privacy issues, some companies are concerned about competitiveness issues (and) some are concerned about legitimate security issues," Bolen said. "(All are) reasons to participate in the BARR program. We don't deserve to have our right to privacy taken away from us and we're not going to let it happen."In response to the DOT's move, Bolen said the NBAA, along with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association, would file for an injunction to prevent the changes in the program from taking effect.2011-06-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Jet Industry Takes Off - Will Interest Remain Aloft?.htm?m=51&s=340&id=308Demand for business jets could be flying high once again, as the economy slowly recovers and emerging global markets enter the fray. Can interest remain aloft? Dan Hubbard, senior vice president of communications for the National Business Aviation Association, says after weathering some turbulent times there are reasons to be hopeful. "When the economy slides into a recession, business aviation is one of the first things to follow that in terms of sales dropping way off, hours dropping way off," he explains. "So, predictably, if unfortunately, we have the greatest recession since the Great Depression, and we're tied closely to the economy, the whole industry is going to fall off precipitously, and it did." While business might not be picking up full throttle just yet, Hubbard believes there is reason for "cautious optimism" based on three important industry markers. A look at the first quarter data from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, GAMA, shows that while there was actually a decrease in the jet market, there was an increase in sales of piston airplanes, which are smaller aircraft, seating between one and six passengers, flying at lower altitudes and traveling relatively short distances of 300 to 400 miles. "The reason that gives us cause for optimism is that an uptick in sales in piston airplanes typically is a sign of a broader recovery across the board for all types of airplanes," Hubbard notes. A second positive sign, according to Hubbard, is an increase in flight hours, or hours that a company has an airplane in the air, which is up five to seven percent from this time last year. "Now, that said, they had fallen off by about a total of 35 percent or so. It's been steadily coming back up, but we still have about fifteen percent or so to get back to the big peaks of 2007 and 2008." Hubbard says the third useful metric that industry people look at is the used airplane fleet. "Much like the housing market, if there's a glut of them out there, people don't view it as a good thing," Hubbard says. "That means that a lot of companies have gotten rid of the airplane and because there are so many of them, that'll drive prices down." According to Hubbard, the 2009 and early 2010 used fleet was the largest ever, contributing to an unsettling picture overall. "That fleet is now diminishing," Hubbard says. "It's down quite a bit, which is a good sign, but as that's happening, a lot of airplanes have sold at much lower values than they otherwise would have." Time is Money Hubbard reasons that one explanation for the increase in flight hours is that companies have not have lost sight of the value of a business jet. "Using it optimizes time, efficiency and flexibility and what you're seeing is, for companies who already do own an airplane, they're putting it back into full use again," he says. Doug Oliver, director of corporate communications at Cessna Aircraft Company [TXT  21.70    0.13  (+0.6%)   ], a leading designer and manufacturer of light and mid-size business jets, agrees with Hubbard. "It might sound hokey but I've heard it referred to as a time machine," says Oliver. "It allows people to use their time more wisely because they're connected in flight. Security's better. You can do business on the airplane because you've got your top people with you." Oliver also notes that everyone boarding the aircraft has been pre-screened, another big time saver. "You basically go to the airport and get on and go," he says.2011-06-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Austin Executive Airport Opens, Brings Jobs To Pflugerville.htm?m=51&s=340&id=305By Caitlin Perrone Thursday, 09 June 2011 PFLUGERVILLE - Pflugerville city officials celebrated the prospect of job growth June 8 with the opening of the Austin Executive Airport.Hundreds attended the opening program, ceremony and ribbon cutting, where guests discussed how the airport could create jobs and spur economic development within the surrounding communities. After more than three years of construction, Austin Executive Airport, formerly known as Bird's Nest Airport, is now open at 6012 Aviation Drive, Pflugerville, for corporate and private planes. The old airport was privately purchased and built by Ron Henriksen, who also privately opened the Houston Executive Airport in 2007. Each guest speaker at the program thanked Henriksen for providing Pflugerville and Manor with an engine for economic development. In addition to the aviation jobs that will arise through the airport and other companies, Pflugerville and Manor city officials are looking at the possibility of creating even more jobs through hotels and restaurants. "This is something we have advocated and asked for for a long time,"Travis County Commissioner Ron Davis said. "Not only will the airport provide good paying jobs, but even bigger than that is the spin off for commercial development in this area that we desperately need." Over time, the airport will directly produce between 20 and 50 jobs before the end of this year, Davis said. In the next two years, he said, it will produce between 50 and 80 jobs. Within 10 years, an estimated 645 jobs will be created. The job creation these numbers suggest was seen in Houston after the Houston Executive Airport opened, Henriksen said. Aviation Attorney at Law and pilot Drew Coats said this information was derived by observing other airports throughout the state that are similar to the Austin Executive Airport. Some of those jobs will come from aircraft maintenance, avionic and paint shops, and other aviation businesses the airport is already seeking.Andrew Perry, vice president of development for Austin Executive Airport, announced the airport has already produced 20 jobs, and "we're just going to keep going from there." "All we're going to do is run the airport, runway and sell the fuel, but there's a lot of other aviation-related industries like painting planes, putting interiors in planes, preparing the radios, doing maintenance on the aircraft, all that's going to be done by other companies," Henriksen said. "We're trying to create as many jobs as we can, and this airport's going to help do that." Speakers at the grand opening included state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, Pflugerville Mayor Jeff Coleman, Craig Fuller, CEO of Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association, and Steve Hadley from the National Business Aircraft Association, as well as Perry, Henriksen and Davis.2011-06-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Private Jets Starting To Take Off Again.htm?m=51&s=340&id=306By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY Private jets, largely grounded by the recession, are taking off once again- a sign that businesses may be feeling more confident despite the still shaky economy. Business jet planes are displayed in March at the Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress in Hong Kong.Ads by GoogleF136 JSF Engine JSSI, a company that arranges maintenance for hundreds of corporate aircraft, saw an 11.4% increase in flight hours in the first three months of this year vs. that period last year. In April there was a 7% jump in flying time among its roughly 1,300 customers, compared with April 2010. The findings mirror those of other analysts who say that after a steep decline during the economic downturn, and after a public backlash against corporate excess, private jet travel is making a comeback. Still, it's way off from its peak. "We are not back to late '07, early '08 levels, but we're really off the bottom of where we were," says Lou Seno, president and CEO of JSSI. "In the fall of 2008, following the decline of the financial markets . flying literally fell off the charts, and because of the economy and everything else, it has been slow to recover. But the recovery we're seeing has been encouraging." Industry analyst Brian Foley noted that private flying has been increasing since March 2009, when the departures and landings of business jets had plummeted 35% from their peak in April 2008. It's now down about 10% from that high point, he says. Certain players in the private plane arena, such as charter operators and fuel providers, are doing better than others, Foley says. "Those folk are all seeing some early recovery in the industry," he says."However, aircraft manufacturers, those who make business jets, they're still far from recovery." During the first quarter of the year, shipments of general aviation aircraft dropped 4.6% compared with 2010, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and billings plunged 19.6%.Piston-engine planes, the smallest and least expensive of aircraft, represented the bright spot, with shipments rising 13.3%. Turboprops, however, dipped 6.7%, and business jets plummeted 22%. Many corporate jets were parked during the economic downturn - not just because of corporate financial concerns, but to quell the public outcry sparked when heads of the nation's Big Three automakers arrived in Washington by private plane in 2008 to seek government help for the industry. The memory of that controversial trip has faded, observers say. And businesses are recognizing that private jets are sometimes necessary to drive profits, enabling employees to make multiple meetings in a day or travel in and out of markets with few commercial flights. "It appears that people are getting back to doing business and out using their airplanes for the purpose which [they're] meant to be used," Seno says. "For guys who have to go out and make it happen, the only way to do it is in a corporate airplane, where you can get in and make five stops in one day." But like the stuttering economy, private flying has yet to hit full throttle. "I think business aviation is looking like the broader economy," says Dan Hubbard, spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association. "You're seeing some indications that (give) you reason for cautious optimism, but(there's) a lot of mixed signals." Many fliers are continuing to try to be as efficient as possible, experts say. "They're still doing things intelligently," Seno says. "They put six people on an airplane and see 12 customers in two days. We hear those stories all the time." "I think people were trained to economize in the recent economy, and habits are hard to break," Foley says. "I think it will be awhile before we get back to full use of business jets, but we're definitely moving in the right direction."2011-06-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Mayor Carl Brewer: General aviation helps Kansas soar.htm?m=51&s=340&id=304In an Op-Ed for the  Wichita Eagle, Mayor Carl Brewer outlines the benefits general aviation, including business aviation, provides communities in Kansas.  Mayor Brewer mentions the Wichita aircraft manufacturing industry, which is pivotal in providing thousands of jobs to his residents. The op-ed also highlights the tremendous impact general aviation has throughout Kansas on business development as well as the vital services which rely on it. To read the op-ed in full, click here2011-05-31http://www.noplanenogain-org/Mississippi House Declares May 'GA Appreciation Month'.htm?m=51&s=340&id=302National Aviation Organizations Welcome Proclamation National aviation organizations on Monday welcomed Mississippi House of Representatives' declaration of May as "General Aviation Appreciation Month." General aviation in Mississippi alone generates about $860 million in economic impact annually, supporting over 1,563 jobs. "We commend the Mississippi House of Representatives for recognizing the vital economic impact general aviation has across Mississippi," Selena Shilad, Executive Director of the Alliance for Aviation Across America, commented. "The General aviation industry provides essential services to local businesses, charities, medical organizations, law enforcement, and farmers throughout Mississippi and the entire country. "In Mississippi and across the United States, the business aviation community is a driving force of local businesses, communities and economies. We thank the Mississippi House of Representatives for its recognition of all general aviation, including business aviation, and the impact that this industry has on their communities," said National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen. "Across the United States, the industry provides 1.2 million jobs and $150 billion in economic impact. As a valuable economic tool, this proclamation emphasizes the immense role of this industry and other issues important to business aviation." Henry Ogrodzinski, President of the National Association of State Aviation Officials said, "Local airports are the lifeblood of our communities all across the country. They provide good jobs to millions of hard-working people, and make it possible for local business to expand and access essential services while remaining a part of the community. This proclamation signifies the pivotal value of general aviation in the state of Mississippi. We welcome the signing of this proclamation and look forward in continuing to work with the Mississippi State Legislature, Aeronautics Division Director Thomas M. Booth Jr. and in the future with Governor Barbour. James K. Coyne, President and CEO of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), stated "We applaud the Mississippi House of Representatives for this proclamation recognizing 'General Aviation Appreciation Month.' The proclamation from the Mississippi State Legislature is yet another positive step in highlighting the critical importance of the general aviation industry for our economy and our nation as a whole." "Across the United States, helicopters are utilized to provide lifesaving services to our communities, along with many other vital missions conducted on behalf of the greater good," said Matthew Zuccaro, President of Helicopter Association International (HAI). "We welcome the proclamation by the Mississippi House of Representatives, and look forward to working with them to further highlight the tremendous economic and operational benefits of helicopters and general aviation throughout their state." "Mississippi is home to more than 6,830 pilots and 3,178 general aviation aircraft. With 79 airports across the state, general aviation is a significant engine of economic growth for local communities throughout the state," said AOPA President and CEO Craig L. Fuller. "We appreciate the Mississippi House of Representatives' recognition of the importance of general aviation and the economic benefits it provides their communities, and look forward to working with state and local officials to continue to raise awareness of general aviation." http://aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=bf99f9c4-ae04-43b4-abba-60807b5e8fcd&2011-05-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Aviation Helping in Missouri Tornado Aftermath.htm?m=51&s=340&id=303Business aircraft have supported relief missions to help victims of a recent, devastating tornado in Joplin, MO, where Wayne Adolphsen, owner of Missouri-based aircraft service company Mizzou Aviation says his ramp at the Joplin Regional Airport has been flooded with flights evacuating the wounded and bringing in medical and other supplies for victims.    Adolphsen said he has observed 60 or more medical evacuations from his ramp since the twister hit the night of May 22.   “But they’re still terribly short on medical supplies, blankets, food, even drinking water,” he said, adding that he hopes other NBAA Member companies will have more supplies inbound.  The airport is located about four miles north of downtown Joplin, where the tornado did the greatest damage.   Adolphsen reports seeing a Gulfstream G-IV, a Citation and several other business aircraft arrive in the last two days, each loaded with supplies that he believes were headed for St. John’s Regional Medical Center in the city. “The tornado took out the top two floors of that hospital,” he said. “They had 168 people in there, and they haven’t got them all accounted for yet.” Dr. Jim Riscoe of the medical center said his hospital was “ground zero” for the tornado.   The May 22 tornado in Joplin, population 50,000, was the deadliest single U.S. tornado since modern record-keeping began more than 60 years ago, officials said. As of May 24, the death toll numbered 118 and was expected to increase. 2011-05-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Aviation Industry Are Meeting In Dallas.htm?m=51&s=340&id=298By Matt Joyce Members of the business aviation industry are meeting in Dallas today for discussions and equipment exhibitions. The National Business Aviation Association Regional Forum is expected to draw about 1,000 people to Love Field's Business Jet Center. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen defined "business aviation" as any general aviation aircraft used for business purposes. The industry does not include scheduled airlines or military aviation. "A lot of people think of Fortune 500 companies," Bolen said. "In reality, however, 85 percent of the companies in the United States that use an airplane for a business purpose are small and mid-sized companies." Like the airlines and auto industry, business aviation suffered during the economic recession of late 2008 and 2009, Bolen said. "The economic impact on business aviation was devastating," Bolen said. "We're beginning to see some stabilization and a return to some incremental growth. We think it will be a while before we get back to 2007 and 2008 levels." Dallas is a hub of business aviation activity because of its large business community, multiple airports and flight training facilities. The industry accounts for about $4.3 billion in annual economic activity in North Texas, according to the NBAA.2011-04-14http://www.noplanenogain-org/Private Jets Help Boost Local Economy During Masters Week.htm?m=51&s=340&id=299News 12 at 11 o'clock / Saturday, April 9, 2011 AUGUSTA---News 12 boarded a Hawker 400 this morning and departed Augusta Regional bound for Columbia. Eli Flint works for Flight Options, LLC, which owns the luxury jet along with 100 others. He showed News 12 all the amenities private jets have to offer. After touching back down in Augusta, Flint explained that these jets aren't just toys for millionaires. "It's a lot of people that are just out there working. The airplanes typically have sales teams on them, attorneys, entertainers, athletes, people that are going somewhere to do something--to generate some value in the economy," he said. With the Masters this week, Augusta Regional has been bogged down with arriving and departing private jets carrying people here for business, but most are here for obvious reasons--enjoying some golf. "We've been having several problems with ground stops over the last few days when we actually ran out of parking places," said William Thompson, the Director of Aircraft Services at Augusta Regional Airport. "It's a lot of business that goes on. We do about 10% of our annual revenue during this one week," he told News 12. Flint says that's exactly why you should care. "The city will receive a flowage fee, they're going to collect ramp fees, the fixed base operator here will make a nice profit on the fuel, the limousine companies, the catering companies, the hotels, where the flight crews will stay, the guests will stay--it's a huge economic impact," Flint said. It's an economic impact that is being felt even more in Augusta this year. "We've doubled our flights into Augusta from 2009," said Flint "And we're up about 50% over 2010 for just private flights into Augusta this week." To watch the video, click here.2011-04-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/CNN Highlights Business Aviation Flights to Support Veterans.htm?m=51&s=340&id=297The heartwarming report features Gunnery Sgt. Marcus Wilson, who barely survived the detonation of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Iraq and today maneuvers with the help of a prosthetic leg. When interviewed, Sgt. Wilson had just been flown from Oklahoma to Virginia in a Cessna Citation owned by NBAA Member the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma and flown by chief pilot Quentin McLarry. Thanks to that lift, the disabled veteran was able to spend Spring break with his children in Virginia. “They’re [the companies and individuals who donate the flights] are really selfless,” Wilson tells the CNN audience. “They don’t ask anything of you except to be there when you’re ready to leave. They are greatly, greatly appreciated.” Walter Fricke, executive director of the all-volunteer Veterans Airlift Command (VAC), explains on camera that VAC coordinates some 1,800 pilots and aircraft owners nationwide who provide the no-cost transportation for wounded and disabled veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. As the three-plus minute CNN report closes, Choctaw Nation Chief Pilot McLarry is shown standing in front of his Cessna Citation telling viewers, “it’s a way we can show our appreciation. This is nothing, compared to what they’ve done for us. I’m honored to be a part of it.” To watch this video, please click here2011-03-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/LaHood Calls Wichita 'Epicenter.htm?m=51&s=340&id=293U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood referred to Wichita and its aviation work force as the "epicenter" of general aviation during a recent visit.  Recognizing the importance of the general aviation industry, he told the crowd that he would encourage President Obama to visit Wichita next year."I will do everything I can when I get back to Washington to persuade President Obama to come out and thank you for all that you're doing to make America continue to be the great country it is because of these (products) manufactured by American workers," he said. "It doesn't get any better than that." For the full article click here. 2011-03-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/GA Bands Together At Cessna Rally.htm?m=51&s=340&id=291There was an interesting sight at Cessna Aircraft Co. on Monday. Aircraft made by Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft Corp. and Bombardier Learjet were all on display in the same hangar at Cessna’s southwest Wichita plant. But the reason the planes were there made the sight symbolic. Leaders and workers from each company gathered alongside elected officials at an aviation rally coordinated by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The guest of honor was U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who last month wrote a blog post in which he praised general aviation and its positive economic impact. On Monday, LaHood got to see the industry firsthand, and the industry got to show itself off to a member of the Obama Administration. That was the whole purpose behind the rally, and the reason Wichita was chosen as its host, GAMA President Pete Bunce told the WBJ last week. And if LaHood has his way, his boss will make the same trip soon. “I intend to do everything I can when I get back to Washington to persuade President Obama to come out here and thank you for all you do,” LaHood said. The ‘you’ was an estimated crowd of 2,000 people, many of whom had been bused in from other aircraft companies. LaHood referenced Obama’s most recent State of the Union address in which the president challenged America to out-innovate and out-build the rest of the rest of the world in order to help speed along economic recovery and remain competitive in the 21st Century. And, LaHood said, general aviation is an industry that can lead the way because it builds the tools that other businesses need to expand and create jobs not just in America, but around the world. “You will be one of the leaders in helping the global economy pick up,” he said. “You out-innovate. You out-build.” LaHood said the proof is in the numbers: general aviation contributes $150 billion to the U.S. economy and employs 1.3 million people. “And even in a down cycle, you still generated $4.9 billion in 2010 export revenues for the United States,” he said. “That’s extraordinary. The economic crisis of the past several years has presented no small challenges. But make no mistake: What Wilbur Wright called ‘the infinite highway of the air’ will always be an American space.” LaHood’s fellow speakers at Monday’s rally included Gov. Sam Brownback; Sen. Jerry Moran; Fourth District Congressman Mike Pompeo; and Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer. Each of the elected officials vowed to continue promoting the industry and its economic benefits to all who will listen. And the message they’ll carry will come from the company leaders they shared the stage with Monday, including Bill Brown, executive vice president of global operations at Hawker; David Coleal, vice president and general manager at Bombardier; and Cessna CEO Jack Pelton. And while each praised the help government has already provided, Pelton said it will be creating an environment of laws and regulations that promote manufacturing that will make the sky the limit for general aviation’s future. “If government gets out of our way and supports us, there’s no telling how big we can get,” he said.2011-03-22http://www.noplanenogain-org/LaHood Promises Kansas Workers He'll Back Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=294By ROXANA HEGEMAN WICHITA, Kan. - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told general aviation workers in Kansas on Monday that he's ready to fight to boost the prospects of their business, soothing resentment that's simmered since some in Washington made private airplanes a symbol of corporate greed during the depths of the Great Recession. More than 2,000 workers from several aviation companies turned out for a rally at an aircraft hangar to mark LaHood's visit to the city, cheering wildly when the former Republican congressman from Illinois said he would persuade President Barack Obama to come to Wichita to thank them. The city is home to several private aircraft makers, including Cessna Aircraft, Hawker Beechcraft, Bombardier, as well as dozens of suppliers. "We get it," LaHood said. "Your industry supports 1.2 million jobs across America. It contributes more than $150 billion to the nation's economy." Cessna Aircraft CEO Jack Pelton said after the event that LaHood privately told industry executives earlier in the day that he would go back to Washington as their advocate. "You couldn't ask for a better outcome," Pelton said. LaHood, the nation's top federal transportation official, heads back to Washington with a wish list of requests from Pelton and the other executives. They include boosting the FAA's support of the industry in certification of new aircraft and streamlining the regulations that govern the export of private aircraft. Pelton said the general aviation industry has suffered in the two years since auto executives "got bashed in Congress" for flying private jets from Detroit to Washington, where they pleaded for billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts. In January 2010, Obama also chastised Citigroup Inc. for buying a corporate jet when it was getting bailout money, prompting the New York-based bank to cancel the purchase of the French-built jet it had ordered before the economic crisis unfolded. Thousands of Wichita aircraft workers have lost their jobs in the past few years as companies canceled aircraft orders amid uncertainty in the economy. But LaHood told the Wichita workers their efforts are essential to meeting Obama's goal of doubling exports from the U.S. during the next five years. "I am proud to stand with you, to work with you and to fight with you to make sure that general aviation ... continues to flourish as the economy picks up," he said. "You will be one of the leaders in helping the global economy pick up." More than 40 percent of the world's general aviation aircraft are assembled in Wichita, said Bill Brown, executive vice president for global operations for Hawker Beechcraft. David Coleal, the general manager of Bombardier's Learjet product line in Wichita, told the workers that "no other industry, city or group of individuals is more prepared to accept this challenge." The general aviation accounts for more than $7 billion of the state's annual economic output and roughly 58 percent of Wichita's manufacturing industry. "Success of general aviation is success for all of Kansas," U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran told workers.2011-03-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Mass exodus - Proposed tax could leave Danbury Airport a .htm?m=51&s=340&id=290By Dirk Perrefort, Staff Writer DANBURY -- A mass exodus of the aviation industry resulting from a state tax on airplanes could leave Danbury Airport a "ghost town," according to the facility's administrator. Industry officials said businesses would shut their doors, thousands could lose their jobs, and state revenue would actually decrease if the proposed tax becomes law. The tax, about two percent on a plane's assessed value, was proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to provide additional revenue to cities in the state. "The result would be so devastating to us to the point that we probably couldn't operate," said Wayne Toher, president of Reliant Air at Danbury Airport. "Just the two of our most expensive planes ... would cost us $120,000 a year in taxes." He added the New York businessmen who own several planes Reliant manages and maintains would likely move their planes to New York airports, where they wouldn't have to pay a property tax. The jet the company manages for New York food magnate Eli Zabar is worth $8 million, he said, and would incur an annual tax of about $180,000 if the tax is approved. "That would buy a lot of gas he if moved the plane to Westchester," Toher said. Paul Estefan, airport administrator, said, "This place is going to be a ghost town" if the tax is implemented. "We are going to lose planes and we are going to lose jobs," he said. "We are going to lose." And Danbury isn't alone. According to Dean Saucier, regional representative for the National Business Aviation Association, a recent poll of the organization's members showed 93 percent would move their planes to a neighboring state because of the tax. In addition to the planes, Connecticut would lose some three million gallons of aviation fuel sold here each year, as well as the jobs of thousands of people who operate and maintain the aircraft. "There could be a substantial amount of businesses that would close," Saucier said. "Aviation is a huge industry in the state, providing more than $24 billion in economic benefits and employing more than 45,000 people." Not only would the property tax have dire effects, he said, but a proposal to charge sales tax on the labor performed on aircraft could also have a devastating impact. "I've flown my single-engine plane to North Carolina in the past for engine work, because it was cheaper," Saucier said. "We have people flying corporate jets into Bradley to have them worked on. People are bringing aircraft into the state from as far as Dallas and Denver to be repaired. All that would go away." The state had a tax on planes until 1991, when the levy was repealed through the efforts of several local officials. including Estefan and former U.S. Rep. James Maloney, who was a state lawmaker at the time. "The reason it was repealed is because surrounding states didn't have the tax, so there was a disincentive to keep aircraft in Connecticut," Maloney said. "That meant less fuel sales, less tax revenue, and less passenger traffic. Removing the tax encouraged planes and services to come back to the state." Saucier noted that none of the states surrounding Connecticut currently charges a property tax on planes, and "there isn't one airport in the state that isn't within a hour's drive to an airport outside of Connecticut." State Sen. Andrew Roraback, a Republican and ranking member of the Legislature's finance committee, said, "We are at risk of cutting off our nose to spite our face" with the proposed tax. "We need to be very careful here," Roraback said. "I take the governor at his word that jobs are the No. 1 priority. That's why we have to examine all of the proposed tax increases keeping a close eye on the consequences." The finance committee will hold a public hearing on the proposed tax Monday. Several area officials are expected to attend. "I think Monday should be very interesting," Roraback said. "Stay tuned." Contact Dirk Perrefortat dperrefort@newstimes.com or at 203-731-3358. 2011-03-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business aviation takes off .htm?m=51&s=340&id=288 More corporate executives, engineers, and salespeople flew in and out of Hanscom last year, with takeoffs and landings of business jets up 7 percent compared with 2009, mirroring modest improvements elsewhere in the economy. “We’re a barometer for what’s going on in the regional economy,’’ said Barbara Patzner, Hanscom Field airport director. The field, built by the US Army Air Corps before World War II, houses 79 business jets, along with 11 helicopters and 266 single-engine, twin-engine, and turboprop planes. Hanscom Air Force Base, now a research and development facility, is also there. Business aviation is on the rise around the country, with the number of trips up about 10 percent last year, following a dismal 2009 in which operations fell by almost a third. Business travel on commercial airlines is also increasing, with business-class spending up 60 percent in the third quarter, according to American Express Business Insights, the analytics arm of the credit card company. E-Dialog is among the local companies using Hanscom more often these days. Executives from the Burlington-based e-mail service provider chartered four trips out of Hanscom last year, double the number they went on in 2009, as revenues rebounded. “There’s nothing like a face-to-face meeting,’’ said Arthur Sweetser, chief marketing officer for e-Dialog. “There’s just an urgency that requires us to be present to show that we’re resolved to fixing a problem’’ for a client. The cost to hire a private jet is comparable to what e-Dialog would pay for commercial airline trips for its executives, but the time saved, Sweetser said, “hands down’’ makes charters a more efficient mode of travel. E-Dialog flies on Linear Air of Concord, which has four Eclipse 500 jets at Hanscom. Linear Air’s traffic fell by half in 2009 as companies “hunkered down’’ and the Eclipse manufacturer went into bankruptcy, said Bill Herp, Linear president. Last year, business doubled, Herp said, and he expects 2011 to be even better as more clients turn to the smaller, less expensive jets his company flies. Linear’s four-passenger jets, known as “very light jets,’’ cost companies about $1,500 an hour to charter, compared to around $5,000 an hour for a 10-passenger jet at Hanscom. Business is also up at Rectrix Aviation Inc. of Hyannis — by about 15 percent — and it just opened a spacious office at Hanscom. The charter company also added a new jet to its Hanscom fleet in September and hired three additional pilots. But with memories of the recession still fresh, clients are adopting a more frugal approach to business travel, said Richard Cawley, Rectrix president. They’re making multiple stops with a single charter, instead of flying back to Hanscom between meetings, he said, and are filling planes with more executives and salespeople since it doesn’t cost more to add passengers. “They’re trying to accomplish a lot more on each trip,’’ Cawley said. “A lot of our customers, I would say they’re midsize businesses, so it’s very important for them to watch their dollars.’’ Business jet travel has become more crucial for companies in the past year because of all the airline cutbacks during the recession, said Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association. With limited or no commercial service in some communities, private jets are often the most convenient — and sometimes the only — way for companies to get to a location. But that doesn’t mean the public considers them practical. Already seen as a sign of corporate excess, business aviation was the source of great outrage in late 2008 when the heads of GM, Ford, and Chrysler showed up in corporate jets to ask Congress for a $25 billion bailout. And there’s no denying the first-class accommodations on corporate jets. On a $35 million Gulfstream G450, business executives can conduct meetings in leather seats at a shiny conference table, wine glasses hang upside down in a kitchenette, couches fold out into beds, and the bathroom is stocked with Aveda toiletries. But jet operators say many of their clients are midlevel managers from midlevel companies. “I think there’s a sense that it’s a luxury, that it’s not a necessity, that it’s rock stars and fat cats that are flying around on these private jets,’’ said Herp. “Our clients are not fat cats and rock stars, they’re three business people flying to Elmira, N.Y., to close a deal.’’ Regardless, many companies are reluctant to talk about their jet travel. Liberty Mutual Group declined to discuss the aircraft it owns at Hanscom; the Kraft Group, EMC Corp., and Raytheon Co. did not return phone calls about the planes they keep there. There are nearly a third more jets housed at Hanscom than just three years ago, and the air field is approaching capacity. “We have a waiting list of aircraft that want to come into Hanscom,’’ said Thomas Kinton, executive director of Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Hanscom. Massport is planning to turn a ramp area into as much as 400,000 square feet of new hangar space and convert an empty 18,000-square-foot-hangar used for early aeronautical research into a facility three times its size to accommodate more jets, including bigger aircraft that can fly nonstop to China. But local preservation groups have filed a lawsuit appealing the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of the plan, saying the historic hangar should be preserved and the increased air traffic activity will adversely affect the area, namely the nearby Minute Man National Historical Park and Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com. 2011-01-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Industry Sees Slow BizAv Improvement in 2011.htm?m=51&s=340&id=286The industry is entering the New Year more upbeat than a year ago, as economic indicators and anecdotal evidence suggests a slowly improving environment, says National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen. He believes there are numerous reasons for a more optimistic outlook, including “more solid and positive” macro-economic indicators. He also pointed to the passage of new tax incentives that would permit 100% depreciation of aircraft through 2012. Both Bolen and General Aviation Manufacturers Association President and CEO Pete Bunce were encouraged by the tax bill signed into law Dec. 17, with Bunce saying it would provide a “late-in-the-year shot in the arm” (BA, Dec. 20/2). But just as encouraging, Bolen says, has been anecdotal evidence in the fourth quarter of an improving business aviation market. A cautious optimism prevailed during NBAA’s Annual Meeting and Convention in October, marking a significant turnaround from the 2009 event. The industry showed it was looking forward, says Bolen, adding, “all the empirical data since then has only reinforced that [optimism].” Anecdotally, charter operators have said they have seen an increase in their business, and some of the major manufacturers are seeing a slight uptick in interest in their small- to medium-sized models, which have struggled during the downturn. Another key driver, Bolen believes, has been the shift in public perception to a more positive view of the industry. “It has been enormously important,” he says, noting that campaigns such as No Plane No Gain have had an impact. The industry stepped up to this program, and many have folded it into their marketing materials, Bolen notes. While conceding that the economy had taken a toll on NBAA— forcing the association to shrink its staff and cut costs—nearly one-quarter of all association members voluntarily paid a significant percentage over their annual dues to fund the “No Plane No Gain” advocacy and educational program. But Bolen believes the “No Plane No Gain” campaign will be just as important in 2011 as it has been in its nearly first two years. A new Congress is bringing nearly 100 new lawmakers to Washington, underscoring the importance of education, he says. Also, Congress must still pass a long-term FAA reauthorization bill, since only a record 17th short-term extension of the bill was passed in the lame-duck session. A series of extensions has been needed because Congress has repeatedly been unable to pass a full, multi-year FAA reauthorization. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the incoming chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has committed to making passage of a long-term bill a priority next year. Another issue still looming is the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) proposed Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP). First introduced in early 2009, LASP was widely panned by business aviation. But TSA has promised to issue a new proposal. During the NBAA convention, TSA Chief John Pistole said he had hoped to come to the show with a revamped proposal. “The stark reality is we’re not quite there yet,” he said, adding that a proposal might not be ready until spring 2011.2011-01-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/State boasts gains in economic development.htm?m=51&s=340&id=287ATLANTA-The Georgia Department of Economic Development announced that jobs increased by 14 percent and investment by 20 percent in the state during 2010. New and expanding companies created more than 20,000 jobs and invested $4.1 billion in Georgia during 2010. Entertainment and tourism also made strong showings."This kind of success only happens as the result of great teamwork by our GDEcD staff and partners," said Heidi Green, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. "We have good, positive momentum going into the new year."Georgia's economic development successes in 2010 ran the gamut of the state's diverse industry sectors and geographical regions. Among them were:1. The allure of alternative energyGeorgia's competitive assets for the energy sector attracted the attention of global energy leaders. Solar energy companies lit up the landscape in Dublin and Atlanta. MAGE SOLAR chose Dublin for its North American headquarters and a manufacturing facility, creating 350 jobs and investing $30 million. Enfinity Corporation of Belgium, the world's largest developer of solar photovoltaic (PV) solutions, put its Americas headquarters in Atlanta in March.2. Center of pop cultureThe state's entertainment industry exploded this past year, thanks to the 2008 Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act. The economic impact of production activity increased 440 percent between fiscal years 2007 and 2010, surging to $1.4 billion. Georgia's business climate for the entertainment industry created tremendous opportunities for the state's 25,000 workers in the business.In 2010, several film and television studio facilities announced they would open their doors in Georgia, a commitment to the long-term promise of the state's production environment. Among them were EUE/Screen Gems, which bought the former Lakewood Fairgrounds site near Atlanta and undertook a multimillion-dollar renovation of the studio complex. Raleigh Studios, the largest provider of stage space in the world, put down roots in Senoia in Coweta County. Savannah's Meddin Studios opened a digital production facility and is already planning an expansion. Also, Panavision, a world-renowned name in the design, manufacture and rental of camera systems, announced it will open an Atlanta location in early 2011.Four Georgia-made TV pilots have gone on to become series: "The Walking Dead," "Teen Wolf," "Single Ladies" and "Auction Kings". Other Georgia-lensed successes include the top-ranked shows on their respective networks: "Vampire Diaries," "Drop Dead Diva" and "The Walking Dead."Georgia also launched "Camera Ready", a designation to streamline access by film and television production companies to local resources and information in the state's 159 counties. In 2010, more than 50 Georgia counties hosted a film, TV or commercial production. Sixteen of them were tapped for this designation in the first phase of the program's implementation.3. World travel destinationIn 2010, Georgia ranked as the second fastest growing U.S. destination for international travelers. These travelers stay longer and spend more, whose expenditures resonate throughout the state's economy. Georgia offers them the authentic Southern experiences they seek, such as the state's commemoration of 150 years of Civil War history. Every $1 million spent by international visitors creates 11.5 new jobs and generates $33,143 in payroll and $123,588 in state taxes.As domestic tourism has suffered, Georgia has aggressively targeted consumers, tour operators and media in emerging international markets including China and Brazil, already two of the South's top 10 international markets. The number of visitors from China to the U.S. grew 55 percent in 2009 and another 40 percent this year. Four of China's largest tour operators are now marketing Georgia.The state also stepped up its efforts in South America, especially Brazil, predicted to become one of the top five countries for inbound travel to the United States by 2015. One of the largest tour operators in Brazil carries information about only two southern states, and one of them is Georgia.4. Aerospace on the wingGeorgia's energetic marketing of its aerospace assets attracted more jobs and investment. In November, Gulfstream Aerospace announced yet another expansion, increasing its Savannah workforce by 15 percent in a $500 million investment. Gov. Sonny Perdue's mission to the Farnborough Airshow and the National Business Aviation Association's Atlanta convention heralded Georgia's assets for the industry, among them the nation's most productive aerospace workforce and top-ranked academic programs.5. Trading upGeorgia's International Trade office reported a 10 percent increase in the trade deals helped companies close. The group facilitated 248 deals during the 2010 calendar year, up from 225 in 2009. The state undertook seven gubernatorial missions this past year to grow its trade and business relationships, including a historic mission in July to Cuba. The International Trade team also ensured Georgia was front and center at international trade shows in Germany, Mexico, Korea, Chile, Israel, Cuba and other shows in its strategic markets. The outlook for exports in Georgia remains positive, thanks in large part to the state's ports, the fourth-largest and fastest-growing in the U.S.2011-01-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/Forecast International report says business jet sales 'not yet in recovery' .htm?m=51&s=340&id=285A study released last week by Forecast International projects that the decline in business jet production, which began in 2008, will continue through 2011. Looking ahead, "The Market for Business Jet Aircraft," predicts a total of 11,437 business jets with an estimated value of $217.5 billion will be produced from 2010 through 2019."The business jet market is not yet in recovery, but the worst of the market downturn is over," said Raymond Jaworowski, senior aerospace analyst at U.S.-based Forecast International. "Order intake remains sluggish, but the massive wave of order cancellations and delivery deferrals experienced in late 2008 and much of 2009 has receded. The market is no longer in freefall."According to the company, slack demand from fractional programs, which fueled a significant percentage of sales before the downturn, is a major factor behind the downturn in orders. "The focus of many fractional providers is on improving operations, reducing costs, and consolidating aircraft fleets," Jaworowski said.2010-12-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA's Bolen marks 'No Plane, No Gain' second anniversary.htm?m=51&s=340&id=284National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO Ed Bolen Dec. 6 reported on the progress of the "No Plane, No Gain" campaign-an effort jointly sponsored with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). "No Plane, No Gain" was started in February 2009 with the goal of asserting business aviation's vital role in creating more than 1.2 million U.S. jobs, providing services to small and mid-sized communities (many of which lost airline service in the recession), boosting productivity, and carrying out humanitarian missions.Bolen recalled how the Nov. 19, 2008, trips by auto executives to Washington, D.C., damaged business aviation's image, and how NBAA responded by taking out cable television and print ads to advocate general aviation's usefulness to the American economy. This, after previous efforts-with AOPA having a central role-fighting an airline-led effort to shift taxes and impose user fees on GA during the FAA reauthorization debates from 2006 to 2008. However, Bolen said, print and media ads aren't enough these days, so the "No Plane, No Gain" website was created to serve as a tool for the entire business flying community to use in advancing the cause.The website has a number of useful features in its "toolkit" drop-down menu. These inform owners and operators about the advantages of maintaining accurate flight records, and creating plans for both internal and external communications strategies designed to emphasize the economics and benefits of operating business aircraft.The association also has released the "2010 NBAA Business Aviation Fact Book", which presents the value of business aviation."There is a lot of bad information out there, and so we conducted surveys that turned up some surprisingly effective results," Bolen said. "For example, contrary to the image of business aviation as predominantly involving the use of large-cabin business jets to ferry CEOs of large corporations, we learned that small and medium-sized companies fly business aircraft the most. And a study of Standard & Poor's 500 companies revealed that those who use business aviation far outperform those who don't."As a result of the "No Plane, No Gain" ad campaigns, Bolen said that lawmakers and opinion-shapers have turned a corner. Those who once were opposed to the idea of business aviation, or were neutral to the idea, are now supportive. "And if lawmakers see business aviation as essential, then they'll be willing to help in our effort," he said.2010-12-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/New study: Delayed recovery for business jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=282The turbulent economy continues to challenge business aviation, an industry that employs more than a million people, and contributes $150 billion to the economy.   For the full story, visit: http://blogs.kansas.com/aviation/2010/12/06/new-study-delayed-recovery-for-business-jets/2010-12-06http://www.noplanenogain-org/Industry Sees Slow BizAv Improvement in 2011.htm?m=51&s=340&id=283Today at 1:30 EST, Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA),will hold a webinar reporting on the progress of the “No Plane, No Gain” campaign two years in.What’s cool about this year’s presentation is that will be live and interactive, allowing those who can’t attend the life briefing to still be involved in the event.  “It’s a big thing with this webinar to give people the chance to ask questions directly to Ed,” says Jo D’Amato, NBAA’s director of operations and educational development.  “People can type their questions and get them into the queue. We can get them answers, time permitting.  If we were just broadcasting the webinar, there’d be no chance to ask questions.”Back when “No Plane, No Gain” was launched in February 2009, NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association agreed that it would regularly report on the campaign’s progress, says NBAA spokesman Dan Hubbard.  “We also said we’d let people know how they can be involved in the process.  We’ve been doing that, and this live webinar is a follow-on,” he says.The webinar, which will use the Microsoft Live platform, has audio/visual capabilities, along with the ability to add a series of videos and PowerPoint presentations with a lot of graphics, says D’Amato.  “The elements to create it are not unlike the planning we do for live presentations at our conferences and convention,” she explains.  NBAA is working with long-time vendor Peach New Media out of Atlanta to help with the webinar, she adds.During the webinar, Bolen will outline the campaign's major activities and accomplishments since the launch of the program. He’ll also brief listeners on the nationally recognized spokespeople recruited for the campaign, including astronaut Neil Armstrong, financier Warren Buffett and golfer Arnold Palmer.Bolen will also highlight major print and broadcast advertising, outreach to news organizations, use of social media (i.e., Twitter, Facebook), grass roots mobilization and other advocacy initiatives that have helped deliver the campaign's message about the benefits of business aviation.“When we launched the No Plane No Gain campaign, we committed to keep the industry advised about our work correct misperception about business aviation, and ensure that decision-makers in Washington and elsewhere understand the industry's benefits to the nation's economy and transportation system,” Bolen said. “I look forward to this webinar, which will provide yet another opportunity for me to discuss the campaign with people in the business aviation community, and hear their feedback.”You can join the webinar by visiting www.nbaa.org/webinars/noplanenogain.2010-12-06http://www.noplanenogain-org/Panel: General aviation needs grassroots boost.htm?m=51&s=340&id=279GAMA's Pete Bunce and NBAA's Ed Bolen highlight the essential nature of business aviation in remarks before a Summit of the Wichita Aero Club."We have a really good story to tell about who we are if we can get it out there," Bolen said.Click below for the full story: http://www.kansas.com/2010/12/01/1612750/l-general-aviation-needs-grassroots.html2010-12-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/VIDEO: Wichita Aero Club Hosts .htm?m=51&s=340&id=280The major issues affecting Wichita's aviation industry are the focus of an "On-Air Summit" Tuesday. The summit brought together leaders of several of the major trade associations for general and business aviation. The issues of the day impacting Wichita's leading industry are discussed by the very leaders whose jobs include going over and even trying to guide aviation policies coming out of Washington, D.C. "People are saying, 'Gosh, when is the economy going to turnaround?" That, no doubt, is the leading question on the minds of those in aviation, particularly here in the air capital. It's one of the many issues discussed by the heads of 5 major aviation trade associations at the Second Annual Wichita Aero Club "On Air Summit." General Aviation Manufacturers Association President Pete Bunce said, "We know the top end of the market's already turned around. When does the bottom end of the market turn around? We should have seen that recovery already in the piston market, and we have not seen that yet." GAMA's Pete Bunce says in the past, recoveries in piston plane sales preceded recovery in the business jet market. The fact that piston sales are still low, is troubling. "We're not seeing the type of robust recovery that we've seen after previous recessions." As the thousands of laid off aviators in Wichita can attest to, this is a stubborn downturn. "It's much further delayed than what we originally anticipated in a normal economic model. Until the economy gets healthy as a whole, general aviation isn't going to get healthy?" But the reality is in a much bigger picture. The health of general aviation is largely tied to the economy. And, Salina native Ed Bolen says the economy of late has only grown at about a 2% annual rate. Bolen says it needs to grow at least a 3% rate to stimulate more plane sales. Several other aviation issues were also discussed including the need to get more people to become pilots. The nation will be facing a severe pilot shortage if their numbers don't increase soon. 2010-11-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aero Club panel stresses unity, activism.htm?m=51&s=340&id=281A panel of representatives from five aviation associations on Tuesday said cooperation and activism are keys to solving many of the industry's short- and long-term problems.The panelists spoke at the Wichita Aero Club's final luncheon of 2010 as part of the organization's 2nd Annual On-Air Summit.The speakers included Ed Bolen, CEO of the National Business Aviation Association; Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association; Tom Poberezny and Rod Hightower, CEO and president, respectively, of the Experimental Aircraft Association; Henry Ogrodzinski, head of the National Association of State Aviation Organizations; and Andrew Broom, vice president of communications for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.The discussion, which was moderated by Fred George, Senior Editor of BUSINESS & COMMERCIAL AVIATION Magazine, centered around the topics of politics, prospects and pilots.And throughout the event, each representative stressed that problems must be faced together, with everyone in the industry doing his or her part to promote aviation."We've got a really good story to tell," Bolen said. "I think telling that story well, telling it often and enlisting others as part of that is really fundamental to our success."On the issue of training new pilots, Broom said AOPA is working to find best-practices from flight schools all over the country to try to share them with the industry as a whole.But there will have to be an interest among young people in flying for there to be prospective pilots to teach. Hightower, from EAA, said that interest can be fostered by everyone in the industry.He advised people to share what first inspired them about the industry with others."Whatever inspired each of us is still available," he said. "Our industry speaks to itself a lot. We have to invite the public in."The group also touched on regulatory and emissions issues, with the consensus being that the industry will have to move away from leaded fuels in the future. However, how and when that can be done will have to make sense for every aircraft in the sky, not just the new ones rolling off the production line.They also said they expect a difficult legislative environment next year, with the federal government looking to find new revenue.That means, Bolen said, the issue of user fees - which the industry has fought off for the past several years - is likely to come back up.The panelists also expect 2011 to remain tough for aircraft sales.Although the top-end of the market has improved, the lingering credit crunch has had an adverse affect on the bottom-half, where buyers are more likely to need help financing their planes.Bunce, of GAMA, said he expects sales to pick up near the end of 2011 and into 2012.Regardless of the issues at hand, Bolen said, the industry can't try to hide out and hope for the best. It has to continue advocating for itself through programs such as No Plane, No Gain and spreading the word that aviation is good for America, he said."NBAA, GAMA and all our associations at the national level, it's our responsibility to help define the debate, to provide the talking points,"Bolen said. "But the success or failure of those programs is going to largely depend on whether our community embraces them. At the end of the day, we're five or six people, representing five or six associations, operating out of a single location. The power of our community is in every congressional district, every media market and every community across the United States. Real people, good people, doing great things with airplanes."2010-11-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/Waiting for Takeoff.htm?m=51&s=340&id=278TRANSPORTATION: Lindbergh Field Gears Up to Support Corporate AircraftSan Diego International Airport is in the midst of extensive renovations to boost commercial air traffic, with a $1 billion expansion expected to be completed in 2013.But users of smaller aircraft, including corporate jets, will likely have to wait a little longer to get direct access to the airport, aka Lindbergh Field, and enhanced services in the less lucrative arena of general aviation, which in recent years has become the domain of smaller airports located elsewhere in San Diego County.San Diego International Airport has one fixed-base operator while McClellan-Palomar Airport has five that offer various services.That's largely because of a complex calculus that has large airports, and the support companies that service smaller planes as fixed-base operators, weighing the costs to provide that service in a climate where demand is constantly fluctuating.Exact funding and timetables have not been set, but long-term planning for Lindbergh Field includes improvements to the airport's small-craft support facilities.Keith Wilschetz, director of planning for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, said those enhancements will be included in the next phase of overall improvements, to be carried out in the next few years.Wilschetz said the airport's master plan includes raising small-craft hangar space from the current 52,000 square feet to 105,000 square feet. That would be done either by expanding the existing hangar facility or building a new one.Overall acreage allotted to small-craft support service - including storage, repair, maintenance and fueling - would see a slight rise, from the current 11.4 acres to 12.4 acres.Lining Up Work ProposalsRequests for proposals will be going out in the coming year for work on the improvements, as well as for fixed-based services. Lindbergh Field's sole service provider, Houston-based Landmark Aviation, whose contract runs through 2012, will have the opportunity to submit a proposal to renew the pact.Wilschetz said the proposed changes, which are subject to revisions, stem from requests that have come in recent years from corporate-jet and other small-craft operators, seeking more access and competitively priced services in central San Diego."We just don't have the plane space to accommodate them at this point," he said.Reflecting national patterns, Lindbergh Field continues its struggle to return to pre-recession passenger activity levels. For the first 10 months of 2010, commercial airline traffic was down 0.8 percent compared with the same period of 2009, while general-aviation activity rose by just 0.1 percent.Bijan Vasigh, an air-transportation business professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, said long time fluctuations in airtraffic volume, especially since 9/11, have left airports and fixed-base operators hesitant to invest heavily in new facilities.While large airports have 30- to 40-year plans in place for improvements, general aviation support services are often postponed until after revenue-producing commercial services are bolstered first. Those include the restaurants, stores, lounges and terminal improvements that bring in extra dollars from travelers, and in turn spur the big carriers to add flights."A small-craft owner might bring a client to the property, but they might leave without ever using the main terminals," Vasigh said.Boosting Fixed-Base ServicesWhile aircraft owners could benefit financially from on-site competition for fuel and services, Vasigh said many large U.S. facilities - such as the airport at Hilton Head, S.C. - have only recently added a second fixed-base operator after deciding it was justified by the traffic volume.In San Diego County, corporate jet and private-craft pilots have increasingly made use of eight smaller regional airports operated by the county, such as Gillespie Field in El Cajon and McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad.Longtime pilot Joe Graham, principal in the La Jolla consulting firm Westland Aviation, said the smaller facilities have become crucial to noncorporate owners of small planes. Some of those owners base their storage and landing plans on being able to access lower fuel costs and access fees than they would find at some larger facilities including Lindbergh Field."For a long time, the price of jet fuel was about a dollar above car gas; now it can be more like $2 higher," Graham said, adding the price can also vary greatly from one local airport to the next.Many large corporate owners still use Lindbergh Field for direct access to San Diego, though an increasing number have been switching in recent years to the Carlsbad facility, which has five fixed-base operators offering various services."The smaller plane owners are more sensitive about things like fuel, "Graham said. "For the big corporate users, it's more about access to amenities."Those amenities, found at Lindbergh and McClellan-Palomar, include catering, special-events services and expanded ground transportation options, geared to business clients and visiting corporate executives.Declining Aviation ActivityHowever, as with the nation as a whole, general aviation activity in San Diego County has been in decline since the start of the recession in 2007, prompted in part by corporate cost-cutting and high fuel costs.Data from the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, which oversees Lindbergh Field, show that October's 923 general-aviation operations - noncommercial takeoffs and landings - were down 1 percent from a year ago. For the first 10 months of 2010, operations were up just 0.1 percent from a year ago, to 9,973 flights.At the eight smaller airports operated by the county of San Diego, total operations in 2009 were down 16 percent from the prior year, and down 27 percent from 2007. The eight airports combined handled more than 540,000 takeoffs and landings in 2009.Traffic counts in coming years are expected to rise at the smaller county sites. For instance, McClellan-Palomar Airport is projected to grow its general-aviation operations by 12 percent by 2025, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.Smaller airports continue to be the preferred destination for users of business aircraft. According to a national survey by Harris Interactive Inc., conducted in 2009 for the National Business Aviation Association, 80 percent of corporate flights are made into secondary airports or facilities with infrequent or unscheduled airline service.Harris cited FAA data indicating that business aircraft flights represent, at most, 4 percent of total operations at the nation's top 10 commercial airports.2010-11-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Gulfstream to add 1,000 jobs.htm?m=51&s=340&id=276 Click here for the full front-page story in the Savannah Morning News Savannah-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. executives have announced a $500 million, seven-year expansion plan that's expected to result in 1,000 new jobs. Gulfstream president Joe Lombardo and Jay Johnson, chairman and CEO of Gulfstream parent General Dynamics, made the announcement Monday at the company's Savannah plant with a host of dignitaries and more than 4,000 Gulfstream employees on hand. The expansion will mean an increase of more than 15 percent from Gulfstream's current Savannah employment level of about 5,500 people and ensure the company is ready to meet future demand for business-jet aircraft and support services, executives said. The new positions are expected to include production specialists, engineers, and support technicians. "With our own sales trends and market forecasts suggesting an upturn over the next decade, we want to ensure Gulfstream is well-positioned to meet the demand in terms of products and services," Lombardo said. "We're already beginning to see signs of a modest recovery. In the third quarter of 2010, we booked more orders than we had in any quarter since the downturn began in mid-2008. "Also, as flying hours have increased, Gulfstream service centers have enjoyed a significant increase in service volume. As part of the expansion, the company will build new facilities in the northwest quadrant of the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport and renovate several existing facilities on the main campus off Gulfstream Road. It also is set to expand office and lab facilities at the Gulfstream Research Development Center in Crossroads Business Park Gulfstream has already begun hiring for the expansion with training support that includes the state's commitment of Quick Start program resources to assist in building necessary job skills. Gulfstream also has cooperative relationships with several local educational institutions, including Savannah Technical College, in support of its commitment to the community. Savannah Tech is constructing its own building to house its aerospace training programs. "A company like Gulfstream would be welcomed anywhere in the world, so we are proud they have chosen to expand right here in Georgia," said Gov. Sonny Perdue. "Gulfstream's plan for growth will have a significant, statewide impact on Georgia's economy." This will be Gulfstream's second major expansion in less than five years. In 2009, the company completed a $300 million expansion it announced in 2006. The project included the largest general aviation aircraft maintenance facility in the world, along with manufacturing, paint and R&D facilities. Gulfstream hired 1,100 new employees as part of that expansion. First opened in 1967, Gulfstream's Savannah headquarters includes initial-phase manufacturing of five aircraft models: the Gulfstream G650, G550, G500, G450 and G350. "While Gulfstream's international presence has grown, we are committed to Georgia and Savannah," Lombardo said. "And we certainly appreciate the efforts of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Savannah Economic Development Authority, Chatham County, the city of Savannah and the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in supporting this expansion." Gulfstream will utilize the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design program to implement sustainable design and construction elements into its projects. In choosing contractors and subcontractors for the expansion, Gulfstream will continue its existing policy of providing opportunities to regional small, minority-owned, disadvantaged, veteran-owned and service- disabled veteran businesses. General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) stock was up 6 cents Monday, closing at $66.56. AEROSPACE IN GEORGIA  Georgia ranks eighth among U.S. states for aviation industry employment, with more than 80,000 employees in some 500 operations. The state's total aviation exports worldwide topped $3.4 billion in 2009. Georgia is also the most productive aerospace state in the U.S. - costs for infrastructure such as land, utilities and wages are low but yield highly valuable aerospace products. For each aerospace worker employed in the state, an average of $135,437 in wealth is created. Aerospace was identified by the Commission for a New Georgia in 2003 as an industry sector whose resources and existing strengths makes it a sector to target for strategic growth in the state. GULFSTREAM: A TIMELINE 1930: Leroy Grumman founds Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. Grumman became a major manufacturer of military aircraft, producing many of the Navy's fighters and bombers for World War II and Korea.  1959: Grumman unveils the turboprop-driven Gulfstream I, the world's first business plane.  1966: Grumman introduces the Gulfstream II, a business jet that could fly faster than commercial jets. 1967: Grumman opens a Savannah plant to manufacture Gulfstream IIs. In its first year, Savannah's 100-man work force produced 12 GS IIs. 1968: Ground is broken for a new engineering services department adjacent to the present plant. 1973: A merger with American Aviation Corp. of Ohio is completed. The name becomes Grumman American Aviation Corp. 1977: The 200th Gulfstream II rolls off the assembly line. 1978: Allen Paulson buys the Gulfstream operation from Grumman for $52 million, and forms Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.  1980: Delivery of the Gulfstream III begins.  1983: Gulfstream offers its stock publicly. 1985: Chrysler Corp. buys Gulfstream for $637 million. Paulson remains as chairman.  1987: Delivery of the Gulfstream IV begins. 1990: Paulson and New York-based Forstmann, Little & Co. announce their joint purchase of Gulfstream for $825 million. 1992: Allen Paulson steps down as chief executive officer. He remains as chairman of the board. 1993: The Savannah Economic Development Authority approves a $50 million revenue bond issue to help finance an expansion plan. Meanwhile, Paulson steps down as chairman of the board and is succeeded by William C. Lowe. Paulson remains as a member of the board. 1995: The Gulfstream V rolls out to great acclaim. It is the first new jet airplane offered by the company in 10 years. 1996: Gulfstream opens a new service center in Savannah.  1999: Defense-industry giant General Dynamics purchases Gulfstream.  2000: Gulfstream celebrates the opening of a newly built refurbishing facility. 2001: Gulfstream clinched the first firm sale of passenger planes at the Paris Air Show. 2002: Gulfstream renames its products, and the Gulfstream V model becomes the G550/G500 line. 2004: The company unveils the G350 business jet and delivers the first G500. 2005: Gulfstream delivers the first G350 business jet. 2006: It opens a 100,000-square-foot research and development center on Crossroads Parkway in Pooler. 2007: Gulfstream in Savannah now has about 5,000 employees, and they produce G350, G450, G500 and G550 corporate planes.  2008: The company introduces the G650, the longest-range, highest-speed, largest-cabin jet to date. It later introduced the G250, a mid-size jet. 2009: The slowed economy hits Gulfstream, which lays off 1,200; 1,500 more employees take five-week furloughs. 2010: The Savannah Airport Commission agrees to lease up to 159 acres of land to Gulfstream. Sources: New Georgia Encyclopedia; fundinguniverse.com/companies-history; Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.; Savannah Morning News files Compiled by Julia C. Muller2010-11-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Analysis: Execs turn to private skies as economy improves .htm?m=51&s=340&id=277Gretchen Collins of CIS Aviation Services Inc.: "It's cost effective for business to travel efficiently. They're trying to be smarter with the way they spend their money."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. executives, including those at government-owned General Motors Co GM.UL prepping investors for a public stock offering, are getting back on corporate planes as the economy slowly recovers.While airlines still account for the majority of corporate travel, many businesses are gradually returning to private planes. They are eager to avoid airport hassles, flight delays and other potential logistical snags associated with commercial flying. For some companies, corporate jets are also a better value."We appear to be off the bottom," said Dan Hubbard of the National Business Aviation Association trade group that represents companies that own and charter planes. "We seem to be seeing things stabilize at this point."Total business jet flights -- privately owned and charter -- rose 7 percent to 2.84 million in the 12-month period through September, with much of the growth seen in overseas travel, according to data tracked by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)."People are feeling more confident," said Shirley Mason, a vice president with Argus International Inc, which conducts market research and provides safety management and other services to the business aircraft industry."Things are starting to improve in the economy."The best year for business jet traffic was 2007 when the FAA recorded 4.82 million flights.'GOVERNMENT' MOTORSOne example is GM, which chartered planes to haul teams of executives to meetings with prospective investors ahead of Thursday's public share offering.The automaker's return to private travel follows an incident in 2008 when lawmakers berated GM, Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, StockBuzz) and Chrysler Group (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) executives for taking corporate jets to Washington, D.C., to ask the government to help their struggling companies.GM unloaded its leased fleet during its Treasury-led restructuring but is permitted under terms of taxpayer ownership to charter aircraft in certain cases. The U.S. Treasury does not sign off on each trip, but requires senior executives to do so.CHARTERS OVER CORPORATE JETSCompanies, however, are still reluctant to maintain their own fleets.Corporate jet sales are off 20.3 percent globally in the first nine months of 2010, compared with the same period last year, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association said in its third-quarter report.Honeywell International Inc's aerospace unit is forecasting a softer outlook for the sector next year, but expects expansion in 2012.A sweet spot seems to be chartered jets, which allow executives to fly efficiently to multiple meetings, without the major investment and expense of a corporate fleet. This was the option selected by GM.Argus found in its latest report using TRAQPak data that overall business aircraft flying rose 10 percent in October, compared with September.Charters were up 11 percent.Charter rates vary, but generally cost between $1,500 and $6,000 per hour."It's cost effective for business to travel efficiently," said Gretchen Collins, vice president of special contracts and business development for CIS Aviation Services Inc, an Albuquerque-based charter broker."They're trying to be smarter with the way they spend their money," Collins said.(Reporting by John Crawley, Editing by Maureen Bavdek)2010-11-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business aviation touted as corporate time, money saver.htm?m=51&s=340&id=275MIAMI TWP., Montgomery County - The last few years have been a challenge for business aviation.The economy's slump hit the business hard, as companies sought to cut expenses. And corporate use of aircraft took a public-relations hit after chief executives of the nation's biggest automakers were criticized by Congress in November 2008 for flying to Washington in company aircraft to ask for billions in taxpayer bailout money.But there is still a business advantage to private aviation, said Jamie Thomas, president of Maximum Flight Advantages LLC, a small company that provides charter and aircraft management services to corporate customers. Companies can make their executives more productive in traveling to visit customers, and save time and money by providing planes for transportation, he said. That eliminates waiting in airports and allows executives to makes calls and do work while aloft, he said."I'm a true believer in business aviation," Thomas, 30, said in an interview. "These are not corporate yachts. These are tools, designed to help companies cheat time."Maximum Flight Advantages owns two small airplanes and is considering adding two to the fleet. Thomas wouldn't disclose annual revenues or the company's business customers, but said that they include companies in construction, technology and real estate fields, along with contractors who fly to serve federal agencies around the country.The company provides charter flights and management of airplanes, either wholly owned or partner-owed, by customers.Companies including General Motors Corp., NCR Corp., DPL Inc. and others have gotten attention for using corporate aircraft to fly executives on business trips. But, 85 percent of the companies that use business aircraft are small- to midsized companies, said Ed Bolen, president and chief executive officer of the National Business Aviation Association.Business aviation has always followed economic cycles and is just beginning to recover from the recession, Bolen said. Flight hours for business have increased by 14 percent this year from 2009, but last year's total had fallen about 35 percent from 2008, he said."We can see some change, but you have to squint to see it," Bolen said. "Things have quit getting worse. They're starting to get incrementally better."The corporate aircraft finance unit of GE Capital, General Electric Co.'s business financing arm, said it has more money available than there is demand for loans for business aircraft purchases or improvements, but that business is starting to pick up. The company said it also is seeing interest in financing for aircraft leases."The market is cyclical and highly correlated to corporate profits, which are improving, albeit slowly," David Labrozzi, president of GE Capital's corporate aircraft finance business, wrote in an e-mail response to questions. "We have seen an increase in the number of transactions, as well as an improvement in the credit quality of those seeking to finance business aircraft."Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.2010-11-06http://www.noplanenogain-org/No Plane No Gain: Sampling of 2010 Coverage.htm?m=51&s=340&id=274Since the launch of the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, a concerted effort has been made to deliver the message about the importance of business aviation through national and local news outlets. This sampling of national and local television coverage in 2010, highlights the campaign's effectiveness in communicating the industry's importance. From cable television outlets including CNBC and CNN, to local television outlets from coast to coast, the No Plane No Gain message has been clearly communicated through the campaign's media outreach initiatives.2010-11-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/New No Plane No Gain Advocacy Tools Available for Industry.htm?m=51&s=412&id=273Contacts: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Patrick Dunne, (202) 783-9263, pdunne@nbaa.org Atlanta, GA, October 21, 2010 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today announced new print and video advocacy tools to help those in the business aviation community explain the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the country. The resources have been produced in conjunction with the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is focused on educating policymakers and opinion leaders about the industry’s many benefits.  “We want to keep the No Plane No Gain campaign’s message relevant and fresh, and as part of that effort, we continue to develop resources to help people in the industry put forward the true face of business aviation with facts, well-grounded data and illustrative profiles to highlight its many benefits,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.  Bolen first pointed to a new study showing that small and mid-sized companies using business aviation achieved greater success in important measures of performance than comparable companies that do not use business aircraft. The study, conducted by NEXA Advisors, LLC, demonstrates that the enterprise value business aviation confers on Standard & Poor’s 500 index companies also applies to S&P 600 small-cap companies. The study can be viewed in PDF format by visiting www.nbaa.org/nexa-2010. Bolen referenced a second new advocacy resource, NBAA’s newly updated Business Aviation Fact Book, a comprehensive profile of the industry that provides real-world information and data about the industry from respected sources, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Commerce, General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and surveys of companies in the industry. The 2010 Business Aviation Fact Book can be viewed by visiting www.nbaa.org/factbook. Additionally, Bolen noted, four new advocacy videos detail the rich history of business aviation, its role in supporting the nation’s economy and transportation systems today, and its essential role in promoting job creation, helping companies succeed, providing transport to towns with little or no airline service, and supporting flights to help people and communities in times of crisis. The four new videos, available in DVD and online formats, include: Business Aviation: The Story of NBAA and the Industry, a video that chronicles the history of the business aviation community and details NBAA’s work to support companies using business aircraft. Business Aviation Works, a presentation that shows how business aircraft benefit companies of all sizes, and help them achieve their business objectives. No Plane No Gain: An Industry Makes Its Voice Heard, a video detailing the progress of the industry’s advocacy campaign, and explaining the actions individuals can take to contribute to the success of the program. Business Aviation’s Airlift to Haiti, a documentary of the industry’s work to support disaster-relief missions coordinated by people across the business aviation community to help victims of the earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti on January 12, 2010. For more information about the videos or to request DVD copies, send an e-mail to publications@nbaa.org.  The new advocacy resources were introduced during NBAA’s 63rd Annual Meeting & Convention, being held from October 19 to 21 in Atlanta, GA. Learn more at the NBAA2010 Online News Bureau. The No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is jointly sponsored by NBAA and GAMA, focuses on educating policymakers and opinion leaders about the essential nature of business aviation in America today. To learn more, visit www.noplanenogain.org. # # # Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association, Inc. (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release e-mail list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe. 2010-10-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Opinion Shifting on General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=271A change in attitude by elected officials toward the general aviation industry is reflective of that of the general public, evidence that industry’s image program is working, the head of the National Business Aviation Association said on the opening day of the advocacy group’s annual convention.The No Plane No Gain program was launched in early 2009 by the NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association in response to what both groups believed were distortions and inaccuracies being told by politicians and the media about business aviation.In that time, there has been a noticeable change in attitude as the campaign has gotten out the message of the jobs general aviation creates and the value of corporate jets bring to companies using them, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said.That elected officials are now actively identifying themselves with the industry is a reflection of their constituency, Bolen said.“The elected officials believe the general public has a much different opinion of general aviation than they did 18 months ago,” Bolen said. “They believe this is a popular place to be.”The NBAA and GAMA are now taking steps to keep the No Plane No Gain campaign relevant by focusing on what has been successful so far, namely providing data and information on the industry.At last year’s NBAA convention, golfing great Arnold Palmer was announced as a spokesman for the campaign. Over the summer Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong and investor Warren Buffet also lent their name to No Plane No Gain.2010-10-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Study Says Business Aviation Gives Competitive Edge to Small, Mid-Size Companies.htm?m=51&s=412&id=272Contacts: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.orgPatrick Dunne, (202) 783-9263, pdunne@nbaa.orgBenefits Confer to Businesses Even in Tough Economic TimesAtlanta, GA, October 19, 2010 – A new study released today shows that small and mid-sized companies using business aviation achieved greater success in important measures of performance, even during the worst financial recession in recent memory, than comparable companies that do not use business aircraft.The study, conducted for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), demonstrates that the enterprise value business aviation confers on Standard & Poor’s 500 index companies also applies to S&P 600 small-cap companies.“This study reveals that use of a business airplane is a sign of a well-managed company, regardless of the size of the enterprise,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “The level of productivity, flexibility and efficiency business aviation provides allows companies of all sizes to remain productive despite the tough economy we’ve been experiencing, and this latest study confirms it,” Bolen added.The 2010 study, “Business Aviation: An Enterprise Value Perspective,” was released at NBAA’s 63rd Annual Meeting & Convention during the opening-day Media Kickoff Breakfast. It is the second installment of the research by NEXA Advisors, LLC into the measurable factors involved in use of general aviation aircraft for business purposes across the spectrum of American business.The conclusions in the new study are consistent with findings from the first NEXA study, conducted and published in 2009, which showed S&P 500 companies using business aircraft consistently outperformed non-business aviation users in revenues, profitability and shareholder value, and even in qualitative measures like “most admired” and “best brands.” The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) represented in the 2010 study represent a diverse group of entrepreneurs and organizations in the United States, both privately owned and publicly traded. In comparing their financial results from 2005 through 2009, NEXA researchers found that users of business aircraft outperformed nonusers across a range of standard shareholder measures. The NEXA study pinpointed three key findings from the analysis and interviews: Superior Financial Performance: Companies using business aircraft overall produced better financial results than companies that did not, with average annual earnings showing 219-percent higher growth. In addition, market capitalization growth was 11 percent higher, with two of three companies “graduating” from the S&P 600 to the S&P 500 index operating business aircraft.Reduced Recession Impact: In responding to the worst financial crisis in recent history, termed the “Great Recession” by the U.S. financial press, SMEs using business aircraft were less impacted than nonusers. Indeed, 69 percent of these companies posted greater top-line growth in 2008 and 2009.Better Customer Access: Business aviation provided SME companies with better access to customers and markets not conveniently accessible by other means of transportation, improving customer retention and securing new sources of revenue.“The remarkably consistent results across the range of enterprises from large-cap to small-cap suggest that for any size company, business aviation is a clear differentiator of shareholder value creation and business performance,” said the study’s author, Michael Dyment, managing partner with NEXA Advisors.The study comes as NBAA continues to highlight the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S., through No Plane No Gain, an advocacy campaign jointly sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.Launched in February 2009, the campaign educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the essential contributions of business aviation to the nation’s economy and transportation system, and to the global competitiveness of American business. To learn more, visit www.noplanenogain.org.To download both Part I and Part II of the NEXA study, visit www.nbaa.org/news/backgrounders.# # # Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association, Inc. (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. 2010-10-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Signs That Business Jets Are Poised for a Comeback.htm?m=51&s=340&id=267ATLANTATHE business jet industry has been clobbered in the last two years by the dismal economy and public revulsion at some reported excesses of executives and their corporate jets. But there was Ed Bolen, the head of the group that represents the business aviation industry, making a bold assertion about the industry's outlook."We are out of our defensive crouch," he said, as 25,000 industry representatives began wandering into the convention center here on Monday for the opening on Tuesday of the annual convention and trade show for the group, the National Business Aviation Association.His comments seemed even bolder, considering that the annual industry outlook released here Sunday by Honeywell Aerospace still showed a grim landscape. This year, the report says, 675 to 700 new business jets will be delivered to customers worldwide, down from 849 last year. Next year, it says, deliveries will remain below 700 jets. When you compare those figures with the 1,313 jets delivered in 2008, a year that capped a record five-year run of good times, it still seems that a defensive game may be in order.But, Mr. Bolen argued, "things have stabilized."Of course, the captain of the Titanic might accurately have said the same once the ship settled on the ocean floor. But the fact is, there are indications that the business aviation industry is poised for a comeback.Honeywell's forecast, for one, says that the deliveries of new jets, after bottoming out in 2011, will begin rising again in 2012, starting "another period of expansion.""We'll be bouncing on the bottom till 2012," Rob Wilson, the president for business and general aviation at Honeywell, said, "but then we're seeing an overall recovery." Honeywell bases its forecasts on historical data and on interviews with business jet owners and prospective owners about their plans to replace or buy jets in the next five years.Zenith Jet, a business aircraft sales company and consultant, predicted in its recent 10-year forecast that the "trough" in deliveries would occur this year, rather than next, and that 2011 would "be a transitional year"leading to a sustained period of 9 percent compounded annual growth in the industry.And Mr. Bolen said that flight hours, a basic measure of overall business jet activity, are up about 13 percent over last year.In the last two years, I have sometimes gotten on the nerves of people in the industry because I keep pressing them to evaluate the "optics" - that is, how the public perceives chief executives riding on corporate planes when they themselves are languishing in a commercial airport.Of course, industry executives point out correctly that the economy was the main cause of the setbacks in recent years in business aviation. But adverse public reaction was, and is, a big problem for the industry, at least in the United States, which accounts for about half of all sales.It is one reason many companies sold corporate planes, contributing to a glut of used jets (which has now shrunk, industry experts say). As the midterm elections approach, woe betide any politician running for office who is discovered taking rides on someone's private jet.Even some who continue to use corporate jets regularly try to stay off the public perception radar screen. Last spring, the online investigative journalism site ProPublica reported an upsurge in use of a previously little-known government program that allows private jet owners, citing security reasons, to block their flight operations from routine public view on aviation-tracking sites like FlightAware.Public revulsion about perceived wretched excess caused "a terrible blow to business aviation," said F. Lee Bailey, the lawyer and a longtime user of private jets. Mr. Bailey, like other proponents of business aviation, argues that abuses are few and that most company plane flights, whether in jets, propeller-driven planes or even helicopters, make good business sense.Mr. Bolen of the business aviation group said that the argument for business aviation as a tool for better productivity was stronger than ever. Commercial airlines have been cutting not only overall seating capacity, but also entire routes, especially in small and midsize cities where revenue is soft. Business aviation increasingly fills a void for companies that need to send employees on the road in an efficient manner, he said, adding:"Just over the course of this recession, over 100 communities have lost all, or substantially all, of their commercial airline service."2010-10-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Biz Talk: Q & A with NBAA’s Ed Bolen.htm?m=51&s=340&id=268The National Business Aviation Association’s annual convention kicks off Tuesday in Atlanta, Ga.   Wichita-based Cessna Aircraft Co., Hawker Beechcraft Corp. and Bombardier Learjet will all be attendance.   It’s the industry’s largest event, and companies have already begun making announcements in conjunction with the convention. Cessna announced Monday a new version of its Citation X in advance of the event. Bombardier on Saturday announced two new additions to its Global aircraft line. Hawker says it will have its largest NBAA presence ever at the 2010 event. There are local concerns over the long-term future of Hawker in Wichita after machinists voted Saturday to reject a work contract. There may also be concerns among all attendees about the short-term future of their bottom line after Honeywell International Inc. on Sunday issued a report forecasting that recovery in the industry wouldn’t begin until 2012. The report was released in conjunction with the NBAA convention. I caught up with NBAA President Ed Bolen earlier this month when he was in Wichita for Bombardier’s Safety Standdown event. Bolen, formerly president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and a Salina, Kan., native, has been with NBAA since 2004. Here is some of what Bolen had to say about the state of the business aviation industry: Q: Where are we at in terms of recovery for the business aviation industry?   A: 2009 was the most difficult year that business aviation has experienced, maybe ever. At times it felt like a free fall. I think what we have seen in 2010 is that things have quit getting worse. They have stabilized. And, in fact, you can see things getting better. But you really have to squint. Q: Is recovery taking longer than was expected?   A: Business aviation has always followed the economic cycle. There’s never been a period when the economy has expanded and we’ve contracted, or a period where it’s contracted and we’ve expanded. We go together through the cycle. I think there is a sense that business aviation is now a global industry. So, we’ll be sensitive to the economic recovery of the United States, but we’ll also be sensitive to the global economy as well. I think generally speaking things have stabilized in 2010. We may not be approaching a boom time, but it’s getting a little better. Q: How much competition is out there for aviation manufacturing jobs right now?   A: I think any economist will tell you that manufacturing jobs are the backbone of any great economy. Whether it’s the state of Kansas or the United States, manufacturing jobs matter. And attracting, maintaining, generating high-skilled, high-paying manufacturing jobs is really important. So what we see on a national and international level is that countries all over the world are saying, “We believe that aviation manufacturing is a great industry, it’s an industry that we believe can be the backbone of our economy in the 21st century.” So we do see a lot of competition around the world, trying to generate and attract aviation jobs. Q: What does this competition mean for Wichita, with companies like Hawker Beechcraft getting big offers to leave town and many of our aircraft companies continuing to move work to Mexico?   A: Aviation manufacturing, and particularly general aviation manufacturing, has been a critical part of the Wichita economy and the Kansas economy. Certainly, these are the kind of jobs that Wichita wants and Kansas wants. But there is going to be competition because they’re good jobs. One of the inherent advantages that Wichita has is a highly-skilled work force. Planes have been manufactured in Wichita for nearly a hundred years. There is an understanding, a skill base, a competence and a passion that is clearly important. That’s an important competitive asset. Q: Foreign companies like Embraer are taking market share away from many of your member companies. How does NBAA view this international competition not just for jobs, but for sales?   A: We believe competition makes people better, makes organizations better, makes countries better. I think that’s part of what our free-enterprise system is built on. Competition can bring out the best in everyone and everything. So, as a general rule, we see competition as healthy. Q: NBAA always brings out announcements from the attending aircraft companies. Can we expect those to be more subdued this year, given the state of the industry and the economy?   A: I think one of the things we have seen is that companies in business aviation believe strongly in the future and have continued to invest in the future, despite the economic downturn. There will be forward-looking announcements that are made, and that always creates a lot of excitement and a lot of buzz. Q: The industry took a black eye when the heads of the big three auto makers where chastised on Capitol Hill for using business jets. Your organization helped start the No Plane, No Gain campaign to fight the negative perception that followed. Has the negative perception of your industry begun to change?   A: I think it has. Following the automobile manufacturers, there was a strong sense in Washington policy circles that business aviation was less than essential. We launched our program to get the message out that business aviation is essential. We included studies that show that companies that use business aviation generate more for their shareholders than companies that don’t. We done a lot of surveys to study how companies are using their airplanes, which is usually to go on missions that commercial airlines can’t do, perhaps to a community where there is no airline service. We’ve done studies, we’ve done surveys, but we’ve also been active in promotion. Arnold Palmer is spokesperson, Neil Armstrong is spokesperson, and Warren Buffett is also a spokesperson. These are three people that I think the public recognizes don’t do things to be frivolous. They do things that make sense. I think the program is working, and here’s why I say that. Since we launched it, in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, we have started caucuses that now have about a third of the House and a third of the Senate joining. So this is a third of our elected officials in Washington who are not just not bashing us, but actually raising their hand and saying “I want to be publicly identified as a supporter of this industry.” That’s a long way from where we were.2010-10-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA builds a PDK playground.htm?m=51&s=340&id=270When NBAA's Annual Meeting and Convention last made its appearance in Atlanta in 2007, the association inaugurated a new community benefit program that aimed to foster a bond with the local area and the host airport by building playgrounds for needy organizations. "NBAA recognizes that the communities around the airport provide a lot of support to us on a host of different levels and we have chosen to give back to these same communities by organizing these community builds," said Maureen Cameron, NBAA's marketing director for convention, seminars and forums. The program returned this year after a one-year hiatus and saw an army of volunteers tackle improvements and renovations to the Brookhaven Boys & Girls Club, located two miles from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, home to this year's static display. According to Bill McBride, Home Depot's senior director of corporate aviation and a member of the NBAA show's local committee, the facility, which provides a safe place for working parents to send nearly 500 children every week after school, was in need of repair. After it was selected by the local committee as the site for this year's community build, the youth club's administrators presented the project organizers with a list of needs. In addition to the construction of a $50,000 aviation-themed playground, the nearly 400 industry volunteers–some of whom pledged their services months in advance–also built an outdoor classroom, a garden and a 200-foot-long concrete retaining wall to divert rain runoff. A gym used by club patrons for indoor soccer, which had suffered wall damage from errant kicks, was repaired, and the volunteers also leveled and refurbished a group of outdoor volleyball courts, used not only by the children but by adult community leagues as well. Another of the day's major accomplishments was the refurbishing of the teen center, an important part of the building, according to McBride, who was one of the project leaders. "The boys and girls club is about young adults helping children so you've got these teenagers who go out and work with the kids as part of their program, for a specific sporting event, a reading event or a mathematics event, then they go into what we call the teen center to relax and unwind." The room, which had falling ceiling tiles, offered the teens little space to do homework or socialize. The volunteers repaired the room and installed desks and study areas along with flat screen televisions, which share wall space with new aviation-themed artwork such as a cockpit and a runway view. A table converted from an aircraft elevator furthers the aviation connection. The community "giveback" concept began three years ago when NBAA partnered with Home Depot on the construction of a playground at an elementary school near Fulton County Airport in honor of NBAA's 60th anniversary. While the program continued the following year in Orlando, with the building of a playground near an apartment complex, last year's build was eliminated due to the economic situation. "Last year it was very clear given everybody's budgets and the cuts we had to make not only at NBAA but also all of our members, that we couldn't expect them to send their folks in early to be on a project like this," said Cameron. Faced with similar constraints this year, the Atlanta local committee took matters into their own hands. "This time our local committee decided that they wanted to do this because they see the value in giving back to the communities near the airport," said Cameron. "What they did was organize a grass roots effort to come up with all of the funding for this project from local companies as well as members." That effort, led by McBride and Christine Ison, O'Gara Aviation's v-p of marketing, succeeded in raising more than $100,000 in donations and contributions from companies large and small to fund the project. They also partnered with the local non-profit charity organization Hands On Atlanta to handle the project logistics. The group worked with NBAA and the club to manage the program and decide which tasks the volunteers could reasonably complete during the one-day build. In the days leading up the event, preparation such as delivery of supplies and building materials was done by local volunteers marshaled by the organization. Some of the group's volunteers returned on Sunday to work with those from the business aviation community. "This whole outreach program is about business aviation reaching out to the community and this is going to leave a lasting impression for hundreds of kids on a daily basis, year after year after year," said McBride. 2010-10-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Volunteers Make Over Boys And Girls Club.htm?m=51&s=340&id=269ATLANTA -- The Brookhaven Boys and Girls Club received an overhaul Sunday.The National Business Aviation Association choose the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta for its outreach project.Volunteers spruced up the playground, painted classrooms and built a new outdoor classroom area.The Club says it has 26 locations in 11 metro counties helping more than 3,000 disadvantaged kids.2010-10-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/The Bizav Advantage: Making the case for bizav, in dollars and cents.htm?m=51&s=340&id=266Remember the CEOs from Chrysler, Ford and GM who flew on business jets to Washington to testify before a Congressional committee in the fall of 2008? Pressed to explain their use of corporate aircraft, they all looked and sounded as if they'd been caught doing something wrong. The mainstream press had a field day with the story, offering spectacular sound bites and video footage of business jets taxiing around Dulles International Airport. The incident reinforced a public misconception that corporate aircraft represent mere toys for the rich. If only there were a way to prove the value of business airplanes to the skeptics. In fact, such proof exists. Several studies in recent years have done an excellent job of demonstrating that corporate jets can significantly boost the bottom line.Back in 2000, Jack Olcott, then president of the National Business Aviation Association, wondered whether there might be a correlation between the use of business airplanes and the price of a company's stock. Olcott sought the help of Michael Dyment, then a partner with Arthur Andersen in New York. Dyment was captivated by the topic, having recently seen proof of business aviation's value: Intel had traced flaws in its Pentium 3 computer chip to the fact that engineering teams from around the country had had difficulty arranging meetings during the development process. "There were often meetings at which dozens of critical people never showed up," Dyment said, because "the airlines were so unreliable." Intel subsequently took a bold step and built its own private air shuttle service–an Intel airline of sorts–that now operates on a daily schedule to connect the company's U.S. manufacturing and engineering centers. Today, Intel employees must use the shuttle to travel between its locations. Dyment, now CEO of NEXA Capital Partners and NEXA Advisors, LLC, said the budget-neutral shuttle clearly demonstrates how business aviation can benefit a company. After the Intel incident, Dyment headed a 2001 study at Arthur Andersen of the value of business aviation. The results strongly suggested a correlation between business aviation and corporate success. A FEW YEARS AGO, DYMENT AND SOME OF HIS associates grew curious about whether those findings still held up. "We thought it was time to take another look at the data and the conclusions," he said, "especially since there had been so much industry consolidation." The result was a new study, "Business Aviation: An Enterprise Value Perspective–The S&P 500 from 2003-2009," that NEXA released late last year. Sponsors of the study included more than a dozen aerospace companies and associations, among them Amstat, Avantair, Aviation Week, Bombardier, Cessna, Embraer, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, Honda, the National Business Aviation Association, OAG, Piaggio, Sikorsky and Talon Aircraft. The report's key conclusion: business airplane users continue to outperform nonusers in terms of revenue growth, profit growth and asset efficiency. The study linked business aircraft use to "the fundamental drivers of a company's long-term value creation" and included in-depth interviews with S&P 500 executives. It incorporated raw data as well as figures that were weighted to account for the effect of varying company size and "the challenge of sustaining rapid growth as a company scales business operations." Said Dyment: "The methodology isn't perfect, but it is pretty good. I braced myself for the skeptics after the study was released, but there weren't any."Among the findings:Average annual revenue growth on a market cap-weighted basis was 116 percent higher for business aircraft users (6 percent higher using unweighted data) than for nonusersAverage annual earnings growth was 434 percent higher for users (253 percent higher using unweighted data)Average annual earnings before interest and taxes were 81 percent higher for users (54 percent higher using unweighted data) Market capitalization growth as measured by market value growth was 496 percent higher for users of business airplanes (95 percent higher using unweighted data) These statistics reflect the five-year period from 2003 through 2007 because the authors "wanted to isolate the effects of the recession that began in December 2007." However, they also looked at data for 2008 and 2009 and found that business aviation users "continued to strongly outperform nonusers in almost every major financial category we analyzed."Moreover, they determined that business aircraft users represented: 95 percent of S&P 500 corporations on Business Week's "50 Most Innovative Companies" list for 200986 percent of S&P 500 firms on Fortune's "50 Most Admired Companies" list for 200990 percent of S&P 500 firms on Business Week's "25 Best Customer Service Companies" list for 200998 percent of S&P 500 firms on the Business Week/Interbrand "100 Best Brands" list for 200895 percent of S&P 500 firms on Fortune's "50 World's Most Admired Companies" list for 200990 percent of S&P 500 firms on Corporate Responsibility magazine's "100 Best Corporate Citizen's" list for 2009THE EVIDENCE POINTS TO ONE conclusion, Dyment said. Corporate aviation "provides a unique competitive benefit to America's businesses, manifesting in higher shareholder and enterprise value." That, of course, is the message that the business aviation industry has been trying to deliver all along. "A compelling part of the NEXA study is the list of companies that operate business aircraft," said Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association. "No matter how you measure it, this is a list of the best companies in America. They provide essential transportation to businesses in thousands of communities that have lost regular airline service. "All too often, people focus on the luxury aspect of business aviation and miss the word 'business,'" Bolen added. "Business airplanes allow you to do more with less. People ought to be able to talk about what they do with their aircraft that adds value to the business." Perhaps now they can, thanks to studies like the one from NEXA. The data clearly shows shareholders–and anyone else who asks–that smart companies operate business airplanes.2010-10-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business travelers could save by flying on chartered jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=265Private-jet businesses are making a play for corporate travelers tired of crowded flights and long waits, saying they can be similar in price - and less of a hassle - than a seat in first class. New websites are making it easier to arrange chartered flights, and some in the private-jet sector are preening their marketing messages to appeal to premium travelers who might find private flying more efficient but worry that it's too costly. Premium passenger traffic was up 12% globally from April to June compared with that period last year, according to the International Air Transport Association. But commercial airlines are raising fares, cutting routes and flying planes that averaged as much as 87% full in July. Some analysts say this is frustrating some passengers and potentially making this a good time for private-aviation companies to lure new customers. "The higher-premium passengers are moving over," says Robert Herbst, an independent airline analyst and founder of AirlineFinancials.com, who has noticed more fliers buying shared interest in private aircraft. "It's pretty understandable to me. By the time you have to deal with all the security at airports, especially on the shorter flights, it's just not worth it for the businessmen. Their time is too valuable to waste spending in security lines, ... (on) delayed planes and fighting with 100% full airplanes." Air Partner, a global air charter company, launched its Empty Sectors website in May, touting how a passenger can save up to 75% by jumping on a chartered jet's empty leg - time when it's not being used by the flier who originally booked the trip. "There's a real window of opportunity right now for business aviation," says Air Partner President Phil Mathews, whose site makes it easier to locate the empty flights. "You've got twin pressures of scheduled traffic becoming more expensive and more painful at the same time the private option has become more (cost) competitive and as pain-free as it always has been." The key message A chartered trip for a corporate traveler flying solo might be prohibitively expensive. But for a group, particularly one flying to communities with limited commercial airline service, it could be comparable to the cost of flying commercial first class, and more efficient, some analysts and private aviation experts say. For instance, it would cost $8,400 for a group of six to take a light private jet from Boston to Teterboro, N.J., to Rochester, N.Y., and back, as compared with $8,700 for that group to fly first class commercial. "Private travel is not for everybody," Mathews says. "It's not going to be for the mass market. But for those people that are traveling in (the) front of airplanes, for companies for which time is extremely valuable, it's a very viable option right now. That's the key message we want to get out." To resonate, Mathews' message has to overcome the bad rap business aviation acquired during the recession, particularly after top officials at the nation's biggest automakers in 2008 traveled by private jet to Washington, where they asked Congress for taxpayer bailouts. But the need to be responsible to shareholders by improving productivity can be a compelling reason for some businesses to consider private aircraft, says John Bingham, CEO of Piaggio America, manufacturer of the P180 Avanti II. The turboprop uses 40% less fuel and is 40% cheaper to fly than similar aircraft, he says. "Extravagance, that is now gone," Bingham says. "Business efficiency, that's on the front burner, and private aviation brings huge amounts of efficiency to a business' activities. We believe our aircraft is perfect for the moment, and we look for a good increase in our sales as the market grows." FlyRuby.com, a website set to launch in October, will allow passengers to charter a jet online the way they would book an airline ticket on a site such as Expedia.com. A traveler will go on the website and enter an itinerary. Results will emerge within seconds, compared with the hour or more it might take to gather the information by phone, says FlyRuby.com founder and CEO Michael Leek. "For small businesses that don't use private aviation now, my business gives them an easy segue into the industry," Leek says. "You can go on Orbitz to see how much it will cost to fly three people from Pittsburgh to New York and New York to Boston. When you calculate the cost of that trip, including the (hotel) overnight, it comes close to what it would be if you flew to those meetings in that same day. Private jets are the only way that's going to happen for you." At a time many commercial airlines are cutting routes, a key selling point for private jets is their ability to transport passengers to or from smaller communities. Complementary services Commercial airlines Delta, British Airways and Lufthansa offer private-jet service, too. Delta Private Jets, a subsidiary of the world's biggest airline, doubled its available private fleet in January and linked its use to various benefits, such as elevated status in Delta's frequent-flier program. Rather than taking away from its commercial business, the private-jet service can enhance it, says Kent Landers, a Delta spokesman. For instance, he says, passengers can take a private jet from a small town where they live to New York, where they then hop on a commercial flight in business class to Europe. The services, he says, complement each other. After plummeting during the recession, demand for business aviation is up a little more than 10% this year vs. 2009, says Ed Bolen, CEO of the National Business Aviation Association Some frequent travelers say private jets are an option they'd consider if the price were right. "I certainly would if the fares were comparable," says Margaret Bowles, 58, a real estate lawyer in Tampa who travels once a week. "Another big advantage is not having to go through the security hassles when you fly out of the small airports." Still, people who fly private are a small percentage of the traveling public. In the wake of the economic downturn, businesses are likely to continue to carefully weigh private vs. commercial flights on a trip-by-trip basis, Bolen says. "What they're recognizing is the commercial airplane is a business tool, the business airplane is a business tool, and they're trying to make sure they're using the right tool for the right job," Bolen says. 2010-09-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/Businesses like Obama tax write-off plan but want to keep Bush tax cuts too.htm?m=51&s=340&id=264Economists and business groups see President Obama's proposal as giving a modest boost to the economy, not as having the major effect that would come from ending the uncertainty about the soon-to-expire tax cuts.Reporting from Washington — The business community likes President Obama's proposal to accelerate tax write-offs for companies buying equipment and other big-ticket items. But it is clamoring for more — extension of all of the soon-expiring Bush-era tax cuts.Obama will tout the write-offs Wednesday when he unveils a $180-billion stimulus package. But he isn't likely to back down on his stand on continuing the marginal tax rate cuts only for households and businesses earning less than $250,000, analysts said.Economists and business trade groups see Obama's proposal as giving a modest boost to the economy, not as having the major effect that would come from removing the uncertainty about the Bush tax cuts. Those cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, and Republicans are insisting that unless they be allowed to continue in their entirety, there would be further damage to the weak recovery."He's not really addressing the big issues," Brad Benson, president of Squires-Belt Material Co. in San Diego, said of Obama. Benson does welcome the president's proposal on depreciation costs, which would save businesses $200 billion over two years."I think it's maybe a small step in the right direction, but as a manufacturer, I'm more concerned with the tax-cut issue," said Benson, whose company supplies drywall and other building supplies for commercial and residential construction.Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said Obama's proposal would help the recovery but was not "a game changer."He estimated the plan would add 0.2 percentage point in 2011 to gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the country."I think we're talking tens of thousands of jobs, not hundreds of thousands of jobs. It's helpful but it's small," Zandi said. "Far and away the most important policy item on the agenda is what to do about the expiring tax cuts."Although Obama wants to limit the continuation of the tax cuts to those earning less than $250,000, the administration wants to give businesses a break on making capital purchases sooner rather than later.In a speech in Cleveland, Obama is expected to propose allowing businesses to write off many of the capital purchases in the first year instead of depreciating the costs over several years. The new accelerated depreciation would last through 2011 in hopes it would entice businesses to make large capital purchases that would help stimulate the economy and increase jobs.2010-09-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/VIDEO: Aviation bringing in billions for state; funding still lacking .htm?m=51&s=340&id=262  Aviation makes up nearly 8.5 percent of the economy, a driving economic engine for the state."Without aircraft manufacturing, aviation in Kansas wouldn't be what it is today and the Kansas economy would be drastically smaller," Lt. Governor Troy Findley said.The state's 140 airports employ 47,000 people and all the people that ride those flights produce $10.4 billion for the Kansas economy.The findings are from the Kansas Aviation Economic Impact Study, which the Kansas Department of Transportation conducted to see what effect airports have on the state. While the numbers look good, they could be better."As we all know, the aviation industry in Kansas has taken a hard hit by this recession," Findley said.Although some places are thriving."Manhattan is having success at their airport which is amazing given the state of the economy overall across the nation," FAA Manager for the Central Regions Airport Division Jim Johnson said.Something state officials didn't even expect."You know, I'll be honest, I'm surprised," KDOT Secretary Deb Miller said. "I just wondered, would it be able to survive and not only has it survived, it's thrived and they're adding round trips to Chicago."MHK had planned on taking away a flight to Dallas Fort Worth when the Chicago flights start in November, but have decided to keep all four daily flights because of the popularity.However the study finds airports are still lacking. The long term plan calls for all airports to have a security plan. Right now, only 23 percent do.Another concern for the state's long term plan is funding. The study estimates $665 million will be needed to improve airports over the next 20 years, but based on the money coming from state and federal grants in 2009, Kansas will be short $147 million in funding.2010-08-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/Dusting crops a boon, necessity for farmers.htm?m=51&s=340&id=261The saying "pennies from heaven" certainly doesn't refer to aerial spraying. Ag aviation contributes $214 million to the state's economy because of increased crop productivity, according to a study released last year by the Iowa Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation.That's not all.Eighty-six percent of Iowa's general aviation airports support crop dusters, the report said. Those small airfields contribute more than $400 million to the state's economy.Despite the positive financial aspects, agriculture aviation officials say the industry has had its fair share of negative publicity this summer.There's been several reports in the region of plane and helicopter crashes and pilots accidentally spraying people.Officials involved with ag aviation - owners, state experts and farmers-want the public to understand how valuable crop dusters are to the state and that safety is a top priority."One accident is too many," said Tim McClung, planning and outreach manager for the DOT's Office of Aviation. "At the same time, we need to keep it in perspective. There's 4 million acres treated by air in Iowa every year. That works out to about 26,000 annual missions."Farmers often rely on planes and helicopters to apply chemicals to control yield-robbing diseases and pests once plants get too big for ground rigs.Starting in early July, pilots typically have a little more than two months to get the job done.DOT data show there's 50 aerial spraying companies in the state. An estimated 150 to 200 out-of-state outfits also stay busy here.Considering the amount of ground that's covered in a relatively short amount of time, McClung said crop dusters do a good job.McClung, who also is a pilot, said crop dusting is a difficult, sometimes-dangerous job. Aircraft swoop in to spray only feet off the ground. Pilots need to avoid electrical lines, trees, wind turbines and make sure chemicals land on target."They've really been pushing a culture of safety," McClung said.At Hoppe Airspray near Beaman, co-owner Roy Sharp said every precaution is taken to protect pilots and the public. Hoppe's four planes are outfitted with global positioning system technology. One employee's job is keep track of where detasselers are working - some were sprayed in Grundy County last month by a different company - and areas that can't get sprayed, like organic crops, land with commercial bee hives and fruit and vegetable plots.The Iowa Agricultural Aviation Association helped companies control drift problems, which Hoppe participated in, prior to the season. Crop dusters flew to Newton and filled aircraft with dyed water and "crop dusted" a simulated field. The exercise provided data to fine-tune equipment and gave pilots valuable practice knowing when nozzles need to be shut off."It gives us peace of mind we're doing a good job," Sharp said. "Pilots are very aware of where chemicals will be by the time they hit the ground."Sharp said Hoppe has been incident-free since purchasing the company two years ago with Dan and Jeannie Tonner.Farmers say crop dusters play a vital role in grain production.This summer's hot, humid and wet conditions spurred fungus growth in corn.Some disease issues also cropped up in soybeans, and soybean aphids - though not at disastrous levels yet - are starting to become a problem.Insects in seed corn still need to be managed, as well.Driving sprayers through fields at this time, or in July for that matter, would cause too much damage and be counterproductive. Aerial application of fungicides and insecticides is the only answer.On average, officials said crop dusting costs between $15 to $25 per acre.Spraying corn fungicide, for example, is on the top end of the scale.Dave Hommel of rural Eldora had 650 acres of corn and 200 acres of soybeans sprayed."That will be a good move," Hommel said. "We'll see the benefits. I noticed leaf areas cleaned up after (spraying)."If left unchecked, fungus will disrupt plant development and interrupt photosynthesis. In corn, ears won't fill out properly and yields will suffer.Farmers and crop experts say crop dusting usually pays for itself and then some.It's not uncommon to see a 10- to 30-bushel yield response in corn. A soybean field infested with aphids mean yield reductions of 20 bushels or more per acre come harvest.Cash corn Wednesday at the East Central Iowa Cooperative in Hudson was$3.38 per bushel, while beans were $9.91."There's that much more money going to be circulating out there,"McClungsaid.Besides the monetary benefit, farmers also like the immediacy of aerial spraying. One plane can cover 1,000 to 2,000 acres a day, Sharp said."Historically, (aerial spraying) is good, but results always vary by year," said Tim Burrack, a grain farmer near Arlington and member of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board.There wasn't a shortage of work this year, Sharp said."Farmers realize the benefit," he said.2010-08-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Maine Voices: Maine flies on general aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=260A network of pilots and airports services the state's economy in ways that the public may not see. For many, Maine represents a place of solitude and a playground for outdoor tourists from all over the country who make their way to the Pine Tree State to take in the scenery along the rugged coast or hike the daunting Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park. And to do so, small aircraft, generally known as general aviation, allow some 130,000 visitors to travel around the state each year. The truth is, whether it's tourism, business, medical care, farmers who use these small planes for crop maintenance, the timber industry -- a vital part of Maine's economy -- or otherwise, general aviation is a silent but crucial economic contributor to our state. Many Maine businesses, for example, consider general aviation an essential tool for their organizations. It serves as a convenient mode of transportation to make a routine meeting that may have taken a couple of days if they had to rely on a major airline. Or they use it to reach plants or warehouses in rural areas, deliver goods to customers, or transport supplies. Maine's general aviation industry adds $521 million to the economy, provides 400 jobs and assists 2,707 pilots through 67 public-use airports. In addition, small general aviation aircraft are used extensively by law enforcement, search and rescue organizations and the Civil Air Patrol to maintain a high level of public safety, especially in the face of emergencies. Many of these same pilots offer their planes for free to assist individuals who need immediate access to medical facilities when none are in close proximity.In addition, general aviation acts as a lifeline for many communities, as many residents depend on small planes to receive necessities, from everyday goods and services to critical medical equipment and construction materials. For communities like Kingfield, Rangeley and Sanford, their local general aviation airport is a vital lifeline for not only their economy, but for emergency response and aviation -based charities as well. Charities like Angel Flight Northeast provide residents in not only Maine, but Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont with access to specialized treatment centers that may take hours or even days to reach by car or may cost hundreds of dollars using a commercial airline.Since May 1996, Angel Flight Northeast has flown more than 38,000 missions and more than 8 million miles, all with a mission to serve those in need. Angel Flight Northeast alone receives the help of 1,100 trained pilots as well as more than 100 "Earth Angels" who donate their time and cars to drive patients to and from the hospital and airports. Half of the patients Angel Flight Northeast aids are children, many suffering from life-threatening cancer, severe burns or crippling diseases.Despite its great benefit to not only our state, but the entire nation, general aviation endured a difficult 2009 with a poor economy, sluggish airplane manufacturing sales and a struggling job market.Thankfully, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins both recognize the great importance general aviation has in our state. Pilots, small business owners, charities and every person who relies on general aviation across Maine thank the senators for their membership in the Senate General Aviation Caucus. We applaud their support and look forward to working with them to continue to make Maine's general aviation industry profitable for the small businesses, rural towns and local communities that rely on it.2010-08-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/Editorial: Airport Gift that Keeps Giving to City.htm?m=51&s=340&id=259As a local Indiana airport used by airlines and general aviation temporarily closes for safety and other upgrades, this editorial reminds readers of the airport's value to the surrounding community. The two-week closure to most air traffic of Columbus Municipal Airport that began Monday ironically highlights the importance of this facility to the community and the bargain the city and its taxpayers have been enjoying since 1971. The action was taken to affect long overdue repairs to both runways. An overlay on them was last put down in the 1980s. The repairs over the next two weeks will include milling the top 7 inches of the pavement and overlaying it with concrete, the first time that more durable material has been used in the history of the 68-year-old facility. There obviously will be some disruptions for major users of the airport that records an average of 125 takeoffs or landings each day. The majority of that traffic consists of commercial flights, but the companies that use the facility have expressed support for the maintenance project and have been able to make other temporary arrangements. The financing of this project is especially good news for the local community because all but $225,000 of the $4.5 million price tag will be paid with federal and state grants. Even better, that $225,000 that will have to be paid by the city's Aviation Commission does not involve tax dollars. The entire amount will be paid by user fees raised by the commission. In fact, the airport has been a self-sustaining operation throughout its history, not only earning revenue from those who use the airport itself but from rental money generated by farmland on the property and areas that have been dedicated to industrial and business development. The airport and its surrounding land were turned over to the city on Dec. 3, 1971, when the U.S. Air Force deactivated Bakalar Air Force Base. The base had been used as a military training facility during World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Immediately envisioned as an area that could spur economic development in Columbus, the deactivated base was also seen as an opportunity to create a campus-like environment where residents of southern Indiana could pursue affordable and convenient post-secondary education. In that respect, it has proved to be wildly successful, not only housing traditional campuses such as those for IUPUC and Ivy Tech but creating unique training facilities for workplace development such as the Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence now under construction. The two weeks the airport will be down to most air traffic (it can still accommodate helicopter landings and takeoffs) will be more than justified by the added safety the repairs will provide. It should also remind the community of the deal it got almost 40 years ago. 2010-08-11http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business aviation gets a lift from improving economy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=258Reed Pigman, president of Texas Jet, plans to break ground soon on a new hangar at Meacham Airport in Fort Worth."My other hangars are full, so if we're going to grow, we're going to need it," he said.Pigman, whose company provides fuel, hangar space and other services to private and corporate aircraft, may be a little more optimistic than many in the aviation business, but others are seeing positive indicators as well."Cautiously optimistic, that's what I'd say we are," said Keith Plumb, president and COO of Executive AirShare, a regional fractional aircraft firm based in Kansas City, that bases its Texas operations out of Meacham Airport. "We're seeing some positive signs, but it's certainly not back to what it was."Positive signs would be welcome as business aviation ran into stiff headwinds in the current recession. Aircraft sales stalled and demand for private jet service fell. While Detroit got all the headlines, Wichita, Kan., where many business aircraft manufacturers are based, was devastated. At the same time, the inventory of used airplanes hit an all-time high and prices for some planes fell 50 percent, according to Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association in Washington, D.C. "Through the first six months of 2010, things have stopped getting worse,"Bolen said. "You can see a recovery if you squint."Bolen said flight hours are up compared with 2009, though still down from 2008."So we can see things are improving, but we're not back yet," he said.General aviation is big business in north Texas. For example, Meacham International Airport has a $616 million impact on the North Texas economy, according to a 2002 Texas Wesleyan University study.Sales of used aircraft also are showing signs of improvement, according to Janine K. Iannarelli, president of Houston-based Par Avion Ltd., a brokerage firm that buys and sells previously-owned business jets."Some used aircraft last year were easy to find," she said. "Now with some aircraft, like the Gulfstream 5, they can be difficult to find. That's a very telling sign."Bolen said normally the used aircraft inventory is about 10 percent of all aircraft available for sales. During the recession, that increased to 19 percent."Now, it's about 12 percent, so it's moving in the right direction," he said.Iannarelli said sales of used business aircraft will continue to grow as the economy improves because the business case remains strong."It's a value proposition," she said. "If your time becomes more valuable than sitting on a plane where your work is limited, companies will start using business jets again. It's that simple. For entrepreneurs just getting a business off the ground, they can't afford the downtime of waiting in an airport."Executive AirShare's Plumb said issues in the commercial airline business are one reason he sees business increasing."The airlines have cut back on the amount of seats available and they've cut back on where they're flying," he said. "That means people and companies are coming to us to get where they need to be."Bolen said more than 100 communities have either lost or seen substantially reduced airline service since the recession hit."Some of those may come back, some may not, but that means for a time business aviation may be the only viable way to reach those locations," he said.Shale plays around the country also have impacted business travel in this area, said Plumb."We have a lot of customers that are flying to the Marcellus Shale play,"he said. "We see that a strong business for us."Several business groups are hoping the government will help boost business aviation by renewing accelerated depreciation for investments in strategic business assets, including aircraft.Bolen testified before Congress on July 14 requesting the extension of accelerated tax depreciation that expired at the end of 2009.Accelerated depreciation "has been periodically used to stimulate capital equipment sales during soft economic times," he said.For Pigman, he knows he needs to think ahead to be ready for any economic upturn."I don't have space in these hangers leased, but I'm full in my other hangers," he said. "If there's an upturn, I want to be ready."2010-07-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/His last flights as corporate pilot end with Special Olympics.htm?m=51&s=340&id=263They were his last two flights as a corporate pilot and Bill Wagner wanted to make them special.He did. He made them memorable for not only himself, but also for 16 Special Olympic athletes and coaches on Saturday.As the chief pilot for Townsend Vision based in Des Moines, Iowa, he flies the fastest civilian aircraft in the world, the Cessna Citation X.Wagner first took to the skies as a fighter pilot in Vietnam. He has flown more than 18,000 hours and now he's retiring, he said.At 7 a.m. Saturday, he was the first pilot to taxi out of Lincoln Airport for the Cessna airlift. He took Florida National Special Olympic athletes and coaches home to Orlando.Then it was back to Lincoln for a second return flight, this time to Tulsa, Okla.Just a few minutes before 2 p.m., Oklahoma Special Olympic athletes and coaches marched up to Wagner's rain forest-themed plane for what would be his last flight as a corporate pilot.He took pictures with them but didn't want to say much about his last flight."I've been thinking about this day for far over a year," he said. "I am very sad, but I have a family that loves and needs me."He had a wide smile and waved goodbye to the crowd as he climbed into the captain's seat one last time.A close friend, Pam Garrett of Seward, said she didn't expect him to say much."He's emotional and he probably just needed to get going," she said.At 2 p.m., the UPS tug was pulling the plane away. Volunteers waved and Doyle Garrett ran alongside the plane to salute his longtime pilot friend.Doyle Garrett is project manager for Duncan Aviation in Lincoln. He met Wagner in 1978 and they've been friends ever since.Garrett said Wagner always signs his letters with tailwinds -- the way Wagner hoped to always fly."I think he's saying goodbye to this portion of his flight career as a corporate pilot, but we will still see him in the aviation business," he said.Wagner plans to move to Denver on Sunday with his wife to be closer to his daughter Brooke, who is a TV anchor. His son, Matt, is a captain for Continental Express.Wagner will stop in Lincoln again Sunday in his private single-engine plane en route to Denver.Duncan Aviation is presenting him with an award: an old propeller with the words "Best wishes to a longtime customer, friend and colleague in aviation from your friends at Duncan Aviation."Reach Alissa Skelton at 402-473-2682 or askelton@journalstar.com.2010-07-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/PrivateSky Aviation Grows.htm?m=51&s=340&id=257PrivateSky Aviation Services in Fort Myers has expanded its core business niche. The Federal Aviation Administration recently certified the company to repair and maintain Gulfstream G550 jets. That means PrivateSky now can perform service work on all the large-cabin models in the Gulfstream fleet. It matters because the G550s "are just coming off manufacturer warranties," said Vincent Wolanin, PrivateSky founder and CEO. Such opportunities are important, but even more so during the current economic storm. Business aviation has decreased by as much as 35 percent in the past year, according to Ed Bolen, chief executive for the National Business Aviation Association. He discussed general aviation and the recession during July 14 testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business. PrivateSky, based at Southwest Florida International Airport, bills itself as "the Gulfstream experts," repairing, maintaining and refurbishing the GII, GIIB, GIII, GIV and GV - which includes the G550 - models. Since the expanded certification, the company has done "a bunch of scheduled maintenance for a G550 based in Hong Kong," Wolanin said. Some of the work was done off-site; some in Fort Myers, Wolanin said. The Gulfstream G550, also known as the Gulfstream V-SP, can fly as far as 7,500 miles nonstop. That's more than the distance between New York City and Tokyo. Using these long-haul planes can make a business operate more efficiently in a global economy, Bolen said in a phone interview with The News-Press. It can be especially important in cultivating business in the so-called BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China, Bolen said. For example, "everybody knows about Beijing and Shanghai, but there are many other major cities in China where there isn't a lot of airline service," Bolen said. PrivateSky grew out of a merger with JetSouth, the former fixed-base operator owned by Dr. John Kagan and his wife, Elizabeth. Wolanin, who built an Albany, N.Y.-based business specializing in commercial development, got into aircraft repair after buying his first plane - a Gulfstream - in the early 1990s. "I got a repair bill: It was quite high." In 2003 PrivateSky debuted its bright-yellow building on Southwest Florida International's north side. Wolanin wouldn't say how many people he employs, but added: "We're actively hiring." Most of the jobs require multiple technical skills. Wolanin estimated 95 percent of his employees formerly worked for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., including four of his chief mechanics. The company has an aircraft repair hangar that's more than 40,000 square feet. When necessary, PrivateSky will dispatch crews to such far-flung places as Europe, South Africa and South America to repair or maintain aircraft for established customers. 2010-07-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/Earning his wings ... again.htm?m=51&s=340&id=256Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer will be sharing the spotlight with St. Helena’s Chuck McKinnon at the 63rd meeting of the National Business Aviation Association in Atlanta, Georgia, later this year. Both men are being recognized for their contributions to business aviation. McKinnon, 94, and a retired IBM pilot, will receive the John P. “Jack” Doswell Award for his pivotal leadership in unlocking the industry’s future in the U.S. and Europe. Fifty years ago McKinnon unveiled IBM’s aviation facilities in France at the Aéroport de Paris-Le Bourget outside Paris, where Charles Lindbergh landed at the end of his historic 1927 trans-Atlantic flight. McKinnon introduced the idea of a company plane and oversaw IBM Euroflight, the first business aviation operation in Europe. Palmer, a voice for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, will receive the 2010 NBAA Meritorious Service to Aviation Award.2010-07-22http://www.noplanenogain-org/Harrison Ford among pilots flying Special Olympics athletes to Lincoln.htm?m=51&s=340&id=255Susan Epps and Michelle Walsh were volunteering inside the Special Olympics medical tent at Duncan Aviation when Harrison Ford pulled up in his green jet. He headed to the pilot's tent. So did they -- with the rationalization that "someone there might have a medical emergency," Epps said, smiling. They watched as people mobbed him. They were within three feet. But they didn't follow when he rode in a golf cart to the news conference nearby in the fire station. After the news conference, Ford returned to the pilot's tent. But few people were there at that point. So Epps, chief operating officer of Cornhusker chapter of the American Red Cross, asked the actor if she could get a photo with him. Walsh, who works at BryanLGH, got out her Motorola phone and took it. "I just asked him if he'd mind, and he said no," Epps said. "I asked him if he ever got tired of this, and he said, 'No, not at all.'" Epps couldn't believe it. She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Indiana Jones. "Now my 19-year-old said I was supposed to say, 'Harrison, aliens? Really?!'" She laughed. "I did not say that." Ford didn't say a lot at the news conference. His remarks lasted maybe a minute. He was soft-spoken. He thanked Cessna and everyone who made the airlift possible, said he was honored to be part of it. "I had a great flight today," he said. He said he got to meet some "wonderful people" in the five Special Olympics athletes and two coaches he flew into Lincoln from Albuquerque, N.M. He talked about general aviation, the important service it provides to the world -- and efforts like the Cessna airlift, in which Cessna owners from around the country donate their jets to bring in thousands of Special Olympics athletes and coaches. General aviation, he said, is little understood by the public and by the policymakers in Washington. He said he'll be back Saturday to pick up the athletes and coaches and return with them to New Mexico. He said he wasn't going to hang around in Lincoln because he had to get back to Santa Fe, N.M., where he's working on a movie. He wore a white ballcap and longish hair (maybe for the role?). He also wore a wedding ring. He got married a few weeks back to actress Calista Flockhart. Someone congratulated him on the wedding. He said thanks. Later in the medical tent, Walsh was sending the photo to Epps' phone. "It's going to be my screensaver," Epps said. What was her impression of him? He seemed human, she said. He was a little shaggy-haired under the white ballcap. He was cute. "I'd leave with him." she said, laughing. "I'd leave with him." 2010-07-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Chasing phantoms in the business jet market.htm?m=51&s=340&id=253Reading the runes of a market is nothing if not difficult. Trying to work out the many mysteries of the market for used business jets is even worse. The statistics say 14.9 per cent of the fleet is up for sale. This is, historically, a very high figure and, industry experts say, it weighs heavily on the prices of both used and new jets, as well as on sales of new jets. But how many of those aircraft are really in want of a new home? One jet broker gives me the example of an old Dassault Falcon 900 that has been on the market for some time and is worth maybe $16m (£10m, €12m). But, when you ask, the seller is firm on a price of roughly $24m. The owner knows the value, and he wants to seem willing to sell. But while no one offers the asking price, he is using the aircraft. In the post-crunch world of apparent excess being censured by shareholders, “wherever there’s a sense of accountability you’ll find aircraft on the market”, the broker says. The damage done to the corporate aviation sector in 2008, when the chiefs of the three big Detroit carmakers flew by private jet to Washington to plead for public funds, is hard to overstate. It fed into popular perceptions about wasteful perks and prompted a backlash against executives’ use of private aviation. Even the broker says: “If you’re a CEO, the private jet is the last frontier in terms of perks.” The expensive campaign led by Cessna to promote business flying was necessary to give the other side of the argument. But, in the meantime, the pressure has been high on corporate flight departments – in spite of the factors that point to the use of private aviation as a valid business tool. As one analyst puts it: “When you’re paying a chief executive $5m a year, it doesn’t make any sense to have them sitting for two hours in an airport lounge.” A rise in some sectors of the charter market adds to the impression that flying executives and key advisers to meetings or site visits is seen as essential – and is becoming more widespread as mergers and acquisitions activity builds up again – but may still be hard to justify when a company-owned aircraft is used. Mark Wooller, head of corporate aviation and consultancy at the Independent Bureau of Aviation, an advisory group, agrees. “There are definitely companies that have put jets up for sale because of public perceptions,” he says. “They needed to be seen to be selling. When the dust settles, a lot of aircraft will go off the market.” This is not to underestimate the extent of the slide in values. One market commentator points to an ultra-long-range Bombardier Global Express sold at the top of the market for $60m. Today it is worth $45m. “The owner has to crystallise his loss or use the aircraft for a long time to amortise the loss over a long period,” he says. According to Richard Aboulafia, vice-president of analysis with Teal Group, a US-based consultancy, “pricing hasn’t recovered at all”. He has been consistent in labelling the current economic situation a three-year downturn, with plenty of pain to come. “We’re only halfway through,” he says. For now, the difficult part is working out how many phantom planes there are in this section of the market – and what effect they are having. “The real picture isn’t pretty either,” Mr Aboulafia reckons. He says there is a definite phantom sales component in the total and that one can take a percentage point, maybe more, off the total. But even at 13.5 per cent of the fleet, he points out, the ratio is high. Mr Wooller says: “We need to get down to single digits to see prices increase. Typically, when you get down to 3-4 per cent, then prices really firm up. But that’s not on the horizon. Not in the short term.” Some genuine sellers, he adds, are withdrawing their aircraft from the market because they calculate it is more worthwhile to keep using them rather than take a huge loss by accepting the low prices out there. The more that happens, the more prices will rise. For now, though, the market remains soft. According to Mr Wooller, “it probably needs a good couple of years before it gets back to normal again”. French passion In France, again, to fly the new Dassault 900LX – the aircraft is working its way through the certification process, and I was the first outsider to take the controls – I was struck again by the company’s enthusiasm. Almost everyone I spoke to at Dassault Aviation, it seemed, not just flies but also owns a small aircraft or a share of one. The links between employees – at a personal level – and the birth of the aircraft restoration movement in France, centred on Aérodrome de Cerny-La Ferté-Alais, north-east of Paris, are also extensive. But the French passion extends beyond flyers. Some time ago, while flight testing the TBM 850, built by Daher-Socata in Tarbes, an air-traffic controller abandoned his laconic and businesslike manner for evident enthusiasm when he passed on a military pilot’s request to use our turboprop aircraft for target practice. To my relief the Armée de l’Air wanted to intercept us rather than shoot us down. But when the Mirage appeared, its pilot enjoyed a spot of formation flying between rather dissimilar types before giving a Top Gun wave and peeling off to return to base. Asian growth On the eve of the Farnborough Air Show in the UK, Boeing’s long-term outlook for airline and freight traffic worldwide sees a growth in passenger volumes of 6 per cent this year, after a fall of 2 per cent last year, in what the US aircraft maker calls an “intensely dynamic”, continually evolving market. The most dynamic – and fastest growing – is the Asia-Pacific region. The fortunes of corporate aviation follow a similar trend. While most business aircraft are made by manufacturers based in North America, those aircraft makers have long since taken more than half of their orders from outside their continent, as our interactive graphic shows. And that proportion continues to grow. We can expect new sales, announced at Farnborough and elsewhere, to join the orders for Airbus corporate jets and other high-value machinery that have already come from the world’s fastest-growing areas, in particular the Asia-Pacific region. 2010-07-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cessna airlift for Special Olympics to start Saturday.htm?m=51&s=340&id=254The business aviation community is lending a hand for athletes needing transport to the 2010 Special Olympics USA in Lincoln, NE this weekend. "Cessna business jet operators will spend the next two Saturdays transporting 800 athletes," the story reports:   http://blogs.kansas.com/aviation/2010/07/16/cessna-airlift-for-special-olympics-to-start-saturday 2010-07-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Fore! NBAA To Honor Arnold Palmer.htm?m=51&s=340&id=248FORE! This year's NBAA convention will be even more entertaining than ever.  Now we can gawk at all the aircraft and dream of owning our own fleet and also brush elbows with one of golf's greatest legends.  The NBAA has just announced that Arnold Palmer will receive its 2010 Meritorious Service to Aviation Award.  In addition, Chuck McKinnon, a business pilot and aviation legend, will receive its 2010 Jack Doswell Award.The Meritorious Service to Aviation Award is NBAA’s most distinguished honor, presented annually to an individual who, by virtue of a lifetime of personal dedication, has made significant, identifiable contributions that have materially advanced aviation interests. The Doswell Award is granted for lifelong individual achievement on behalf of, and in support of the aims, goals and objectives of business aviation."NBAA is proud to recognize these two outstanding members of the business aviation community for their dedication and many contributions to the industry," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.Arnold Palmer is a respected advocate for business aviation. He also knows first-hand the importance of business aviation. Because his business is located in Latrobe, PA – a town not served by the commercial airlines – business aviation has been a vital element in the success of Palmer's post-golf career enterprises.Palmer serves as a spokesperson for the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is jointly sponsored by NBAA and GAMA. The campaign educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the country.Palmer will be represented with the Meritorious Service Award in a very special general session at the NBAA convention exhibit floor on Oct. 20.In addition, Chuck McKinnon will receive the 2010 Doswell Award at the convention.  He is being recognized for his pioneering role in business aviation, and his pivotal leadership in unlocking the industry’s future in the U.S., Europe and beyond.McKinnon flew as a commercial pilot for United Airlines during World War II. When the carrier received an air transport contract, he flew supplies and troops in the U.S. and overseas. In 1954, he was tapped to fly the first business airplane used by IBM, which transported IBM engineers to locations across the country for on-site projects.As IBM’s flight department grew, McKinnon unveiled the company’s aviation facilities at Le Bourget Airport. The flight department was the first business aviation operation in Europe, with three aircraft based at Le Bourget. McKinnon continually championed the value of Le Bourget to French government officials and was instrumental in thwarting plans to level the airport to make room for residential and commercial development.2010-07-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Leaders Speak Up for General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=246General aviation got an undeserved bad rap when corporate CEOs flew private jets to Washington to ask for federal bailouts.Especially in Ohio, where general aviation is a $5.5 billion industry, employing 142,000 directly and indirectly, several hundred employees of area aviation manufacturers heard Wednesday."We've not done a good job of telling our story," said Pete Bunce, president of the Washington D.C.-based General Aviation Manufacturers Association. "We're one of the bright spots in the aviation industry."Bunce's remarks came during a Lunken Airport rally sponsored by his association, Evendale-based GE Aviation and Piqua-based Hartzell Propeller Inc. General aviation includes recreational and business flying, basically everything except commercial and military aviation.The event also included speeches in support of aviation from Ohio's Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Reps. Steve Driehaus (D- West Price Hill) and Jean Schmidt, (R-Miami Township).Brown said aviation manufacturing is critical to meeting President Obama's goal of doubling exports in five years."We're counting on you to help us double our exports," he told the aviation workers.Locally, the general aviation industry includes small businesses such as Batavia-based Sportys flying school and aviation catalog; small contractmanufacturing shops that make engine and airplane components; and some of Ohio's largest companies such as GE Aviation, Honeywell and Parker Aerospace.Bunce said Schmidt, as member of the House Transportation Committee, has worked hard to improve the exporting climate for general aviation components to Europe, a key market.Schmidt, who traced the history of aviation to the dreams of Dayton's Orville and Wilbur Wright, said a spirit of innovation is alive today among Ohio's general aviation companies.Although the focus of the event was on general aviation, the loudest applause came during mentions of GE Aviation's fight to save defense budget funding for its alternative engine for the Joint Strike Fighter jet. GE says the program supports up to 1,000 jobs at its Evendale complex.The Obama administration opposes including funding for the engine in next year's defense budget as too expensive. GE and Driehaus argue engine competition between GE and Pratt & Whitney, the primary engine supplier, will keep overall program costs down.Driehaus got some of the heaviest applause Wednesday when he told the crowd: "By the way, we're going to win that fight."2010-07-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/In Ohio, General Aviation Equals Jobs.htm?m=51&s=340&id=249At an advocacy event in Cincinnati hosted by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association highlights the role of general aviation, including business, in creating jobs. GAMA's Pete Bunce, cites major Ohio employers involved in business aviation, including Air 10 Jet Center, Executive Jet, General Electric's Aviation Unit, and Hartsell Propeller. Simply put, Bunce tells viewers: "General aviation equals jobs." View the news segment in its entirety:2010-07-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/In Ohio, Planes Mean Gains.htm?m=51&s=340&id=250At an advocacy event hosted by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association at Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport, business aviation leaders and state policymakers highlight the value of all general aviation, including business aviation, in the Buckeye State. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-2-OH) reminds viewers: "General aviation creates jobs - jobs throughout our district, our state and our country. That station also reported that general aviation is Ohio's biggest employer, supporting 8,000 jobs, and $5.5 billion for the state's economy each year, and that every two seconds, an Ohio-made engine lifts a plane in the air." View the news segment in its entirety:2010-07-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/In Ohio, No Plane, No Gain.htm?m=51&s=340&id=251At an advocacy event in Cincinnati hosted by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the importance of all general aviation, including business aviation, is underscored. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-1-OH) highlights the role of general aviation manufacturing in Ohio's economy, telling viewers: "Putting together those aircraft and those aircraft engines are important, but all the component parts that allow that to happen are what make Ohio's economy tick."View the news segment in its entirety: 2010-07-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/GA Manufacturers in Ohio: No Plane, No Gain.htm?m=51&s=340&id=252The General Aviation Manufacturers Association hosts an advocacy event at Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport, showing how general aviation, including business aviation, supports jobs and the economy in Ohio. The television news story notes that on a national level, the industry contributes more than $150 billion to the economy each year, and supports more than one million jobs.  View the news segment in its entirety: 2010-07-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Lee County Airports Benefit Region's Economy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=245Southwest Florida International, Page Field pump in $3.8 billionLee County's two airports pumped an estimated $3.8 billion into the region in 2009.That's from the Florida Department of Transportation's recently completed study of airport economic impacts across the Sunshine State. The county Port Authority released area-specific data from the study Tuesday. Among the highlights:Southwest Florida International Airport put more than $3.7 billion into the local economy from airport and airport-related activities, and accounted for 41,588 jobs.Page Field General Aviation Airport contributed $94.5 million, and was responsible for more than 987 jobs.Statewide, the study credited aviation for an estimated $114.7 billion in annual economic output.In light of the economic downturn, "these are good numbers," county airports spokeswoman Victoria Moreland said. It wasn't clear when a comparable statewide study had been done.The study focused on 19 commercial airports, 102 general aviation airports, and 11 military facilities.Economic impact studies like this are important for airports and communities, said Daniel Petree, dean of the College of Business at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.The studies help airport leaders decide whether their business strategies and product mix are working, Petree said, adding: "If you're going to public authorities to make a case for new capital improvements, you want to be able to show they will have a very positive impact on the community." 2010-06-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/What Business Leaders Should Know About Business Aviation (Part One) .htm?m=51&s=340&id=244Contrary to popular media, business aircraft overwhelmingly exist to help businesses earn more profits with increased effectiveness and efficiency.But, the recent negative public opinion stimulated by the media has been intimidating many business leaders and thus hindering their company's productivity. The loss in productivity is affecting bottom lines. If you have been a user or want-to-be user of business aviation, what have your opportunity costs been?Do you know what resources are available to you to help you regain or establish your utilization of business aviation? Many leaders of companies have some very limited understandings of aviation and business aviation in particular. Those types of services do not tend to exist in every company and when they do exist they are out at an airport somewhere. So, if you want to look into business aviation or need more information, do you know what resources are available? And of the resources that are available, do you know which ones are more likely to truly work in a way more biased to benefit your bottom line over someone else's?Some of us in the BizAv industry are aimed at the non-aviation business leader, looking to help them sift through the mass of our very complex industry. We also have associations like the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Also, we have credentials in our industry that can help you to discriminate areas and levels of expertise. There are Master's degrees in aviation management and even specialized MBAs and very soon the first aviation doctoral degree graduates. The NBAA has developed the CAM, which is the Certified Aviation Manager designation.The bottom line: get some help with the topic of aviation. Just as you call a lawyer to counsel you on law, a doctor for medicine or a CPA for taxes, there are parties available to help you make your business more money. By using BizAv, businesses move people rapidly, when they need to and more directly to where they need to be. The process provides strategic advantages that have proven to be successful. Look for more on this topic soon here at Forbes.com.Jeffrey Reich is the Principal of Elevon Consulting where he coaches business leaders on business aviation optimization for value maximization.2010-06-11http://www.noplanenogain-org/Making The Case For Business Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=243Business aviation veterans who have handled every type of weather became ill from one scene in Washington in November 2008. Three top auto industry executives flew private jets from Detroit to plead for a federal bailout. Couldn't you have jet-pooled, one congressman asked? For an aviation industry already hit hard by the global recession, the scene cast a harmful stereotype in sharp relief. Here was more evidence that private aviation was expensive, wasteful and elite. Within months, pilots, aircraft owners and plane manufacturers were striking back. Newly energized advocates organized around a new leader at a top trade group with an extensive government background and a new congressional caucus. Two other trade groups published a new business aviation survey, showing that most business flights ferried technical, sales or service staff or middle managers. "Only 22% of passengers on business aircraft are top management," according to the October 2009 survey prepared for The National Business Aviation Association and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Their survey also found that most companies operating business aircraft are small, with fewer than 500 employees, and that 80% of flights are made to airports with infrequent or no airline service. Industry advocates knew they had work to do to make a positive impression on Capitol Hill, but they also knew they had plenty of allies in both parties. Organizing a General Aviation Caucus in both the House and the Senate brought together the strongest elected voices supporting business aviation. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., helped found the House caucus last year and wants to be sure the government keeps private flying safe and accessible. "As a pilot myself, I know that I appreciate easy access to general aviation airports," he said. Craig Fuller, who became president of the largest aviation group in the world, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, in January 2009, brings decades of public policy experience to the task of advocating for general aviation. Fuller was chief of staff to then Vice President George H.W. Bush and has been flying since he was 16. "We want the government to continue to allow us the freedom to fly," Fuller said in an interview with Forbes, adding that such freedom "is in many ways uniquely enjoyed" in the United States. "That means," Fuller added, "not over regulating or over taxing to the point when people can't afford to do it." 2010-06-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Massport sees Worcester facility rebounding as skies get crowded.htm?m=51&s=340&id=242Ailing airport seeking its nicheWhen the Massachusetts Port Authority takes possession of Worcester Regional Airport from the City of Worcester on July 1, it will be inheriting a debt-ridden operation in need of improvement. Runways need repaving, the landing system doesn’t allow planes to land in the lowest levels of visibility, hangars are outdated, and the road to the 64-year-old airport winds through five miles of city streets. But Massport, which operates Logan International Airport in Boston and has run the Worcester airport for a decade, says the facility will be an asset as demand for air travel increases and the number of airports and runways remains the same. “I would say it’s a diamond that’s half-polished,’’ said Andrew Davis, who has managed the facility for Massport for 18 months. “We see an opportunity to develop this airport further.’’ The $17 million sale, a combination of land transfers and $14.4 million in cash payments, was part of the overhaul of the state’s transportation system. State officials want the airport to be improved so it can attract more business to the region, and they know the authority is better equipped to make it happen than the City of Worcester, Massport spokesman Richard Walsh said. “The state recognized that we had the resources and expertise to manage the airport,’’ he said. The transaction is awaiting approval from the Worcester City Council, the Worcester Regional Airport Commission, the Massport board, and the Federal Aviation Administration. The Worcester airport is served by a sole commercial airline, Direct Air, which flies a few times a week to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Fort Myers and Orlando in Florida. Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the airport had four carriers — including Delta Connection, American Eagle, and US Airways Express — and at its peak, in 1989, it served about 354,000 passengers. In 2009, however, fewer than 50,000 people passed through the airport. Massport would like to attract more airlines, but the authority’s initial effort will be to promote general aviation, Davis said — namely providing services for corporate jets and planes carrying sports teams. “I think a lot of the focus is on trying to put this airport on the map,’’ he said. With four major airports within about an hour’s drive of Worcester — in Boston, Windsor Locks, Conn., Manchester, N.H., and Warwick, R.I. — passengers have plenty of options. But there are about a million people who live closer to the Worcester airport than to any other, said Tim DeSantis, a former cochairman of the Worcester Regional Airport Commission. “It’s a very much underutilized facility,’’ he said, adding that, with Massport’s ownership, the airport will be in better hands. “The city has no business trying to run an airport.’’ And though demand for air travel dropped, it is starting to creep back up and is expected to keep rising. “One thing people don’t realize is, certainly in New England, there will never be another airport built,’’ DeSantis said. “You are not going to go into a densely populated area and claim a couple hundred acres of land and clear it to build an airport.’’ http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/06/01/ailing_worcester_airport_seeking_its_niche/2010-06-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/ANALYSIS-Business jets take flight, but rebound to be slow.htm?m=51&s=340&id=241 ATLANTA, May 28 (Reuters) - The business jet market is stabilizing after seeing one of its toughest years in 2009, but a return to annual growth in deliveries is at least a year away. In recent months, business jet manufacturers and suppliers have said rising flight activity and a steady decline in the number of used aircraft for sale competing with new planes signal that the market has likely hit the bottom of its decline. "While we're all keeping a close eye on Europe, the GDP and other indicators in North America but also in some of the emerging markets are back into positive territory," said Jens Hennig, vice president of operations with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, a Washington, D.C., group that tracks non-commercial aviation. "So that's why you see stabilization for now and longer-term optimism," he said. Still, at least one observer said fallout from the European debt crisis could pose a temporary stumbling block as the business jet market slowly moves toward better times. "Europe is the industry's second-largest market," said Brian Foley, a New Jersey-based business aviation consultant. "With all the uncertainty over there and the credit markets tight again, it's certainly had an effect on the recovery of business aviation." The European debt issue could hurt sales enough to cause temporary plant closings and furloughs at jet manufacturers in coming months, Foley said. North America accounted for 49 percent of business jet deliveries last year, down from 80 percent a decade ago, Hennig said. The business jet market took a hard landing in 2009, when demand tumbled after five years of annual delivery increases as companies clamped down on spending and tighter credit made purchases difficult. Jet makers cut thousands of jobs as orders slumped. SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT Now, shipments are declining at a slower pace. Still, experts say 2010 will mark another down year for deliveries, with the market potentially seeing a rebound in 2011 or 2012. For example, J.P. Morgan expects deliveries to fall 15 percent this year and perhaps rise in 2011, assuming the global economy recovers. Foley said he expects a drop of 10 percent for 2010 and a smaller decrease in 2011 before an upswing in 2012. "We expect to see 2010 as a trough year" followed by growth, Scott Donnelly, chief executive of Cessna parent Textron Inc said at a recent investor conference. "The exact pace of that growth is obviously going to be dictated by the market and largely attributable to the corporate profits around the world." Business jet shipments fell 14 percent to 164 in the first quarter of this year from 2009, according to data released this month from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. That was an improvement over the 36 percent fall in the first quarter of 2009 from 2008. "For a while, you had lots of inventory piling up and you had prices falling," said Fred Reid, president of Flexjet, a unit of Bombardier that sells fractional ownership in jets and offers charter and managed aircraft services. "The inventory has reversed and the pricing has stabilized." General Dynamics Corp said its Gulfstream unit had its biggest order intake since mid-2008 in the 2010 first period as its business jet orders outpaced defaults for the fourth-straight quarter as the economy improved. Political attacks on business jets as symbols of Wall Street excess have also subsided, easing another overhang on the industry, said Clay Jones, chief executive of avionics supplier Rockwell Collins. Industry leaders said the criticism from lawmakers that began in late 2008 cast business jets in a negative light. With commercial airplanes now more crowded as airlines have cut seat capacity, business jets are gaining renewed recognition as a safe and time-saving option for executives on the go, Jones said. "It's getting harder and harder to move through the air transport system as (airline) load factors are up and delays occur," Jones said. "So there's an opportunity cost for using (business) aircraft that makes it attractive." (Reporting by Karen Jacobs, editing by Dave Zimmerman) 2010-05-28http://www.noplanenogain-org/Westchester County Airport's Contributions Celebrated .htm?m=51&s=340&id=240The Westchester County Airport's contributions to the economy of the region and its commitment to the environment were celebrated last week, at an event that drew more than 300 local officials and representatives of the business and aviation communities."Westchester Business Takes Flight," was sponsored by the Westchester Aviation Association, which represents general aviation at the Westchester County Airport, and Hawker Beechcraft Corporation.During the luncehon, County Executive Robert P. Astorino was presented with the association's Environmental Leadership Award, in recognition of the continuing efforts by the county to make sure the airport is operated in an environmentally friendly way.Noise abatement awards were given to about 50 aviation companies or operators. Among the top achievers: RD Aviation LP, which flew a Cessna Citation 550 with the lowest average sound level recorded for a jet aircraft, and JPMorgan Chase, operator of two Gulfstream 450s, a Gulfstream V and a Gulfstream 550, which got similar recognition for a jet fleet.In addition, the Aviation Week McGraw-Hill Scholarship was presented to a deserving student, Joshua Blum. In his remarks to the gathering, Astorino detailed the economic importance to the airport to the community."Our airport is a tool to promote economic development," he said, "It is home to over 80 businesses.  There are approximately 1,300 jobs on site. The airport does not cost our taxpayers anything. Its revenues pay for its expenses. But the economic engine goes far beyond that. The airport generates money for our economy. The last time we did a formal study of this in 1998 we estimated that the airport generated $649 million in ancillary economic benefit to the Westchester/ Fairfield area. The number no doubt is much higher today."While applauding the economic impact, he said, "Any discussion of the airport and its future must also be framed in the context of keeping it both community and environmentally friendly. In 2004, our airport became the third airport in the nation to have its environmental management system certified to have met the internationally recognized ISO 14001 standard. And we will continue to strive to keep that certification." The 2009 Spirit of Noise Abatement Awards were presented to these avaitaion companies or operators:Helicopter - Winners Citigroup Corporate AviationGateway Helicopters IncIBM Flight OperationsInterlaken Capital Aviation ServicesSafe Flight Instrument CorporationWayfarer Ketch Management, LLCTurbopropeller - WinnersAir FrantzDonnellan AviationRichard A. Foreman & Assoc., Inc.John FrielGreenhill AviationJoe HowleyISDM, IncK.W. Griffen Packaging Co.NY Power AuthorityRobert Wilner Turbopropeller - Honorable Mention: Platinum Gene HallDr. David VolpiZaitz Overland, LLCJet - Winners Air FrantzBresnan International Aviation, LLCJP Morgan ChaseLower Cross Aircraft Corp.The McGraw-Hill CompaniesMetLife -- managed by Jet AviationPMI Global Services, IncPolo Aviation (managed by Jet Aviation)RD Aviation LPRT VanderbiltWayfarer Ketch Mgt., LLCJet - Honorable Mention: PlatinumAIM AviationBeauty CentralChamarac, IncCitigroup Corporate AviationEAC Air LLCErnst & Young, LLCKing AircraftPolygon AirWayfarer AviationJet - Honorable Mention: GoldCP AirEastway AviationOAKLR AviationPolaris AviationWISC, LtdJet - Honorable Mention: BronzeHM, LLCPepsiCo   2010-05-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/GAMA Finds GA Sales .htm?m=51&s=340&id=239Sales of general aviation aircraft didn't drop as dramatically in the first quarter of this year as they did the year before, but nonetheless, sales are down by 15 percent overall compared to the first quarter of 2009, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) reported on Monday. Worldwide, a total of 390 GA airplanes were delivered. "These numbers are being released on the heels of Europe's premier business aviation show, the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition [EBACE], where many of our manufacturers noted that the market seems to be stabilizing," said GAMA President Pete Bunce. "Reported flight activity from the FAA and Eurocontrol is on an upward trend and the used aircraft inventory is slowly decreasing. However, these first-quarter figures reveal that our industry is far from a recovery." Some GA manufacturers did report slight upticks in deliveries. Cirrus Design, for example, rose from 39 to 53 deliveries, and Piper reported an increase from 22 in 1Q09 to 30 in the same period this year. Diamond saw a decline from 49 to 35. Cessna delivered 135 aircraft in 1Q09 and 80 in the latest quarter. The piston airplane segment overall was down 7.3 percent in the first quarter, with 166 units delivered, compared to 179 airplanes in the first three months of 2009. The turboprop segment delivered 60 units, down from 89 units during 1Q09, for a 32.6 percent decrease. Business jet shipments fell 14.1 percent in the first quarter with 164 airplanes delivered, compared to 191 in 1Q09. GAMA said the continuation of bonus depreciation will be crucial to help the industry increase production and bring back lost jobs. Bunce said, "We join with the rest of the manufacturing sector in calling upon the U.S. Congress to approve bonus depreciation for products ordered in 2010." The Obama administration has shown strong support for the initiative, he added. The complete 1Q10 report and the 2009 report are both posted online. 2010-05-10http://www.noplanenogain-org/U.S. Business Jet Plane Makers Not Exactly Soaring .htm?m=51&s=340&id=237NEW YORK - After one of the toughest years that business jet makers have ever experienced, U.S. executives who have had to halt production lines and cut thousands of jobs are leery about predicting better days any time soon."We've got the company about the size it needs to be for a very bad market," said W.W. Boisture Jr., chief executive of Hawker Beechcraft, one of the oldest American aviation companies. "I think it's premature to call 2010 a recovery year," he added. "The market still feels the way it did at the end of 2009."Last year will not be one that Hawker or other North American makers of business jets like Bombardier, Cessna Aircraft or Gulfstream Aerospace will soon forget. As the credit markets froze in the fall of 2008, demand for aircraft began to slide. The slide became almost a free fall when - after the executives of the big carmakers flew their company jets to Washington to ask for billions in government aid - business aircraft became for a time synonymous with corporate greed and bad governance.While the worst may be over and business jets may again be returning to the skies, industry veterans said the recovery was likely to be slow and grinding. The downturn left the business jet market saturated with used aircraft for sale that could weigh on sales and prices of new jets for as long as two years. And the weak dollar and easy credit that sent jet deliveries to a 2008 peak are not expected to return soon. Aircraft financing remains tight and, for some older planes, nonexistent."It's going to be a difficult year," said Bob Horner, senior vice president for sales at Bombardier Business Aircraft. Business jet deliveries by Bombardier, based in Montreal, fell 25 percent in the year that ended in January and the company expects a further 15 percent drop this year. "When there is uncertainty in the economy, it is magnified in the business jet market," he said. "We seem to be the first sector affected and the last to come out of it."Shipments of business jets globally fell 33.7 percent in 2009 to 870, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, a trade group. For jets manufactured in the United States, deliveries plunged 46.2 percent to 514.Robert Wilson, chairman of the association and president for business and general aviation at Honeywell Aerospace, said that despite some signs of an up-tick, the group was holding to its forecast that business jet deliveries would dip below 700 this year before gradually rising in 2011 and 2012."I think we are going to go into 2011 looking at the same order level we had in 2009, with the real expansion coming in 2012," he said.One sign that the market is at least heading toward recovery is an increase in the number of business jets in the air. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, business jet flight activity was up 18.12 percent from a year earlier in March, the fourth consecutive month to show a rise. That rebound, however, followed a plunge of nearly 30 percent in business flights recorded by spring of last year.Cessna, a unit of Textron, has seen the average daily use of its Citation fleet of business jets stabilize at about 6.5 hours, after a precipitous plunge from about 9 hours at the height of the boom in 2008. But that has not produced new orders yet, said Doug Oliver, a company spokesman. "We're encouraged, but we don't see growth until the latter part of 2011," he said.Cessna, which like Hawker Beechcraft is based in Wichita, Kansas, was geared up to deliver 535 Citation jets in 2009. Because of cancellations and deferments, it wound up delivering 289, and it expects to deliver only 225 this year. After thousands of layoffs, it employs about half as many people as it did two years ago.As the recession deepened in early 2009, inventories of used aircraft reached a peak in May, when 18 percent of all business jets were for sale. According to UBS Investment Research, inventories have declined to about 15 percent but remain well above the historical average of 12 to 13 percent."There is still a significant overhang that we are going to have to work through," said Mr. Wilson of Honeywell. While there were signs that transactions were picking up, he said, more than three-quarters of current deals were being done in cash, because financing was either unavailable or so expensive that buyers were turning it down.Louis C. Seno, who worked in aircraft financing for 30 years before becoming chief executive of Jet Support Services in Chicago, which provides maintenance service programs for business jets, said jet financing was available "but it is much harder to access." He added, "The deals require much more money down, are for shorter terms and lenders are staying away from older-generation aircraft."Industry executives say that a recovery will probably be driven by European and Asian demand rather than traditional North American customers. For the first time in 2009, the share of business jet deliveries going to the North American market fell below 50 percent, according to the manufacturers association. The group said that trend was likely to continue, with customers in Asia, Africa and the Middle East having the highest expectations of replacing their corporate or private jets."The strongest demand is definitely outside of the United States," said Mr. Boisture of Hawker Beechcraft.As to the type of aircraft that buyers prefer, demand has been strong - even during the recession- for larger, longer-range jets, according to some industry executives."From our standpoint, demand continues to be good in the large-cabin segment," said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for Gulfstream Aerospace, a unit of General Dynamics, based in Savannah, Georgia. The company delivered 75 large-cabin aircraft in 2009 and expects to deliver 77 this year. It says it has a backlog of almost 200 orders for its new, $64.5 million, G650 model, which it says is the largest, fastest jet ever made specifically for business use.That underlines a fundamental point about an eventual recovery in business aviation, said Mr. Wilson, of Honeywell. "Introduction of new technology and new models spurs demand," he said. "That is something we can count on going forward."2010-05-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/Crowds attend Centennial Airport open house.htm?m=51&s=340&id=236By Tom MundsRay Arkland brought his sons to the April 28 open house at Centennial Airport because because they like airplanes.“I have always loved airplanes and you don’t get a lot of chances to get up, touch and even get onto some of them like that corporate jet there,” the Englewood man said. “I doubt we’ll every get to fly on one, but now the boys and I can say we checked out the inside of one and even got to sit in the seats. It’s way cool. We also got to get up close to a World War II fighter. The boys really liked that.”Arkland and the boys were just there to look at the planes, but business-related reasons brought a majority of the hundreds who attended the first event sponsored by the Colorado Aviation Business Association.Jason Tannenbaum, in Denver on business from Chicago, said he came to look at the couple of new aircraft on display to see if the company he worked for might be wise to trade up at this time, while Highlands Ranch residents Carl and Claudia Simpson said they came to the event to gather information about flight schools.“Our son has his heart set on learning to fly and we know nothing about that subject,” Carl said. “There are quite a few schools here so we are gathering information to take home and look over before we decide which ones we want to visit because, if we can, we are going to let our son get his private pilot’s license.”The association held the event to showcase business aviation as well as the contributions Centennial Airport and the aviation-related businesses and activities make to the local and metro-area economy.“There are a lot of different operations out of this airport,” said David Purvis, association member. “There are scores of privately owned small aircraft flying in and out of the airport all the time as well as business-related flights for corporations and medical transport services. The activities mean jobs and related economic impact on the surrounding areas.”The busy flying schedule is supported by companies maintaining the planes, filling the fuel tanks and performing other services. A 2008 survey indicated there are more than 10,000 people employed at Centennial Airport.There is a hotel adjacent to the airport, rental car services on the field and three restaurants located on or nearby. Parker resident Lloyd Petrovich said he drives to the airport regularly to eat at the Perfect Landing restaurant so he and his wife can watch the planes take off and land.“The food is good and we really enjoy watching the planes,” he said. “It is a great way to spend lunch time or even come out for an early dinner so there is still daylight to watch the planes. We try to get here at least a couple times a month.”To showcase the airport and its services, the day-long event featured a number of displays inside a hanger and a lineup of different types of aircraft parked outside.“The state association is located at Centennial and used to be the Centennial Aviation Business Association so this was a natural location for our first open house,” Purvis said. “We are very pleased so many people came out today and we are thinking about putting on similar events at some of the 60 other general aviation airports in the state.”http://coloradocommunitynewspapers.com/articles/2010/04/30/highlands_ranch_herald/news/07_tm_airport_hr.txt2010-04-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/(VIDEO) Building a Better Airplane: Cessna Combats the Recession.htm?m=51&s=340&id=235A recent CNN story looks at how the recession and misperceptions about business aviation have devastated business airplane manufacturer Cessna, and also highlights how the resilient company has responded to the crisis and taken steps to emerge as the economy recovers. "The company lost half of its orders, half of its jobs - six thousand in Wichita alone," the CNN story reports, noting that Cessna has used the down-time "to reconsider many manufacturing methods...looking for new ideas, new savings, new efficiencies..." in order to "protect jobs on the ground and planes in the sky." Cessna Aircraft Company CEO Jack Pelton, who serves on the Board of Directors for both NBAA and GAMA, tells CNN: "We said let's go re-examine how we build airplanes and how we can become better at it." View the segment in its entirety.2010-04-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/That Corporate Jet Sometimes Makes Sense.htm?m=51&s=340&id=233AFTER two years, "business jet" no longer sounded disreputable.Then last week, the nonprofit investigative reporting organization ProPublica released a report, which was published in USA Today. The report identified fliers of corporate jets who had been hiding their use of those aircraft.After a 15-month battle, the Federal Aviation Administration released to ProPublica a list of about 1,100 private aircraft whose flights have been blocked from public view. The flights are hidden even though basic information on every passenger flight - including aircraft number, departure and destination - is routinely published in real time by the F.A.A. and available on flight-tracking sites like FlightAware.com.According to the ProPublica report, those hiding use of private jets included the insurer American International Group, the restaurant chain Hooters, a televangelist, some colleges and several media companies - among them (oops) Gannett, the publisher of USA Today.The rationale cited for hiding flights is security. That is, a corporate spy could deduce information about sensitive deals from a company's comings and goings in that big Gulfstream. The companies also persuaded the F.A.A. that making flight information public could expose executives on the company jet to personal safety risks.Of course, a cynic might suspect that hiding the use of a corporate jet is probably driven as much by a desire to deflect public anger as by the need to protect some company executive. No one, after all, can forget that top executives of the three major American automakers flew their big corporate jets to Washington when they appealed for aid from Congress in 2008. The public fury over that helped to knock down the already struggling business aviation industry.But private aviation is beginning to climb back. A UBS research report in February said that private aviation had now become a "stable market, after two years of deterioration." Business jet flights were up 5 percent in December, the first monthly increase since mid-2007, UBS said.Meanwhile, in the commotion about abuse of corporate jets, it's easy to overlook the genuinely sensible argument for business aviation. As commercial air service shrinks, with even some midsize markets losing much of their air service, the business use of a company airplane can make bottom-line sense.Take Jimmy John Liautaud, the founder of the restaurant chain Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches, which has about 1,000 franchises around the country.Mr. Liautaud's company owns two jets, a Challenger 300 with coast-to-coast range, and a smaller Learjet 40. He also uses Flexjet, the business jet fractional-ownership and charter company, to buy hourly time on another Learjet when he needs extra capacity. Mr. Liautaud says his employees take commercial flights when that makes sense. But the fast-paced nature of his business also argues for using the company jets every day."Also, at least once a week, I'll fly my airplanes two shifts in a day,"he told me. "We'll have a shift leave at 6 in the morning and they'll come back at 9 o'clock at night, and then I might have an audit team go out at 10 o'clock at night and they'll come back at 10 the next morning. My airplanes are necessary machines, as necessary to this business as our meat slicers."The public image of business aviation is often of a corporate fat cat soaring above the rest of us, luxuriously sipping Champagne while we, the road warriors, wedge knees into some dreadful regional jet, worried about making that connection in Houston. Unfortunately for the industry, the fat-cat image is occasionally true - and attempts by companies to hide their use of private jets only bolster that impression.But most business aviation, whether in jets, turboprops or piston-driven planes, involves workaday flights like the ones Jimmy John's dispatches to keep those sandwiches moving."We're opening a new restaurant just about every other day," Mr. Liautaud said. "Our real estate specialists are based in four different places in the country, and then we have a staff of construction people who have to be on site for any new franchise. Our people tend to leave at 6 in the morning and come back home 14 hours later, so they have a very high-productivity day. But with the company planes, they can sleep in their own beds at night."E-mail: jsharkey@nytimes.com2010-04-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Airports See Rise in General Aviation Activity.htm?m=51&s=340&id=232General aviation activity appears to be rebounding from the same time a year ago, and one analyst notes that "Companies are becoming better at articulating why a private aircraft is a useful and productive business tool."http://www.kansas.com/2010/04/07/1258336/airports-see-rise-in-general-aviation.html2010-04-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business jet market: outlook positive but recovery stalled, says UBS.htm?m=51&s=340&id=231 Business jet prices are still falling - but approaching stability after two years of significant declines. However, overall market conditions remain depressed and have dipped slightly since January, indicating a stalled recovery, with high inventory levels remaining a drag on business. These are key findings from March, in UBS global equity research's bi-monthly survey of US and international business jet brokers, dealers, manufacturers and financiers. When asked about overall business conditions, responses ranged from zero (worst ever) to eight (with 10 being best ever) for a market score of 3.6 (where five is normal). The scored dipped below five in the September 2008 survey and slid as low as 2.2 in March 2009 before beginning to recover. But, this March, sentiment slid back from January's 3.7, indicating that recovery has stalled. Further evidence of a stall came as most respondents in March said customer interest in new or used jets was improving - but fewer are seeing signs of improvement than in January. But as with overall business conditions, the US market seems to be faltering while, internationally, conditions are still edging upwards. When asked whether overall pricing levels had increased, decreased or stayed the same since January, a rising number of respondents reported that prices had stayed level or risen. That translates into a market score of 48, where 50 would indicate price stability. So prices continue to fall month-on-month, but the rate of decline is, finally, approaching zero. The UBS results show a steady march back towards stability from a nadir reached in November 2008, after prices plunged precipitously beginning in January 2008. The latest UBS survey also backs up much anecdotal evidence that it is in the large-cabin class that prices are strongest and buyer interest is greatest. Looking forward, just 4% of respondents expect overall business conditions to deteriorate over the next 12 months, with the rest predicting improvement or stability. The UBS score on this count came in at 79, down from 82 in January, but still well above the 50 mark, which would indicate expectations of neither improvement nor deterioration. Where brokers and dealers indicate some cause for alarm, however, is in inventory levels. In the March survey, 92% of respondents said inventories were high - up from 88% in January - and the oversupply of young, high-quality used aircraft remains significant. However, feeding a sense that the near-term outlook is positive was an increase in the overall willingness of traders to increase their inventories. And, survey respondents continue to report increasing availability of customer financing. That availability has been increasing rather than decreasing since May 2009. 2010-04-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/(Video) Batesville Regional Airport Highlighted in Local News.htm?m=51&s=340&id=230General Aviation contributes more than $500 million to the Arkansas economy. The Batesville Regional Airport (BVX), in particular, contributes more than $2 million to the local economy with up to 25,000 operations in a year. Airport officials say that business aviation is the bulk of those operations, with companies flying into Batesville to meet colleagues, customers and more. There are more than 100 airports that employ 5,400 people in Arkansas. See how one airport benefits a whole community.  2010-03-22http://www.noplanenogain-org/Hanscom use hits new low; Massport sees hopeful signs.htm?m=51&s=340&id=229 For the second year in a row, air traffic at Hanscom Field in Bedford fell by almost 10 percent in 2009, hitting the lowest level the airport has seen in more than 25 years. According to a new report released by the Massachusetts Port Authority, the economy is largely to blame for the decline, as the airport's primary clientele - corporate jet activity by executives doing business along the high-tech corridors of Route 128 and Interstate 495 - scaled back their usage by 16.9 percent from 2008 and down from a peak in 2007. The general aviation airport, which services smaller, private planes not permitted at Logan International in Boston, ran a $2 million deficit in its 2009 fiscal year, and expects to lose another $1.8 million this year. Massport officials, who were slated to present the report to the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission on Tuesday evening, say despite the numbers, activity in the final months of last year suggest that the decline appears to have "bottomed out.'' "We consider it a short-term lapse,'' said Barbara Patzner, director of Hanscom Field. "This particular dip is national in scope and affects all businesses coming into Boston, as well as local.'' Patzner said she expects the airport will bounce back, but the recovery will be slower and take longer than the dip that occurred after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. "Companies like Raytheon still need to be out there,'' she said. Total aircraft activity at Hanscom Field fell from 165,889 takeoffs and landings in 2008 to an estimated 149,911 last year. Activity fell for recreational flights, flight school training, corporate trips, and military use, but increased slightly for helicopter use, Massport found. The decline at Hanscom closely mirrors a national downturn in business aviation that began in late 2007 in tandem with a spike in the cost of fuel. The number of corporate jet operations nationally fell between 20 percent and 30 percent each year, said Brian Foley, a New Jersey-based consultant whose firm tracks the general aviation industry. Since hitting rock bottom in June 2009, the number of corporate jet operations have begun to recover, with first quarter 2010 up nearly 10 percent over the first quarter of last year, he said. "Clearly companies are taking a closer look at the return on investment in business travel,'' said Caleb Tiller, a spokesman for the National Business Travel Association, a Virginia-based organization that represents more than 4,000 corporate travel managers and service providers. But even with cost-cutting measures in place, such as video-conferencing and fractional ownership of corporate jets, most top executives will continue to fly by private jet for security and productivity reasons, he said. "Big international deals, that's not going to be replaced by conference calls,'' said Tiller. "Will we end up exactly where we were in 2006 and 2007? Probably not.'' Foley estimates it could take between five and 10 years for the industry to return to its 2007 peak. Even though business is down today, Patzner said, it's critical for Hanscom's future that Massport plans ahead so that when demand returns and developers approach with proposals, they are prepared. Though there are no immediate plans for development, the report identifies several sites for consideration. They include the controversial "Hangar 24,'' a building some want preserved and turned into an aviation museum because of its historic connection to Charles Draper and MIT's Lincoln Laboratories; the "East Ramp,'' where new corporate jet hangars might be built; the grassy Pine Hill area for flight school expansion; a trailer park leased from Massport by the US Air Force that will become vacant this year; and a hangar, ramp and office building owned by the US Navy. "The question in my mind, how are their decisions going to impact the communities?'' said Jeanne Krieger, a former Lexington selectwoman and current chairwoman of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission. The commission includes top officials from the four communities abutting Hanscom, as well as Minute Man National Historical Park, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Hanscom Air Force base and other groups. Neil Rasmussen, president of Save Our Heritage, a Concord preservation advocacy group, said two things in the report are "most concerning'' to him. One is "an absence of any clear statements of policy going forward'' about what kind of development Massport will pursue, he said. "And we strongly disagree with their statements of the economic benefit of the airport,'' which he called "ridiculous.'' "There's a lot of negative economic impact'' of having a busy airport operating so close to a national historic park and national wildlife refuge, he said. Krieger said historically, Bedford, Concord, Lexington and Lincoln have felt "underinformed'' about Massport's development plans, and that if there are going to be new hangars or hotels or flight schools, the towns want to be part of the discussion. "We want to be certain were going to be involved in that,'' she said. "We're spectators, or in many cases, victims of their decision-making process,'' said Rasmussen. "We don't seem to have a lot of input.'' 2010-03-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Honor Flight Network Brings Veterans to see World War II Memorial .htm?m=51&s=340&id=226Washington's Fox 5 interviews Earl Morse and Jeff Miller, co-founders of Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit organization whose mission is simple: Transporting America's veterans to Washington, DC to visit those memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices.With the help of luminaries including Former Sen. Bob Dole, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, Honor flight has grown steadily over the past 5 years, transporting over 36,000 veterans from around the United States to Washington.http://www.honorflight.org/about/index.cfm2010-03-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Congressional Leaders Highlight Business Aviation Value.htm?m=51&s=340&id=228The topic for a March 12, 2010 discussion on the floor of the United States Senate was a "reauthorization" proposal for funding the Federal Aviation Administration, but lawmakers looked to the discussion as an opportunity to point out the importance of business aviation. "The small businessman or woman that has a Cessna 210, a Cirrus or a Piper...use those planes every day in every way for very important purposes," Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said. "To travel around the state and the country, to do commerce, to haul parts, to haul people - it is a very significant contribution to our economy." 2010-03-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Brownback calls for support of general aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=225El Dorado, Kan. - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback commented on last week's tragedy in Austin, Texas, but expressed concern that the general aviation industry will be overly harmed by unnecessary restrictions."We should do everything we can to fully investigate the tragedy in Texas and do what we can to prevent anything like this from happening again while doing our best not to harm a critical industry in my home state,"said Brownback. "General aviation is a vital component of our way of life; it facilitates commerce, transportation, safety and rescue operations, and creates jobs for millions of Americans."In the economic downturn, general aviation sales have significantly declined; thousands of general aviation workers have been laid off over the past year.  In the Wichita area alone, 13,000 aviation-related jobs have been lost.  Nationally, general aviation companies have laid off 19,000 workers.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor, for every one general aviation worker on the production line, three jobs outside the immediate company are created, in manufacturing, engineering, supply, or support.Brownback continued, "People within the general aviation community are totally committed to the safe and secure operation of the system and take great pride in looking for ways to continually improve it.  We should not let the tragedy in Texas lead to government actions which will further burden the use of general aviation aircraft.  We can be safe and secure without hurting a vital national industry."Earlier this month, Brownback introduced the General Aviation Depreciation bill, which would provide special depreciation allowance and recovery period for general aviation aircraft and continues to fight against increases in general aviation user fees.  Additionally, Brownback has led the effort over the past couple years to ensure that the proposed Large Aircraft Security Program, a TSA regulation, does not create additional operational burdens and increased cost for general aviation operators.Brownback concluded, "The Kansas and U.S. general aviation industry is the safest and most productive in the world.  The members of the general aviation team will continue to be vigilant to ensure the system works for all Americans.  I applaud their efforts and stand with them."Copyright 2010 El Dorado Times. Some rights reserved2010-02-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/Vermont Governor Recognizes Importance Of General Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=222Vermont Governor Jim Douglas signed a proclamation declaring February as "General Aviation Appreciation Month" Thursday during the Vermont Aerospace & Aviation Association (VAAA) Open House. The proclamation highlights the significance the industry has on Vermont's statewide economy. The VAAA is a division of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce which manages this association in partnership with Lt. Governor and VAAA Chair Brian Dubie, who also serves as National Chair of the Aerospace States Association. The event was attended by general aviation (GA) leaders from around the country including Alliance for Aviation Across America (AAAA) Executive Director Selena Shilad."As Vermont seeks to rebound from the recession, we have to work to maintain and strengthen industries that positively impact our small towns and businesses," said Governor Douglas. "By declaring February "Aviation and Aerospace Appreciation Month", we're sending a clear signal that we support this industry that is central to our state's economic success."Lt. Governor Brian Dubie, who founded VAAA in 2006, added, "Our national security, our economic vitality, and our national mobility rely on a strong aerospace and aviation sector. Similarly, Vermont's aviation sector plays a vital role in our state's economic well-being and public safety."AAAA Executive Director Selena Shilad said, "We are so pleased to have the support of Governor Douglas and Lt. Gov Dubie as we continue to highlight the economic significance of general aviation on local economies around the country. General Aviation provides a lifeline to small communities, farms, and business by providing them with needed access to emergency medical services, economic development and mobility."Vermont depends heavily on general aviation. GA alone contributes $274 million, or $430 per capita, to Vermont's economy annually. Vermont has 16 public-use airports, 1,350 pilots and 877 general aviation aircraft. Aviation, including commercial service, accounts for 9,000 jobs and $225 million in wages to Vermont's economy. 2010-02-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Leaders Gather in Burlington in Effort to Enhance Economy Through Aviation.htm?m=51&s=340&id=223Today, during the Vermont Aerospace & Aviation Association (VAAA) Open House, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas signed a proclamation declaring February as “General Aviation Appreciation Month,” highlighting the significance the industry has on Vermont’s statewide economy. Douglas also presented a $30,000 grant to South Burlington to fund preliminary work on a new Burlington Aviation Technical Training Center at the Burlington International Airport.The VAAA is a division of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce which manages this association in partnership with Lt. Governor and VAAA Chair Brian Dubie, who also serves as National Chair of the Aerospace States Association. The event was attended by general aviation (GA) leaders from around the country including Alliance for Aviation Across America (AAAA) Executive Director Selena Shilad.“As Vermont seeks to rebound from the recession, we have to work to maintain and strengthen industries that positively impact our small towns and businesses,” said Governor Douglas. “By declaring February “Aviation and Aerospace Appreciation Month,” we’re sending a clear signal that we support this industry that is central to our state’s economic success.”Lt. Governor Brian Dubie, who founded VAAA in 2006, added, “Our national security, our economic vitality, and our national mobility rely on a strong aerospace and aviation sector. Similarly, Vermont’s aviation sector plays a vital role in our state’s economic well-being and public safety.”AAAA Executive Director Selena Shilad said, “We are so pleased to have the support of Governor Douglas and Lt. Gov Dubie as we continue to highlight the economic significance of general aviation on local economies around the country. General Aviation provides a lifeline to small communities, farms, and business by providing them with needed access to emergency medical services, economic development and mobility.”Vermont depends heavily on general aviation. GA alone contributes $274 million, or $430 per capita, to Vermont’s economy annually. Vermont has 16 public-use airports, 1,350 pilots and 877 general aviation aircraft. Aviation, including commercial service, accounts for 9,000 jobs and $225 million in wages to Vermont’s economy. These and other statistics from our newly launched economic impact survey can be found online at http://www.aviationacrossamerica.org/States.aspx.Formed in 2007, the Alliance for Aviation Across America is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of over 4,400 individuals representing businesses, agricultural groups, FBO’s, small airports, elected officials, charitable organizations, and leading business and aviation groups that support the interest of the general aviation community across various public policy issues.http://www.vermontbiz.com/news/february/leaders-gather-burlington-joint-ef fort-enhance-economy-through-aviation 2010-02-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Vermont declares ‘GA Appreciation Month’ .htm?m=51&s=340&id=224During an open house Feb. 18 hosted by the Vermont Aerospace & Aviation Association (VAAA) at the Heritage Aviation Facility at Burlington International Airport, Governor Jim Douglas will sign a proclamation declaring February “General Aviation Appreciation Month,” highlighting the significance the industry has on Vermont’s economy.“As Vermont seeks to rebound from the recession, we have to work to maintain and strengthen industries that positively impact our small towns and businesses,” said Douglas. “By declaring February ‘Aviation and Aerospace Appreciation Month,’ we’re sending a clear signal that we support this industry that is central to our state’s economic success.”Lt. Governor Brian Dubie, who founded VAAA in 2006, added, “Our national security, our economic vitality, and our national mobility rely on a strong aerospace and aviation sector. Similarly, Vermont’s aviation sector plays a vital role in our state’s economic well-being and public safety.”Vermont depends heavily on general aviation. GA alone contributes $274 million, or $430 per capita, to Vermont’s economy annually. Vermont has 16 public-use airports, 1,350 pilots and 877 general aviation aircraft. Aviation, including commercial service, accounts for 9,000 jobs and $225 million in wages to Vermont’s economy. These and other statistics from a newly launched economic impact survey can be found online (http://www.aviationacrossamerica.org/States.aspx)2010-02-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/GAMA's Pete Bunce On Business Aviation Value.htm?m=51&s=340&id=221GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce discusses how business aviation helps companies compete in a global marketplace. "If...a company that is doing a lot of global business and a lot of travel, whether it's flying over to Asia, South America or over to Europe, they're finding the utility of business aviation is something they just have to have," Bunce tells reporter Phil Lebeau. 2010-02-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Ridgefield pilot flies relief missions to Haiti .htm?m=51&s=340&id=220Ridgefielder Tom Lincoln's small plane made a big difference for people in remote areas of Haiti last month. The General Electric portfolio manager - a pilot and plane owner - spent about four days in the skies, traveling 6,000 miles with medical supplies and transporting a surgeon into the earthquake-devastated areas of the country. He flew his Beechcraft Baron six-seat light twin - removing two seats for doctors and cargo to fit. The 13-year Ridgefielder admits the trip was a lot of work, with 20-hour days that included flying down the East Coast to a staging area in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., back and forth to Haiti, including stops to Turks & Caicos for fuel. "It was certainly a great adventure," Mr. Lincoln said. "In this case you knew you were doing something that was really helping out." Port-au-Prince's airports were over-capacity with much larger planes so Mr. Lincoln and his co-pilot, Dan Lourenco, were able to use small landing strips and fields in areas like Jacmel. "There's tons of cargo going into Port-au-Prince and they are severely capacity constrained - they have to turn planes away," Mr. Lincoln said. "There are a lot of supplies but getting them dispersed through country with the damaged infrastructure is difficult - doctors can't get what they need." Small planes can make a difference in getting those supplies to surrounding areas beyond the capital. "We didn't want to land at the big airport and take away runway capacity for a much larger plane," Mr. Lincoln said. "We landed in smaller, remote fields in Haiti - that's kind where a plane like mine can really shine." Several organizations came together to transport doctors and medical supplies, including Angel Flight - a group Mr. Lincoln has volunteered with in the past. The hub of the operations was in Fort Lauderdale. They also coordinated with Corporate Aircraft Responding in Emergencies (CARE). The doctors being transported were with a group called Team Ange. Mr. Lincoln brought in about 1,500 pounds of medical supplies and brought people back into the country, including a missionary worker and a Haitian U.S. resident trying to get back home, Mr. Lincoln said. He left Danbury on Tuesday, Jan. 26 and headed to Florida, stopping along the way in Pennsylvania to pick up an orthopedic surgeon, part of a network of doctors working in Haiti now. On the second day they flew back and forth to Haiti twice. They flew into the country again the next day. "We did not stay in country long or roam around," Mr. Lincoln said. "We were advised against it from a security standpoint." The effort was supported by co-workers and friends. "I have to share credit with colleagues and friends here at GE," Mr. Lincoln said. "They helped back me financially. Over 6,000 miles -that's a lot of fuel burned." Mr. Lincoln has no formal plans to return though he was considering going back to pick up the surgeon he flew down. A few friends have joined in the effort and flown to Haiti. "We were able to train them on what we learned," Mr. Lincoln said. Work and family responsibilities will keep him grounded for now. "It's been contagious - I passed the information on to other pilots," Mr. Lincoln said last week. "I have two friends on their way -they should be landing right now."   2010-02-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/Volunteers Fly Supplies Into Hard-to-Reach Areas.htm?m=51&s=340&id=219LÉOGÂNE, Haiti — On a good day, a stray cow might be the only obstacle to landing the small planes bringing oxygen, crutches, baby formula and other supplies that will be put to immediate use at a hospital set up in a nursing school dormitory here.On a bad day, like one recent Sunday morning, the pilots circled overhead, waiting while a Humvee towed an abandoned truck off the landing strip with a hastily borrowed chain.The landing strip, in fact, is actually a stretch of highway flanked by sugarcane and banana trees, currently the only way to fly into Léogâne, a city near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake. The flights, by volunteer pilots flying mostly at their own expense, are part of an unconventional relief mission to get supplies to some of Haiti’s most remote areas.The planes have landed on a dirt airstrip in Jérémie, a 10-hour drive from the capital, Port-au-Prince, bearing the sole supply of X-ray film to an area deluged by earthquake victims with broken bones. They have spirited out the wounded and ferried in spaghetti and beans. The conditions vary from a paved runway and a control tower in Jacmel on the southern coast, to a gravel runway in Port-de-Paix in the north, where a man manages air traffic without the aid of radio or radar. The situation on the ground, where hungry Haitians sometimes crowd the tarmac, can be unpredictable.On Sunday, two Americans, Ryan Courtemanche, 26, and his co-pilot, Bernard Antonovich, 22, kept their cool as they barreled down in a Cessna Grand Caravan whose wings were 20 feet wider than the two-lane road.In preparation, United Nations troops had cordoned off the road, but the clearance was still so narrow that on an earlier flight, a wing clipped a tree, and rebar protruding from an unfinished wall had been bent back to clear the way. The runway is also shorter than normal, so the pilots braked hard.“Welcome to Léogâne,” Mr. Courtemanche said genially, as if he were doing his usual job of shuttling the well-heeled to Nantucket and St. Barts.The charter company he and Mr. Antonovich work for, Tradewind Aviation, based in Oxford, Conn., donated their time and the use of the Cessna for dozens of relief flights. “I never thought I’d be flying to Haiti,” Mr. Courtemanche said, “and I never thought I’d be flying on a road.”The flights go in and out of the Santiago airport in the Dominican Republic, using pilots of private and charter planes who have answered a call for volunteers from a loose consortium called Corporate Aviation Responding in Emergencies. Each day, as many as five pilots make three or four round trips to Haiti, mostly paying their own expenses of $1,500 to $3,500 per trip.The flights have high fuel costs and small loads, but fill a niche in a large-scale disaster.“This is quick and effective, but it’s not efficient,” said Richard Wood, an investment manager from Vancouver, British Columbia, flying his Swiss Pilatus. “We can’t solve the Port-au-Prince problem with this little plane.”But for smaller cities and towns, which normally depend on the distribution of goods from Port-au-Prince that has all but ceased since the quake, there was little doubt that the flights were a lifeline. Food is more expensive, fuel is scarce and medical supplies cannot be bought.At a clinic run by the Haitian Health Foundation in Jérémie, Dr. Royneld Bourdeau said: “We’ll use the last vial of insulin that’s in town today. We used up the antitetanus serum that we had, but if we get another patient, he will die.”In Léogâne, the supplies go to a hospital set up by the University of Notre Dame, which already had a presence there running a program to combat a parasitic disease called lymphatic filariasis.On Saturday, nurses monitored a child sipping on a tube from an oxygen tank — just delivered by a Tradewind flight — as he recovered from surgery, and helped another boy, Klavinsky Michel, 4, learn to use crutches as he recovered from a wound that left his heel bone completely exposed. Fuel siphoned from the Cessna’s tanks kept the generators going.“Two days ago,” said Jennifer McCracken, a nurse from Boston, “we didn’t have any oxygen.”Jean-Marc Brisseau, the administrator of the Notre Dame program, said that after the earthquake, offers of help poured in, but no one could figure out the logistics of delivery. Then he remembered that in 2001, a plane had landed on the road, Route 9. Local residents had gone running to watch, and had seen armed guards unloading cocaine from the plane into a waiting car.“If this plane could land there, illegally, why can’t we offer that?” Mr. Brisseau asked.The plan worked, and now the pilots relay requests for specific items like insulin to Ken George, who, as a field missionary in the Dominican Republic with G.O. Ministries, is coordinating the ground operation.At last count, there had been 320 round-trip flights carrying 370,000 pounds of cargo and 1,580 passengers (mostly doctors, nurses and missionaries on their way in and out, or American citizens and Haitians with visas wanting to leave).Sometimes the pilots have had to take on the role of diplomats.On Sunday, John and Kimberly Kirkendoll, both former investment bankers who live in Telluride, Colo., took in a planeload of food destined for an orphanage in Pignon, a small town northeast of Port-au-Prince. They were met, Ms. Kirkendoll said, by a cacophonous gaggle of people wearing official-looking badges and claiming that the food was for them. In the confusion, one particularly authoritative woman claimed the food, but as it was loaded onto a truck, it became clear that she, too, had lost control of it.“The minute they got outside the gate, they were bombarded with rocks by the townspeople who were outside the gate wanting the food,” Ms. Kirkendoll said. “It’s embarrassing. John and I were like: ‘They’re gone, there goes the food. We just got looted.’ ”At the same time, the mayor was trying to claim a cut of the food from the orphanage, saying he, too, had hungry refugees to feed. The deliveries to Pignon were suspended until another volunteer, John Matthews, flew in and, meeting on the tarmac with the mayor, worked out a deal to share the aid. He came back with a signed, typewritten document from the mayor.But Mr. Matthews, using a plane donated by the owner of BroadVoice, an Internet phone service company, said that over all, he had spent little time in Haiti and had not visited the orphanages, hospitals and other places receiving his help.“I would like to,” he said, “but I don’t want to take the time when I could be delivering another 2,700 pounds.”2010-02-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Report on Burlington International Airport in Vermont.htm?m=51&s=340&id=218Burlington International Airport has spent millions over the last several years developing not only better facilities for air passengers, but general aviation, laying the groundwork for a strong economy that could help  Vermont out of the recession and set the stage for long-term growth. Over the last 15 years, the airport has expanded the south end, where facilities for private aircraft has seen strong growth. 2010-02-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/Plane with supplies from Roanoke lands in Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=217Food and medical supplies bought by a Roanoke health product distributor were delivered to a town in central Haiti on Thursday and distributed by the Red Cross and Rotary International.Bandages, surgical dressings, slings and other supplies that The Vitality Depot bought with donated money were delivered on a nine-seat plane that landed on the dead-grass runway in the town of Pignon, company President Mark Mandell said in an e-mail.American medical volunteers are working alongside Haitian professionals at the Hospital Bienfaisance de Pignon, where dozens of Jan. 12 earthquake victims have been taken. Thousands of survivors have streamed from Port-au-Prince into similar towns in the countryside."These hospitals will soon be needing more medical supplies and equipment as they will be getting more victims from the earthquake," wrote Liza Baley, an employee of the Bahamas-based company that chartered the plane, in a PowerPoint presentation that included photos of patients in Pignon's hospital.Vitality Depot is planning to load another plane with medical supplies from the Bahamas to Haiti. A date has not been scheduled.To donate, call (866) 941-8867, e-mail info@ thevitalitydepot.com, or visit www.vitalitydepot.com.2010-02-02http://www.noplanenogain-org/Making the Case: Corporate Use of Private Jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=216Without question, private air travel has taken a public relations hit over the last year. Media reports of executives from the Big 3 automakers traveling to Washington via private jets to testify at congressional hearings angered the public and resulted in some corporations selling their jets altogether. Have some executives likely abused the privilege of flying on the company jet? Probably. Still, when it comes to business travel, the case for flying privately vs. commercial, is a strong one.Properly employed, private air travel is a net plus for many companies. It saves time and increases the productivity of senior executives. Indeed, many business travelers will tell you that they're more productive on the aircraft than they are in the office. In what is now an incredibly fast paced business world, the ability to react and move quickly is essential. Even the most novice traveler knows that flying on the commercial airlines is a nightmare. Do we really expect that we'll be better off forcing senior executives of troubled companies to spend ten hours flying commercially, sitting in airports waiting out long delays, missing connections, etc. to take a trip that can be accomplished in two hours flying privately?Pressuring companies into divesting their aircraft at this time will only hurt them. The market for private aircraft, like other markets, is down. With many sellers and buyers waiting for prices to fall further, forced sales no doubt will mean substantial losses for these companies.From a market perspective, this is exactly the wrong time to force companies to sell their aircraft.Understanding and appreciating that there is a lot of resentment and anger in the country, the private aviation industry must make the case on the merits that private aviation works to the benefit of these companies. The industry and these companies must demonstrate that these aircraft are not boondoggles for spoiled executives, but rather are justified because they add to the bottom line in clear and demonstrable ways. To do that, these companies must institute travel policies that limit use of private aircraft to official company business and be transparent in implementing these policies.http://blog.shaircraft.com/2010/01/making-case-corporate-use-of-private.html2010-01-28http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Aviation Assists In Haitian Crisis.htm?m=51&s=340&id=215In response to the crisis in Haiti, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) reported that it has received hundreds of offers of flight support and other assistance from individuals and companies in business aviation. Estimates are that nearly 100 general aviation aircraft flew humanitarian missions from the U.S. to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, in just the first five days after an airport opened to humanitarian flights, NBAA said. During the weekend after the airport opened, the U.S.military and FAA reported that 330 requests to land had been approved, with nearly half coming from civilian aircraft, according to NBAA.http://www.aviationnews.net/?do=headline&news_ID=175771 2010-01-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Nashville's General Aviation Firms See End to Downturn.htm?m=51&s=340&id=212Allen Howell, along with his father, Reece, started a charter-flight business at the Smyrna Airport in 1982, beginning with a single airplane and a single employee.Today, his company, Corporate Flight Management, operates a fleet of 23 aircraft and employs 180 people in a business that includes worldwide charter flights, aircraft maintenance and restoration. The company also runs a flight school.Despite all of the growth, Howell found his company mired in the recession over the past year as he faced the worst downturn in his 28 years in the business.But the company has survived without any layoffs, and there are signs that business may finally be picking up, he said. "The worst is behind us, and I believe that any of us that are still in business now probably will make it."Among factors that pulled his company through was a lucrative business restoring old turboprop planes that had been stored for years in the desert of the Southwest in places such as Kingman, Ariz., and selling them to small commuter airlines outside North America, Howell said.Not all general-aviation industry firms have been as fortunate.As U.S. commercial airlines have absorbed billions of dollars in losses, the private side of flying - business and recreational aviation - has experienced an unprecedented decline as well because of the weakened economy.Cutbacks hurt industryGeneral aviation, which includes almost everything except the major airlines and military aircraft, began to slide in fall 2008, when companies began scaling back their own corporate aircraft fleets and cutting corporate travel, including charter flights.Manufacturers of business aircraft such as Learjet, Cessna and Gulfstream went almost overnight from having years worth of backlogged orders to having almost no orders at all, said Dan Hubbard, spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association.During 2009, prices of used business aircraft dropped by as much as 50 percent; many general-aviation manufacturers and flight providers went out of business; and tens of thousands of employees lost their jobs, Hubbard said.That left some smaller operators in trouble as well. For instance, the timing was horrible for Randy Harmon, who in August 2008 launched a new charter service, Harmony Air, at John C. Tune Airport on Nashville's west side."We had just started when the financial markets collapsed," Harmon said."At the start, we were averaging up to two flights a week. Then we didn't get another charter from the beginning of January until late March."He's still in business, in part because a second business - the Wings of Eagles flight school at Tune Airport - is doing better. The school has grown to 10 instructors and 12 aircraft."We had a sharp increase in new students while the rest of the business was hurting," he said.Strong year expectedHarmon's and Howell's charter businesses seem to be picking up, too, at this point. Corporate Flight Management last week announced it would add six aircraft this year."We anticipate a strong year, and it's good for us that in any downturn in general aviation, the charter business is the first to recover,"Howell said.Some firms that had trimmed travel are starting to venture out again, and some corporations that sold their own aircraft during tough times are beginning to book more charter flights before jumping back into ownership of aircraft, Howell said.A few local companies kept their planes.Nashville-based Bridgestone Americas considered selling its only corporate plane, an eight-passenger Learjet 60, last year. But the tiremaker eventually decided not to sell because resale prices for used aircraft had dropped so low, spokes-man Don Darden said.Bridgestone has far-flung locations throughout North America, and the company plane "allows us to maximize the time of our teammates," Darden said, referring to employees' travel from plant to plant. "It also lets us fly into some of the smaller regional airports that don't have(major) airline service."Plane makers struggleMajor aircraft manufacturers have lost 19,300 jobs just in the United States since fall 2008, said Katie Pribyl, spokeswoman for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. But lately there have been a few bright spots.Inventory of used business jets for sale dropped in December to about12.8 percent of the total fleet, from a high of more than 20 percent earlier in the year, she said. Such data suggest that more used airplanes are being sold, Pribyl said.New aircraft sales are still weak, though. Sales in the third quarter of2009 totaled 1,587 aircraft, including jets and propeller-driven planes, down 46.8 percent from the 2,982 sold in the same quarter in 2008, according to reports compiled by the association.Improved sales may have to wait on a further rebound in corporate profits, Pribyl said.2010-01-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/BizAv Relief Flights To Flow Into Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=213The business aviation community has begun to spool up a coordinated relief missions effort into earthquake-ravaged Haiti, with hundreds of business and general operations having already flown into the little island nation. Working with the Department of Homeland Security's Critical Incident Management Group, which is managing the government's crisis response, the National Business Aviation Association and the Corporate Aircraft Responding in Emergencies (CARE) organization have coordinated numerous missions involving the transport of medical teams and supplies, water, food and other necessities into Haiti and the transfer of people out of the country (BA, Jan. 18/23).NBAA had established a registry for aircraft that could be used for relief missions, and by late last week the number had swelled to 280, including a mix of helicopters, single- and multi-engine pistons, single- and multi-engine turboprops, and jets. In addition, more than 230 private and commercial pilots have lined up on the NBAA volunteer registry to offer their services.CARE President Marianne Stevenson, who estimated that her organization has been on pace to launch a flight into Haiti every 30 minutes, noted an "amazing amount of support and cooperation." In an update to NBAA members, Stevenson noted that the community has been able to bring critical personnel into key regions of Haiti. "CARE was the first to establish a chain of supplies and medical personnel into Jacmel and then use caravans and helicopters to bring supplies into Leogane," she said. Without the help of the community, "it is probable this area would be in dire crisis," she said.CARE has initially targeted outlying areas such as Cape Haitian, Jacmel and Leogane in part because of the ease of access to those outlying regions. Flights into Port-Au-Prince have been tightly controlled under a Notice To Airmen that FAA put in place last week to manage flights into the airport. The NOTAM has helped with the flow of traffic into Port-Au-Prince, said Doug Carr, vice president of safety, security and regulation for NBAA. "The NOTAM brought some structure and capacity control that was needed," he said. But the airport has limited ramp space, and large aircraft are still being given priority."There is criticism of using slot times for low-yielding missions,"Stevenson told members, and said her organization has been working feverishly to obtain large-cabin aircraft for the requests that CARE has received for assistance. "The requests we are receiving are from every conceivable charity and organization to include the Salvation Army and even the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]," she said, and noted that the organization had more than 100 medical and first response teams waiting to get into Port-Au-Prince.She also chronicled successes, as has Robin Eissler, a partner of JetQuest who works closely with CARE to dispatch flights for the relief effort. These included the carrying of orphans from Haiti to the U.S. In a separate update to NBAA members, Eissler noted the transport of an 11-year-old girl who had been struck by a bus while walking to a neighboring town to buy food for her family.A doctor flown in by CARE had found the girl, stabilized her while still in Haiti and coordinated with CARE to fly her to the U.S. for medical treatment. CARE had a slot for a Pilatus PC-12 at Port-Au-Prince, Eissler noted, but a guard at the airport initially denied the doctor entry, with the guard saying, "She's going to die anyway." But the doctor notified CARE, which helped him obtain access, and the PC-12 was able to transport the girl to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "This girl would be in the last hours of life without the CARE network," Eissler said.The mission flights have ranged from large and small organizations to individuals, businesses and large multinational corporations. Mission Aviation Fellowship established a Port-Au-Prince Airport communications center and dispatched a team in a Kodiak turboprop. Clean the World Foundation has flown more than 100 doctors and 10,000 pounds of medical supplies. Several major aviation manufacturers have offered their services and/or flown missions into Haiti. Dassault estimated that at least eight Falcon operators have flown into Haiti. "We all recognize the devastation to the area and the long-term need for assistance to the people of Haiti," said Dassault Falcon President and CEO John Rosanvallon. Jeppesen is providing trip-planning services. Small operators have donated aircraft to deliver water and hygiene kits.Most of the CARE flights are flown out of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. Several spots in Florida have served as collection hubs for relief aid. Carr stressed the need to ensure that the operations remain coordinated. "There's been an overwhelming outpouring of people wanting to help," he noted. But once operators arrive in Haiti, they are on their own. "You shouldn't expect a lot of gas. You shouldn't expect a lot of ground support." Working through appropriate channels can help protect the operator and ensure the mission gets to the right place, he said.2010-01-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/GA Leaps in to Aid Haitian Relief Effort.htm?m=51&s=340&id=198AOPA President Craig Fuller summarized the thoughts of many aircraft operators in response to the devastation in Haiti: "We all want to jump in our aircraft and fly down to help." Indeed, in the days following the Jan. 12 earthquake, operators of aircraft ranging from individual owners of single-engine pistons to corporate fleet and charter operators rose to the challenge. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was briefed on what equipment and services were available - and they are substantial. The effort was funneled through DHS's Critical Incident Management Group (CIMG) and within hours of establishing a registry for volunteers, more than 70 companies had signed up. The National Business Aviation Association has also established a separate registry for individuals - pilots, mechanics, medical personnel and others. Information on the registry and other elements of the relief effort is available online at nbaa.org/haiti. Established mercy organizations such as Corporate Aircraft Responding in Emergencies (CARE) and Angel Flights have also mobilized, if not for direct flights to Haiti, then in support of efforts to collect and stage supplies for ultimate delivery to the victims. For example, Showalter Aviation at Orlando Executive Airport is reprising its role as a staging location for aid flights - a role it fulfilled during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. With limited infrastructure and the devastation at the main airport in Port au Prince, GA associations are advising members that their financial help is probably the most critically needed for now. Fuller told AOPA members in a letter that, though flying down to Haiti to help in person is the first reaction, "...government officials and disaster experts say that's not the best way to help right now."2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Mass. Doctors Ship Out to Help in Haiti (VIDEO).htm?m=51&s=340&id=200Hanscom Field, MA - It has been a frustrating week for American doctors stalled at Haiti's Port-au-Prince airport, but anxious to treat earthquake victims.Today, a group of Massachusetts physicians found a way around the backlog. They are flying north of Haiti's capital city, and they are bringing $1 million worth of medical equipment with them.Brandi and Kayla are worried sick about their mother's safety. A 6.1-magnitude aftershock struck Haiti on the same day that their mom goes on a medical mission to the earthquake-ravaged country.It's Kathy's second trip to Hispanola, the island that houses Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Massachusetts family was just there on vacation.Caritas Christi Health Care put a call out to its six Massachusetts hospitals, looking for physicians to voluntarily fly to Haiti and treat patients. 12 immediately answered yes.The mission is tough, but the Massachusetts nurses and doctors are excited to get there.Earthquake victims are being flown 75 miles north of Haiti's damaged capital city to be treated at Sacred Heart Hospital, founded by the Knights of Malta. The 73-bed Haitian hospital has a special relationship with Caritas Christi Health Care in Massachusetts.The doctors will hit the ground running because of a $1 million donation of lifesaving medical equipment, lighting and baby supplies from Massachusetts-based Phillips Health Care Company. Another Massachusetts business stepped up to fly the doctors and nurses to Haiti for free -- Suffolk Construction offered its private jet.2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/More Than 100 Biz Aircraft Support Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=207Dassault Falcon Jet's 900EX EASy demonstrator flew a medical team from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to Cap-Haitien International Airport in northern Haiti yesterday as a part of business aviation's response to the aftermath of the earthquake there.The team consisted of two doctors, two first responders, five nurses and two nurse practitioners, along with medical supplies."We know of at least eight Falcon operators among the numerous missions that have flown into Haiti," said John Rosanvallon, Dassault Falcon president and CEO. "We applaud the efforts of the business aviation community to provide whatever assistance necessary."As with much of the business aviation community's response to the crisis, yesterday's Falcon flight was arranged by Corporate Aviation Responding to Emergencies (CARE), a volunteer group created by business aviation operators in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."The support from the business aviation community has been amazing," said Maryanne Stevenson, president of CARE, who said her organization "is on a pace to launch one flight to Haiti every 30 minutes."The National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA) today reported that nearly 100 general aviation aircraft on humanitarian missions flew from the U.S. to the Haitian capital Port-Au-Prince in just the first five days after a local airport re-opened to humanitarian flights. During the two-day weekend after the airport re-opened, the U.S. military and the Federal Aviation Administration reported that 330 requests to land had been approved, with nearly half coming from civilian aircraft.NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said, "The business aviation community has always snapped into action to help people and communities in times of crisis, and we are heartened by the outpouring of support from people across the industry who are eager to assist in efforts to help those impacted by the Haiti earthquake."2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Local Car Dealer Donates Resources To Help Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=208COLORADO SPRINGS - A Colorado Springs car dealership owner is donating his services to relief efforts in Haiti.Bob Penkhus, owner of Bob Penkhus Volvo/Mazda dealership, is also a pilot. He has volunteered to fly doctors and medical supplies into Haiti. "I've never have seen anything or any country in dire need of assistance. It's great to make a donation and be able to hand goods or services to somebody instead of just cutting out a check," Penkhus stated.Penkhus will be flying his 2007 Beechcraft Super King Air 350. The aircraft can carry 10 people, including him and up to 15,100 pounds.Penkhus said there is one concern about flying into the country. "They only have one runway and there's going to be issues back taxing."However, since the U.S. military has taken over air control, Penkhus said he trusts it's organized as best as possible.He will leave Friday morning to Atlanta, Georgia to pick up four doctors and 500 pounds of supplies. He'll take them to Miami and then fly out Saturday morning to Haiti.2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Area pilot flies surgeons, supplies to Haiti .htm?m=51&s=340&id=209Mike Conley, owner of Conley Insurance Group in Des Peres, delivered medical supplies and four surgeons to Hospital Sacre Coeur in Milot, Haiti, on Wednesday. Conley, a licensed pilot, chartered a plane and flew into Cap-Haitien, then drove 12 miles to Milot."I'm glad we went (to the hospital), because it gave us a sense of why we did this," he said. "Most of the surgeries there are amputations. A lot of the injuries were compound fractures that got gangrene and infections. Almost every room we walked into, someone had an arm or leg amputated. I guess the next big thing will be getting prosthetics down there."The hospital is run by the Center for the Rural Development of Milot, a foundation that has several prominent St. Louisans on its board of directors. CRUDEM has expanded the facility from about 70 beds to more than 200 beds in the past week to accommodate earthquake victims being airlifted by the U.S. military from Port au Prince. Conley said he would wait in Florida to see if he could make another flight in the next day or two.2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Pittsburg company, other groups organize Haiti relief efforts.htm?m=51&s=340&id=210PITTSBURG, Kan. - Debbie Brock first helped the children of Haiti about 30 years ago as a missionary, so when news broke about relief efforts after last week's earthquake, she knew she wanted to help.Her opportunity came when Mark Schifferdecker, with Girard National Bank, called to request the use of the Names and Numbers corporate jet to deliver medical supplies to Haiti. Brock, vice president of Names and Numbers, a telephone directory company, and her husband, Ken, said "yes."The jet transported 600 pounds of supplies to Haiti last weekend, said Erin Sullivan, who is handling the company's relief efforts.She said the supplies will be used by Dr. Jim and Sandy Wilkins, of Girard, who for the past 11 years have worked at Haiti Health Ministries near the capital of Port-au-Prince.Other effortsThe Peacemaking Committee at the Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg is collecting hygiene kits on behalf of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.John Robb, committee chairman, said members have collected 40 kits so far, along with items that can go toward assembling more kits. "Our first goal is 100," Robb said. "We are going to collect at least through February. The need will be ongoing."K-Kids, a service-oriented group of fourth- and fifth-graders at Lakeside Elementary School, has been assisting the church with the kits.Club sponsor Babs Tims said the youngsters have collected more than $200 and 15 completed bags, plus additional supplies.The Pittsburg Noon Rotarians responded with the donation of 13 Pur Waterboxes. Each Waterbox can purify 5,072 16-ounce bottles of water."It seems the biggest concern right now is potable water," said Bobby Winters, club president. "These boxes were specifically designed for these types of emergencies, and should bring some immediate relief to families and aid workers affected by the earthquake."2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Downs Foods pilot flying workers to Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=211MANKATO - Alex White wasn't surprised by what he saw Wednesday when the pilot touched down at the airport in Haiti. He had seen plenty of news coverage the past few days of the devastation created by the massive earthquake. But seeing it firsthand was certainly striking."The airport is completely in shambles," said White of Gaylord. "Communication is terrible."White has been a pilot for Downs Foods, a poultry processing plant with offices in Mankato, for more than 11 years. As chief pilot, his job is to fly company executives in the corporate jet between various company offices, including Oklahoma City and St. Petersburg, Fla.White flies occasionally for another company in Florida, and through those contacts, he was asked to fly medical people into Haiti through Agape Flights, an independent Christian ministry based in Venice, Fla.White mentioned the trip to Richard Downs, owner of Downs Foods, who then offered the company's private jet for the trip. Downs is also donating food.White and his co-pilot, Tad Hall of Clearwater, Fla., flew a handful of medical people into Haiti. They have been approved by the Red Cross to assist in relief efforts.The only reason White could get into the country is because Agape Flights has been flying in and out of Haiti doing relief work for years. The majority of other planes coming in and out are that of the military.White and Hall were at the airport walking around the ramp for about 45 minutes. The buildings at the airport are still standing, but there are cracks in the structures and many of the windows are broken out. Yet, still, the buildings are being used, he said.White and Hall took six people, including medical professionals, back to the United States after refueling in the Dominican Republic."You can fly in on a flight plan," said White, a 1991 graduate of Minnesota State University's aviation program. "But when you leave, you're on your own."The lack of flight communication didn't make White nervous. But he did have to be extra vigilant until he reached the U.S. "It's a mess," he said. "There's chaos."White has been asked to fly to Haiti again Saturday and Monday. Details are pending, but White is willing to return if needed. "I'm just glad to help out any way I could," he said.http://mankatofreepress.com/local/x1059040058/Downs-Foods-pilot-flying-workers-to-Haiti2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Doctors land in Wellington: Corporate plane carries medical team to Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=214Wellington, Kan. — Sometimes it's not always a game of numbers and dollars that measure the reaches of compassion. The human spirit will always bring its best effort against whatever Mother Nature dishes out. It’s a point being proved by a medical staff that has volunteered its time and expertise to relief efforts in the earthquake ravaged Haiti. Three doctors, two nurses and an emergency logistician from Medical Teams International flew out of Portland, Or. yesterday. On their way to Haiti, the plane touched down at Wellington Municipal Airport to refuel.Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce Director Shelley Hansel-Williams was there to welcome the team to Wellington. The chamber provided a lunch for the travelers before they took back to the skies."We appreciate these moments even more because we know where we're going isn't going to be so easy," said Tammy Teske, manager of emergency relief for Medical Teams International. "So just to have this time of luxury and relaxing is such a blessing." Making the trip along with Teske was Angele Theard, of the Oregon Anesthesiology Group, Steve Boyer of Oregon Emergency Physicians, and Bob Gibson a Portland physician. Nurses Carol Caudle from Willamette Falls Hospital in Oregon and Kris Repp, a self-employed emergency RN from Renton, Wa., were also making the trip."Right now we're a medical team," Repp said after getting off the plan in Wellington, "but we're available to serve in any way that the need that is the greatest."  The group was flying in a private jet supplied by TEC Equipment Inc., who owns VOLVO and MACK truck dealerships on the West Coast.  Dave Thompson, TEC Equipment Inc.'s president, whom was also on board the plan, made the decision to donate the flight after his employees and VOLVO and MACK Trucks North America donated the funds to pay for the fuel. They flew to Port-au-Prince in Haiti after leaving Wellington. Team members will be in Haiti ranging from two to four weeks. "We have two small teams that are on the ground that preceded us," Repp said.  "So we're just going to join forces." Repp said she has never been to Kansas before, but has flown over it "many, many times." Wellington Municipal Airport recently finished a larger runway ramp that is able to handle plans the size of the one the medical team was on. Before, the older ramp was suited for a load of 8,000 to 10,000 pounds, the new ramp can take 70,000 pounds. Dave Thompson said Wellington was and ideal place to refuel because of the airport's competitive fuel prices."The airport survives out here through ground lease, hanger rent and fuel sales," said Airport Operator Patrick Hamiln. The volunteers were delighted by the gratitude shown by the town and the airport and were interested in some of the facts and history about the community."I truly think it is amazing what the doctors are going to do however, it was also neat to meet the business owner who volunteered to fly the crew down to Haiti," Hansel said. "He reflected the spirit of the small business owner and how they are always willing to step in and lend a hand."The team knows their job at hand is a mighty one, but a necessary one. With so much effort being put towards Haiti, Medical Teams International is glad to finally be going and that Wellington could be involved."It's such a blessing," Teske said. "Getting to haiti has been our biggest challenge, getting on the flights and getting people in as soon a possible."2010-01-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Local businessman donates use of plane to take medical supplies, water systems to Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=196HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A plane that flew out of the Madison County Executive Airport Tuesday morning and headed toward Haiti will deliver equipment to provide 100,000 gallons of clean water a day and a satellite imaging system that will allow local doctors to treat earthquake victims from afar. And it's all being done by volunteers and benefactors who, quite simply, hurt at the thought of all the hurting going on in Haiti. "I'm honored to help," said biotechnology entrepreneur Troy Moore shortly before he boarded the Pilatus PC12 Tuesday. "I just talked to guys on the other end, and we're good to go." Fuel and use of the plane was donated by Huntsville businessman Alan Jenkins, who owns a third of the Pilatus. He got drawn into the relief effort by an e-mail plea sent out by the National Business Aviation Association. "This is our maiden voyage in this capacity," Jenkins said. "Our hope is to do this again and again, as long as help is needed. Right now I was wishing the plane was 10 times bigger so that we could send 10 times as much stuff." Initially, Jenkins believed he'd be loaning his plane to a crew from Doctors Without Borders or other nationally known relief groups. But because his plane was undergoing scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, those agencies traveled by other means. Then CitiHope, a Haitian charity, contacted him and asked if he'd bring down some medical equipment and supplies collected in - of all places - Huntsville. A collaboration of local professionals - many who own or run companies located in the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology - have worked for years to ease the plight of Haitians. Luke Doiron, along with Marshall Schreeder Jr., founded Conversant Healthcare Systems three years ago. Dorion's father, a cardiologist in Knoxville, has performed countless hours of work with the Jimani Project, which is in the Dominican Republic about seven miles from the border with Haiti. He's brought his son with him there for numerous medical mission trips, as well as other troubled spots around the world. "Our group supports 20 orphanages in Haiti, and at least half of them have collapsed," Doiron said. Side by side, they've helped build the Bon Samaritan Hospital and orphanage in the Dominican village of Jimani. When they learned that the U.S. government had transported more than 100 doctors to the hospital to tend to Haitians injured in last week's devastating earthquake, they knew they had to go. Dr. Clint Doiron is in Haiti now, performing operations on the victims. Officials estimate 200,000 have been killed, and that number is sure to rise if medical help isn't delivered soon. Some of the supplies on the plane include 10 water purifying systems, donated by Servants in Faith and Technology out of Lineville, and each of those systems can sanitize 10,000 gallons of water a day. A Cisco TelePresence imaging system being sent over will allow doctors and radiologists in Huntsville to read X-rays and "visit" with Haitian patients and then recommend treatment. Also, boxes of braces, scalpels, IV medications and splints were part of the cargo. Though plenty of volunteers would have been happy to go on the trip, only two pilots and Moore were on the plane. The rest of the space was used for equipment. Others hope to make the trip in coming weeks. On future trips, the volunteers want to bring food - dried beans, rice, powdered milk - with them. Donations can be dropped off at HudsonAlpha at 6900 Moquin Drive in Cummings Research Park. Donations made to Trinity United Methodist Church on Airport Drive, Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Madison and Madison Academy will be passed along to the group. The progress of the group can be tracked at haitifooddrive.blogspot.com. 2010-01-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/Portland Truck Dealer Donates Corporate Jet to Fly Oregon Doctors to Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=197A Portland truck dealership has donated its corporate jet -- and its CEO to pilot the jet -- to transport seven doctors and other health professionals from Oregon to Haiti this morning. In a news release, Dave Schwanke, corporate marketing manager for TEC Equipment, Inc., said employees pledged and raised money for the cost of the round trip flight, which is estimated to use 4,000 gallons of jet fuel. The team of doctors are from Medical Teams International, which already has crews on the ground in the earthquake-ravaged country. TEC Equipment President and CEO Dave Thompson will pilot the small jet. "We are very eager to assist Medical Teams International in their work to help the people of Haiti," Thompson said. "Everyone at TEC Equipment wanted to go beyond simply donating money to Medical Teams International and their relief efforts. We feel our donation of jet transportation is invaluable to their work. The contribution from our employees has been overwhelming." Making the trip are doctors Marie Angele Theard, Steve Boyer and Bob Gibson; registered nurses Carol Caudle and Kris Repp; health logistics adviser Andrew Davidson; and an additional health specialist, plus one co-pilot. The flight is scheduled to depart from Aurora airport at 8 a.m.http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/portland_truck_dealer_donates.html2010-01-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/Newton Doctor Joins Haiti Relief Effort.htm?m=51&s=340&id=199A Newton doctor is joining the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.Dr. Jennifer Scott Koontz left Wednesday for what will be at least an eight-day trip to the country ravaged by an earthquake. Newton Medical Center is supplying Koontz with donated drugs and medications from its pharmacy and medical supplies from the its materials management department. Koontz is going to Haiti with a group of doctors affiliated with Heart to Heart International, a relief and development organization that specializes in volunteer action and worldwide humanitarian assistance.Last week an earthquake killed nearly 200,000 people in Haiti and left another 250,000 injured. A 6.1 magnitude aftershock hit Wednesday near the country's capital Port-au-Prince.Koontz is part of a growing number of people and companies in the region who are helping the relief efforts there.Dillons Stores announced this week announced its plans to collect relief aid from customers and employees at all Dillons or sister grocers' Baker's, Gerbes and Food-4-Less locations throughout Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.Last week, the National Business Aviation Association launched a special page on its Web site to help coordinate the use of corporate aircraft in the relief effort for Haiti.  Local aircraft companies taking part include Cessna Aircraft Co. and Bombardier Learjet.2010-01-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/PA Company Uses Jet to Bring Doctors into Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=203Cutting red tape was key to Haiti missionAs global and local organizations continue to struggle to get doctors and other medical volunteers to Haiti, the Hospital for Special Surgery credits its success in overcoming obstacles to a corporate donor. Synthes, a global medical device manufacturer that has its U.S. headquarters in West Chester, Pa., gave the hospital's doctor/volunteers unlimited use of its corporate jet to fly surgical teams in and out of Port-au-Prince. As a result, HSS was able to get doctors into surgery in Haiti while most other medical volunteers struggled to reach the stricken country on commercial flights. With critically injured patients waiting and the window for helping them closing, “time was really important in getting doctors down there,” says a spokeswoman for HSS. “That's why it was so crucial to cut through the red tape.”Led by HSS orthopedic surgery chief David Helfet, a team has been working since Saturday at Hopital Communauté Haitienne in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Pétionville. The group included New York-Presbyterian's emergency medicine chief and several doctors who have dual HSS/NYP appointments. Both hospitals donated medical supplies as well. A three-person team from Montefiore Medical Center was due to arrive in Haiti last night.Meanwhile, international groups such as Doctors without Borders and Partners In Health—as well as national groups including the Association of American Medical Colleges—have been collecting names and résumés of potential medical volunteers for what is likely to be a sustained effort. “We're probably going to return later to do more orthopedic surgery,” the HSS spokeswoman says. http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100119/PULSE/100119880# 2010-01-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Hands and Feet Project Uses Business Aviation to Help Orphanages in Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=201The Hands and Feet Project cares for orphans in Haiti and relies on general aviation aircraft to receive their supplies, necessary equipment and medicine. “These pilots are bringing in their own twin engine airplanes and they’re just taking off and coming to Jacmel [in Haiti] and they’re bringing us supplies and we want to just say thanks to all those guys, it means to much to us,” said Mark Stuart, founder of the Hands and Feet Project.2010-01-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Hands and Feet Project Helps Orphans in Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=202The Hands and Feet Project cares for orphans in Haiti and relies on general aviation aircraft to receive their supplies, necessary equipment and medicine. “These pilots are bringing in their own twin engine airplanes and they’re just taking off and coming to Jacmel [in Haiti] and they’re bringing us supplies and we want to just say thanks to all those guys, it means to much to us,” said Mark Stuart, founder of the Hands and Feet Project. 2010-01-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Beechcraft Baron Used for Airlift Operations.htm?m=51&s=340&id=204General aviation steps in to help HaitiBahamas Habitat’s aviation relief operation is up and running to Haiti, according to officials.“Sunday (Jan. 17) was our third day of airlift operations into the outlying airports around Port-Au-Prince and we delivered a lot of medical supplies and evacuated 27 more people today,” reported John Armstrong, president.Steve Merritt, the treasurer and chief pilot for Bahamas Habitat, answered the call Jan. 14 and began to chart the course and prepare the way for other volunteers in the organization’s recently donated Beechcraft Baron. He was joined by Cameron King and Matt Hansen, long-term volunteer pilots, serving at the Eleuthera base camp.On Friday Jan. 15, the first two flight teams made it into Haiti from their staging base on Inagua, in the Southern Bahamas, delivering medical supplies and evacuating people. Saturday more planes joined the efforts and a significant amount of medical supplies were moved in and more trapped missionaries moved out, according to Armstrong.“We have had a rush of requests to help get people out and more medical supplies in,” he said. “Private pilots with aircraft have been volunteering and making preparations to join the efforts from all over the country and even Canada. We have medical and other supplies in Nassau and Fort Lauderdale that need to be moved in and the list of people needing to be evacuated continues to grow.”“We are focusing on getting to the airports of Cap Haitien and Les Cayes that are north and west of Port-Au-Prince where the big aircraft cannot serve,” said Abraham McIntyre, executive director of Bahamas Methodist Habitat. “People are moving out to these areas seeking help and evacuation and the clinics and hospitals are overrun there without enough medical supplies.”So far the flight missions have involved everything from Cessna 182s, Bonanzas, Barons, Aztecs, to a Cessna 340s and a Caravan. More volunteers that have twin engine aircraft and high performance singles are needed to join in the mission, according to Armstrong. The organization is requesting pilots with aircraft able to volunteer do so online at BahamasHabitat.org. Organizations with medical and other supplies to donate should email: help@bahamashabitat.org.There are many ways those in GA can help:Aircraft owners can volunteer to make flight missions. If you don’t have a plane they suggest you help get the message to other pilots who have suitable planes and then join in with them. Help spread the word to pilots to request supplies, funds and additional airplanes. Donate to support the effort via at BahamasHabitat.org. Pray and then pray some more.2010-01-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Amway Jet Brings Missionaries from the Dakotas Back from Haiti.htm?m=51&s=340&id=205GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - The Amway corporate jet carried a medical team and supplies to Haiti Monday on a flight of mercy. It returned with 10 Americans who were on a medical mission trip when the earthquake struck. North Dakota nurse practitioner Sarah Kaspari Baker recalls, "I was holding the baby and grabbed the young mom. And it just rolled under our feet. It felt like being on a ship. The roar was amazing." She was working with a Haitian interpreter at the time, and says, "A young medical student whose university collapsed. And all his friends were killed. And he would have been there if he wouldn't have been on the island helping us." The team worked on an island ten miles off the Haitian coast called La Gonave. The damage on the island was not as bad as the capitol. They still saw collapsed buildings and felt the fear that comes with a major quake. Team leader Bruce Blumer of Mitchell, South Dakota says, "Just beyond where the clinic was, there was a big open area. And it looked like it had snowed. There were probably 500 people lying on sheets because they were afraid to be in their homes that night." As the days went on, their volunteer medical crew saw more earthquake victims who fled Port au Prince and sought out their relatives on La Gonave. Kaspari Baker says she saw "huge burns on one lady's leg. A street vendor was cooking next to this woman and the oil splashed up on her and burned about 19 percent. She would go to a burn unit in the U.S. We did the best we could to debrided it and wrap it and give her antibiotics and give her a tetanus shot." The trip out of Haiti required a boat ride, and a ride in the back of a packed pick up truck, until they got to the chaotic airport in Port au Prince. Blumer recounts, "The gate was just being crushed by local people because they know food's going in and out. We talked to one of the armed men there and he said this is falling apart. So what happens is they shut the doors and then aid doesn't get distributed." Fortunately for these missionaries, they were able to escape the area, thanks to the Amway jet. The flights are not the only Amway effort to help earthquake victims. The company is also sending 10,000 personal hygiene kits, which workers were busy packaging Monday. Amway and its employees have also donated more than $270,000. A second Amway flight is scheduled to go to Haiti Tuesday. 2010-01-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Air Serv International Responds to Haiti’s Earthquake Crisis.htm?m=51&s=340&id=194WARRENTON, VIRGINIA - This morning Air Serv International launched a light twin aircraft and crew to Haiti to support World Vision International’s relief operations in the quake-stricken country.Air Serv’s Piper Chieftain, operated by subsidiary SkyWorld Aviation, will be based initially in the Dominican Republic to provide air transportation for World Vision (and sister agencies’) staff to, from, and within Haiti. Anticipated operations include staff movements, “last mile” delivery of emergency relief equipment and supplies, and medivacs. Separately, Air Serv has facilitated the procurement and operation on World Vision’s behalf of a FedEx MD-11F widebody cargo charter of an estimated 100,000 pounds of tarps, hygiene kits, blankets, collapsible water containers, and other relief supplies and equipment. Flight 9740, an extraordinary in-kind donation from FedEx to World Vision, will depart from Denver International Airport at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow morning (Monday, January 18th) via Miami to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where freight will be transloaded to trucks for delivery to areas of critical need.“To our knowledge, tonight’s FedEx flight will be the largest single private sector consignment of disaster relief freight to date in the world’s response to the Haitian crisis,” said Dave Carlstrom, CEO (acting), of Air Serv International. “We’re privileged to be a supporting cast partner to our friends at World Vision as they race against time to provide the best assistance, as quickly as possible, to the suffering people of Haiti.”Air Serv International is a not-for-profit provider of air transportation and aviation services in support of humanitarian programs and disaster response worldwide. Air Serv welcomes donations, fully tax deductible in the U.S., via mail or its website (www.airserv.org).For more information contact: Dave Carlstrom, CEO (acting), at (540) 514-2118 (cell).2010-01-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business aviation helps the bottom line.htm?m=51&s=340&id=195Minnesota companies derive many benefits from having company planes available for their employees.Media coverage in recent weeks has suggested that "business aviation" -- ownership and use of an airplane to accomplish business objectives -- is not an effective use of a local company's resources. Missing from the coverage was a balancing view that business aviation actually helps companies enhance their efficiency, increase employee productivity and often reduce total travel costs.There are certainly many reasons why smart Minnesota companies can and do use business aviation to meet some of their transportation challenges. But perhaps the No. 1 reason is that it allows companies to do more, in less time, and often at less cost than other transportation alternatives.Most people recognize that productivity, flexibility and dependability are attributes of well-managed companies. They also are benefits of business aviation. Thus, it should come as no surprise that approximately 95 percent of the companies ranked by leading business magazines as America's "most innovative," "most admired," "best brand,"or "best customer service companies" rely on business aviation.Of course, we've all seen the newspaper headlines and heard late-night talk show punch lines about stories like the auto executives' trip to Washington aboard business jets in 2008 to seek government loans. But highly publicized events like that overlook the many legitimate reasons companies of all sizes, all across the United States, rely on business aircraft.The fact is, dozens of responsible, well-managed Minnesota-based companies consider a business aircraft a valuable workhorse that helps managers, salespeople, and technical experts stay connected to customers and grow their business. Business airplanes allow companies to turn travel time into work time because employees can sit face-to-face and discuss proprietary information, prepare for meetings or fine-tune a presentation.Survey confirms business useThese facts are confirmed in a recent Harris Interactive survey conducted for the National Business Aviation Association and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Business aircraft passengers reported spending much more time on work-related tasks than when traveling on a commercial jet. Specifically, 66 percent were engaged in work-related meetings with fellow employees or were involved in individual work-related tasks compared to 31 percent of airline passengers.In addition, the majority of people who fly on business aircraft are not upper-level executives -- they are midlevel employees, including salespeople, engineers and technicians who use the travel time to continue working with customers. These passengers often depart early in the morning, sometimes stop at several locations during the day, and are often home the same night, saving on hotels and other related expenses.It's also worth noting that the airplanes that are typically used to conduct these missions are in contrast to the popular perception. Most companies utilize smaller aircraft; in many cases, business planes are utilitarian, offering a cabin that is roughly the size of a large SUV and accommodates four to eight passengers. (Some of these planes don't even have a lavatory on board.) Functional, yes, but hardly the image often portrayed in media reports.Business aircraft are used by Minnesota companies ranging from one-person enterprises to Fortune 500 companies. They shuttle employees to and from locations in outstate Minnesota and throughout the region and transport them to business meetings across the globe. During flight, employees can be answering e-mails on their Blackberries, working with colleagues to finalize a new business presentation, or making a secure call to a supplier in Brazil. This illustrates why business aircraft are a multiplier of efficiency and productivity.Destination is also a critical factor for Minnesota companies using business aircraft. Most flights are made to airports with infrequent or no scheduled airline service, making it difficult or impossible to travel to a destination by commercial carrier. Nearly half of all business aircraft flights are to these locations, and another third are to secondary airports. Only 19 percent of flights are to large commercial airports. Add the fact that more than 100 U.S. cities have lost some or all airline service over the past two years, and you can see why business aircraft travel often is not just the most prudent transport option -- it's the only one available.In our current economic environment, business aircraft may appear to be just a perk. But the facts demonstrate that they serve an important role in helping companies to do more in less time. Minnesota companies wanting to remain competitive in today's changing economy need every resource available to them to increase productivity and efficiency -- including the use of business aircraft.Destination is also a critical factor for Minnesota companies using business aircraft. Most flights are made to airports with infrequent or no scheduled airline service, making it difficult or impossible to travel to a destination by commercial carrier. Nearly half of all business aircraft flights are to these locations, and another third are to secondary airports. Only 19 percent of flights are to large commercial airports. Add the fact that more than 100 U.S. cities have lost some or all airline service over the past two years, and you can see why business aircraft travel often is not just the most prudent transport option -- it's the only one available.In our current economic environment, business aircraft may appear to be just a perk. But the facts demonstrate that they serve an important role in helping companies to do more in less time. Minnesota companies wanting to remain competitive in today's changing economy need every resource available to them to increase productivity and efficiency -- including the use of business aircraft.Tim Ashenfelter is president and CEO of ASI Jet Center/MSP Jet Center and a member of the Minnesota Business Aviation Association and the National Business Aviation Association. His e-mail address is info@asijet.com.2010-01-17http://www.noplanenogain-org/Wall Street Has Many Things to Be Sorry About -- Just Not Corporate Jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=193JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Bank of American (BAC) head Brian Moynihan flew via corporate aircraft to Washington, D.C., Wednesday to testify before a Congressional panel investigating the banking crisis. In previous years, the media would not raise an eyebrow over such a disclosure, but these are not ordinary times.Wall Street is now seen as the villain riding on its 21st-century steed, known as the corporate jet, as it pillages the cash-strapped American public. But the furor over corporate aircraft is misplaced.Jets, made by companies including General Dynamics' (GD) Gulfstream, are indeed as luxurious as people might imagine (I flew in one a couple of years ago). The seats are comfortable with plenty of room to stretch your legs and get work done. Some even have full-sized beds so the globe-trotting executive can arrive at the next business meeting refreshed. Corporations are not snapping them up the way they used to, however. Sales of Gulfstream were down in 2009 as the company cut planned production to 73 large cabin and 24 mid-sized cabin planes from94 and 30 respectively. Manufacturers are so worried about the negative publicity surrounding their products that it launched a "No Plane No Gain" advertising program last year, featuring legendary golfer Arnold Palmer.However, amenities aside, there is a sound business reason for big-shot executives to use corporate jets. Oftentimes, it's the most practical way for CEOs to get from one place to another. The aviation system used by most of the public is not always a suitable alternative for these fliers. It can't get them to the places they need to be in a timely manner. As a taxpayer, I would rather have Dimon and Moynihan show up at an important hearing than be stuck at an airport somewhere. Last month, Citigroup Inc. (C) Chairman Dick Parsons, Morgan Stanley(MS) head John Mack and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein could not make a meeting with President Obama because their flights were canceled due to inclement weather. Smaller jets are not going to fly in dangerous weather that would ground commercial airliners either, but perhaps the executives would not have been subject to such extensive delays. To be sure, Wall Street does have many, many things to apologize for and has certainly not appeared remorseful. As The New York Times noted, being a CEO means never having to say you're sorry, even when you really should. An exception was former Time Warner Inc. (TWX) CEO Jerry Levin, who recently stunned Wall Street by apologizing for the disastrous AOL merger. It was late, but nice to hear nonetheless. I am not holding my breath for the financial services industry to be that contrite.Sadly, the attitude of Wall Street toward the public has not changed much since Congress investigated the cause of the Great Depression.Ferdinand Pecora, the head of the investigation, blasted the banks of the time in terms which seem hauntingly familiar today."Bitterly hostile was Wall Street to the enactment of the regulatory legislation." he wrote in his memoirs. "Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the banker's stoutest allies." Corporate aircraft are a red herring that distracts Congress and the American public from the real issues affecting the country.2010-01-13http://www.noplanenogain-org/Job outlook at Teterboro Airport remains bleak.htm?m=51&s=340&id=191Enrollment is up at Teterboro School of Aeronautics, where students learn how to repair and maintain airplanes. But the jobs outlook at Teterboro Airport, the largest base for business jet travel in the New York metropolitan area, remains bleak.Edward Bennett, the school's director, said the institution - which offers 18-month pre-certification programs - starts a new class every seven weeks and the last few classes have risen from 15-20 students on average to 25 to 30. But for those who want to find work at Teterboro, "It's very difficult to place them," Bennett said. "The jobs just aren't there."Recent graduates have had better luck finding jobs at smaller airports, such as Morristown Municipal Airport and Essex County Airport in Fairfield, he said. "They've kind of had to spread out," he said.Teterboro-based employers offer little in the way of encouragement for Bennett's students. In interviews last week they said not much of a turnaround is expected before 2011, and there will likely be little hiring at the airport this year.Before the recession, more than 1,600 were employed at Teterboro Airport, and airport users supported nearly 2,000 more jobs in the surrounding area, primarily in Bergen County, according to the Port Authority.But charter service providers and aircraft management firms have cut staff, and they are still reeling from a steep decline in demand for private jet travel as businesses continue to rein in spending. Take-offs and landings at Teterboro totaled 13,508 in October, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport's operator. That was down from 13,806 in October of 2008 and off 23 percent from 17,544 in the same month in 2007."We've seen downturns but never as large or as long," said Gene Bopp, director of operations at Air Charter, Inc. a family-owned business founded in 1981 which operates five business jets. Demand for charters dropped off dramatically in the fall of 2008, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers."Business has been off for everybody by 20 percent to 30 percent," Bopp said.  "It's a combination of budgetary constraints and no real reason to travel. What we see is the personal travel is the same as it always is. It's the business trips that are down."Dennis O'Connell, president of Meridian Air Charter, said that company cut staff by about 5 percent at Teterboro last year to 85 employees, through layoffs and attrition. The company, which relies heavily on business from financial services companies, also cut everybody's pay by5 to 10 percent. "One of our priorities is to get that back," he said."I really don't anticipate rehires."Billable flight hours for Meridian hit bottom last January, O'Connell said, and since then they have increased by about 11 percent. "We're seeing an incremental ratcheting up in charter hours. It's not time to celebrate but it's encouraging." On the other hand, "margins have gotten tighter," he said, citing increased price competition.Ed Bolan, president of the National Business Aviation Association, described 2009 as "a brutal year for business aviation. At various points [flight] activity was off 30 to 50 percent. At one point 20 percent of the fleet was basically for sale. Prices were off 30 to 50 percent, depending on the model. All the major manufacturers announced layoffs and in some cases closed production lines."Bolan said in late summer "things quit getting worse," but "it will take years for us to get back to where we were in the middle of 2008; I think there is some limited stability in the market, albeit at very low prices."Net Jets Inc., one of the best known names in private jet travel and a frequent Teterboro user, recently underwent a major reorganization amid a steep drop in revenue. The company which provides fractional ownership and charter service, replaced its chief executive officer, made other upper management changes and moved its headquarters from Woodbridge to Columbus, Ohio. In September the company laid off about 350 people, or 5 percent of its workforce, and it has said it would lay off nearly 500 of its 3,000 pilots, effective Jan. 15.San Carlos, Calif.-based XOJET, Inc., a fractional share and charter company founded in 2006, slowed its ambitious growth plans but it is still trying to gain market share from Net Jets and others that have been knocked back on their heels - and Teterboro is its main East Coast layover point.So far this year XOJET is averaging 4-5 flights a day out of the airport, where it recently rented office space for several sales representatives. It expects to acquire its own hangar there soon, said David Siegel, the chief executive officer.The company has financial backing from TPG, a private equity firm in Fort Worth, Tex., and Aabar Partners, an Abu Dhabi investment fund. It has a fleet of 22 nearly new aircraft used primarily for flights within the United States, and it will take delivery of at least seven more planes this year, perhaps as many as 10, said Siegel, who is a former CEO of US Airways. And XOJET will be doing some hiring at Teterboro this year: "We will be adding a few aircraft mechanics and perhaps a few more support people,"Siegel said. "We are looking to have our own hangar and we'll be doing overnight maintenance work there as well," he said.E-mail: newman@northjersey.com2010-01-11http://www.noplanenogain-org/Recession clobbers fractional-jet industry.htm?m=51&s=340&id=192The severe economic downturn that has crippled business aviation "also hurt Wichita's biggest customers for aircraft - the fractional-ownership providers," this story reports.  http://www.kansas.com/business/aviation/story/1130409.html#ixzz0cLW8UvCg2010-01-10http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA Chief Sees Signs Of Upturn.htm?m=51&s=340&id=187While a number of general aviation plane-makers are predicting further production cuts in 2010, National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen noted that production is only one factor in the overall general aviation economy, and other factors, such as flight operations, are showing encouraging signs.General aviation is stabilizing from a "very, very brutal period," that began with the economic uncertainty in fall 2008 and worsened from there, Bolen said. "The first quarter marked one of the worst economic contractions any of us have ever lived through," he said. "Add on to that the image issue that really came to the forefront....inventory skyrocketing to an all-time high, [aircraft] valuations dropping 40-50 percent, charter activity down in some cases 50 percent and manufacturers seeing cancellations outpacing orders. It was a brutal situation."This resulted in unprecedented layoffs, manufacturers shelving major programs such as the Cessna Citation Columbus, and the crumbling of other manufacturers, including Eclipse Aviation.The bad news continued throughout the year - just last month fractional ownership provider NetJets cancelled orders that cut Hawker Beechcraft's backlog by $2.6 billion. Textron followed that announcement with one of its own: Cessna was in its own negotiations with a major customer on order cancellations that would reduce Cessna's backlog by $1.7 billion (BA, Dec. 21/279).GA leaders who assembled in Wichita last month agreed that further growth in orders and production rates are not likely for some time, and GA is stabilizing as a much smaller industry (BA, Dec. 21/281).But even as manufacturers prepare for slower production this year, Bolen notes the manufacturing schedule will not necessarily reflect the state of the economy in 2010. "Production reflects orders taken at different times. 2010 may reflect the 2009 economic situation," he said. "It takes a while to turn that ship."Analyst JPMorgan agreed with that assessment. After highlighting the potential loss of a major order for Cessna, the analyst said, "We view this as a short-term blip." The orders in question for both Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft were primarily for 2013 and beyond, JPMorgan added."Meanwhile, bizjet demand is showing signs of recovery and stabilization," the analyst said, noting Bombardier recently reported net positive orders. "Bizjet orders have historically shown a strong positive correlation with corporate profits and equity market performance; as such, we expect a pickup in orders next year for Cessna, given the positive momentum of both leading indicators, principally in the back half of the year," JPMorgan said.Reports of other industry activity also have shown promise, Bolen noted.ARGUS reported a continued, albeit small, uptick in business aircraft flights, and UBS has reported four consecutive monthly drops in business aircraft inventory. While still at near historic highs, the used inventory is considered a major factor in the overall health of the industry. Further, the UBS index measuring market conditions has continued to improve (BA, Dec. 14/269).Current market reports suggest that those improvements could be sustained, Bolen said. Industry leaders agree that sustained improvement will hinge on a strengthening economy. But also industry must remain proactive to improve its public image.The image problems began to mount after the nation's auto chiefs took business jets to Washington to appeal for billions in bailout dollars to save their companies. National news media were on hand to film them as they stepped off their planes.The situation deteriorated after Congress lambasted the leaders for their travel choices, and the White House made disparaging marks about use of business jets by CEOs of troubled companies.NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association responded with the launch of the No Plane/No Gain educational campaign, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association responded with GA Serves America.One of the success stories from these public educational efforts was the creation of GA Caucuses in the House and the Senate, Bolen noted. "We were seeing congressmen saying 'I want to be identified with this industry,'" he said, adding, "It's the most tangible evidence possible that congressional leaders understand the value of business aviation. I don't think that was the message a lot of people felt coming into 2009."Other success stories from the industry campaigns include the business and general aviation rally in Arkansas, the Georgia proclamation of the importance of business and general aviation, and letters of GA support that 70 mayors sent to the Administration.This advocacy has strengthened the community, he said. He noted the feeling of uncertainty that surrounded the NBAA convention in 2008, and said a year later, that feeling had turned to resolve.2010-01-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/Air Service Firm Expands to MSP.htm?m=51&s=340&id=186 When General Dynamics took off from Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) earlier this year, Tim Ashenfelter decided to head in for a landing. Ashenfelter’s company, ASI Jet Center, last month opened a maintenance facility at the airport to service corporate and other private jets, expanding the firm’s presence beyond its long-time home base at Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. The move comes months after Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics shut down a similar, though larger, operation at MSP, laying off 74 technicians and mechanics. General Dynamics’ departure “left a big void” at MSP, said Ashenfelter, ASI’s president. “Not having a service facility there has really been a detriment to people coming into the Twin Cities.” Ashenfelter decided his 26-year-old firm, which already provides maintenance support and other services in Eden Prairie, could fill the void. ASI created a subsidiary, called MSP Jet Center, to manage the operation. The business is leasing space from Signature Flight Support, which provides fuel and other services to business jets. MSP Jet Center is performing maintenance, refurbishing and other work for mid- and large-sized private aircraft. http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/12/21/story4.html 2009-12-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aircraft CEOs Expect Stalled Growth, Stable Employment in 2010.htm?m=51&s=340&id=182"Nearly all of...Wichita's aircraft manufacturers said they think employment at their companies will stabilize in 2010, but they don't foresee any growth in their business next year," this story reports. http://www.kansas.com/business/aviation/story/1100235.html2009-12-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Honeywell Forecasts 2010 Profit That Trails Estimates.htm?m=51&s=340&id=184Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Honeywell International Inc., the maker of aircraft instruments and industrial controls, forecast 2010 earnings that trail analyst estimates after the recession cut demand for business jets in the U.S. and Europe. Profit next year will be $2.20 to $2.40 a share on sales of $31.3 billion to $32.2 billion, the Morristown, New Jersey-based company said today in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated profit of $2.52 a share and sales of $31.5 billion. "As usual, we are planning conservatively, assuming modest organic growth," Chief Executive Officer David Cote said in the statement. Cote has reduced costs and frozen hiring as the recession slowed sales of business jets, hurting demand for the company's cockpit instruments.Sales of thermostats and energy-efficiency products have decreased amid the U.S. housing slump, now in its fourth year. Honeywell fell 25 cents to $41 at 11:21 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares rose 26 percent this year through yesterday. Sales next year will benefit from a backlog in orders and "momentum coming out of 2009," Chief Financial Officer Dave Anderson said today on a conference call with analysts. "We should see a pretty good start to 2010." Honeywell's 2010 sales and profits will be helped by 2 percent global economic growth, improvement in flying hours for regional and business jets and increased demand for the company's turbo engines, Anderson said. Aerospace Sales Aerospace sales in 2010 may increase as much as 2 percent to $10.8 billion to $11 billion with profit rising 3 percent to 8 percent, Anderson said. The launch of General Dynamics Corp.'s Gulfstream G650 business jet and the ramp up of Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner would help aerospace sales, he said. Honeywell's aerospace unit contributed about 35 percent of 2008 sales. Automation and control solutions, the company's largest unit, will see revenue rise 1 percent to 3 percent in 2010 from this year, for sales of$12.7 billion to $13 billion, Anderson said. Profit may rise 1 percent to 7 percent. Trends driving higher energy efficiency and demand for safety and security in residential and commercial buildings will result in sales growth, he said. Higher demand for the company's turbo engines in passenger vehicles will increase 2010 sales 4 percent to 10 percent at the Transportation Systems unit to $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion, the company said. Segment profit may rise 70 percent to 90 percent next year, Anderson said. Automakers are expected to introduce as many as 100 new models of cars with turbo engines in 2010, Anderson said. The specialty materials' segment sales will increase 3 percent to 8 percent next year to $4.3 billion to $4.5 billion because of energy demand and tougher environmental regulations. 2009-12-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business aviation group pulls ads from USA Toda.htm?m=51&s=340&id=185The National Business Aviation Association has pulled its advertising from USA Today over a story alleging that more than half of federal grants to U.S. airports since 1998 went to projects that the FAA characterized as low priority.The USA Today investigation, using records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, found: "More than $2 billion in low-priority funds has gone to airports used mostly by private jets and piston-engine planes, including $700 million for terminals. Pellston Regional Airport in Michigan used $7.5 million in federal funds to build a terminal with stone fireplaces and cathedral ceilings. The airport averages three departures a day."The NBAA, in conjunction with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, began a No Plane No Gain video and print advertising campaign in October to highlight the positive role business avaition plays in small and midsize municipalities across the country. Here's a sampling of the ads.Dan Hubbard, a spokesman for NBAA, says of the decision to discontinue its advertising of the campaign in USA Today:"We didn't discuss the decision with USA Today; as we said in our initial announcement, we simply decided it's time to stop spending advertising dollars with a newspaper that has demonstrated such an anti-general aviation bias in recent months. We've received positive feedback from NBAA Members about the wisdom of the decision."And, here's a portion of the organization's Letter to the Editors of USAToday:"The kinds of projects your story calls into question often support airports in towns with little or no airline service - airports that provide a transportation lifeline for small businesses, schools, universities and other organizations, and serve as regional development engines that generate jobs and economic activity."The letter continues: "It's unfortunate that your story overlooked these key facts, and failed to explain the many good reasons why investments in community airports provide a tremendous return to us all."In recent months, business aviation has sort of become a fall guy for the recession and Wall Street largesse in a manner that parallels the way Las Vegas meetings and conventions have become a pariah.People within and outside the aviation industry can legitimately debate the points made in the USA Today investigation about a lack of focus in airport grants and the NBAA's grievances.But, you have to call into question the NBAA's tactics in pulling its ads from the national newspaper.Yes, the NBAA has every right to do so.However, a strong organization or company has to be bigger than that. It has to be able to take a hit and abstain from the temptation to use its advertising dollars to attempt to manipulate editorial coverage.The NBAA certainly isn't a large advertiser for USA Today, and let's hope the publication wouldn't be swayed by an advertiser with more clout, either.In addition, the No Plane No Gain campaign, which ran spots on CNN, FOX, MSNBC and in publications such as Roll Call, The Hill,  Politico and USA Today, targeted a business and Washington, D.C., audience.That audience will still be reading USA Today tomorrow morning - and this evening.It might have been more astute for the NBAA to play off what it sees as biased editorial coverage in USA Today, and to use the association's advertisements in USA Today, and what it perceives as negative coverage, to draw more attention to its cause.USA Today couldn't immediately be reached for comment on the controversy.2009-12-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA pulls ads from USA Today.htm?m=51&s=340&id=183In response to the latest story about general aviation that appeared on the front page of the Dec. 14 edition of USA Today (FAA low priorities get $3.5 billion in grants), the National Business Aviation Association has discontinued "indefinitely" its advertising for its "No Plane No Gain" campaign in the national newspaper."We've been running ads in USA Today and elsewhere to highlight for Washington policymakers and opinion leaders the essential role business aviation plays for citizens, companies and communities across the country," said Ed Bolen, president and CEO. "However, we've decided it's time to stop spending advertising dollars with a newspaper that has demonstrated such an anti-general aviation bias in recent months."The Dec. 14 USA Today story is the third in recent weeks to mischaracterize general aviation and small community airports, NBAA officials note.2009-12-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cessna closing three Columbus plants.htm?m=51&s=340&id=180Battered by the deep recession and global competition, Cessna Aircraft Co. will close its three Columbus plants within six to 24 months.The decision by the Wichita, Kan.-based airplane manufacturer was announced Tuesday to the remaining 315 local workers. The company employed as many as 600 people here as recently as August 2008.Cessna is moving the work from Columbus to plants in Independence, Kan., and Mexico, said company spokesman Doug Oliver. "Once that transition process is complete, the facility there in Columbus will be closed," he said. "No immediate jobs are impacted. It's a lengthy process to transition work out of there."The Columbus operation assembles various parts - rudders, aircraft cabins and flight-control surfaces - that are shipped to other Cessna facilities for assembly of small business jets and general aviation aircraft.Cessna employed about 600 here in August 2008 as it opened a new $25 million, 100,000-square-foot plant in Muscogee Technology Park. At the time, the company said it planned to add 150 jobs over five years.Since then, however, it has steadily been laying off workers. There were 100 cuts announced in January, followed by 89 in April and 50 in August."Those guys have been in an industry that has just been hammered by this economy, and they've done a lot to try to hang on," said Russ Carreker, chair of the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.Oliver said Cessna's other facilities are "in the same boat," facing production and job cuts. In the past year, the manufacturer, a subsidiary of global conglomerate Textron Inc., has slashed 8,000 employees from its 16,000-person work force.Global competition and the intense impact of the economic downturn have hurt the company and squeezed off the flow of orders for new planes, Oliver said."We had originally announced that we would deliver 535 business jets in 2009," he said. "That number is now 275. We'll deliver even fewer airplanes in 2010. We don't anticipate any growth in the business until at least late 2011."And there's virtually no chance the company will venture back to Columbus, he said."Business will come back," he said. "But, no, we're vacating Columbus."Aside from the Muscogee Technology Park plant, Cessna also has about 225,000 square feet of factory space at two facilities in Columbus East Industrial Park off Macon Road. One plant operates under the name McCauley Propeller Systems. All three plants are expected to be put up for sale.Oliver said there are no firm details on when employees will be laid off in Columbus."I'm sure it will be staggered," he said. "We'll be offering incentives for employees to stay through scheduled departure dates, and there will be severance packages at the end of that, as we have with all of the reductions to date."Carreker lamented the loss of Cessna, calling the company a great corporate citizen with employees who were always actively involved in the community."They really were doing a quality job from what I understand," he said."The Cessna people bragged incessantly on those folks, and I think they'll provide great employees for NCR and Kia and any of those other companies that are looking."Kia Motors, which started vehicle assembly last month in nearby West Point, Ga., reopened applications for more jobs last month.Automated teller machine manufacturer NCR Corp. also recently opened an assembly plant in Columbus, employing 150 initially with plans to ramp that up to 870 within five years.2009-12-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cirrus Design behind on rent.htm?m=51&s=340&id=181Aircraft-maker in negotiations with city, projects profits for 20102009 has been a troublesome year for aircraft-maker Cirrus Design and, on Monday night, it explained its situation to its landlord, the city of Grand Forks.The company has a 20-year lease at its plant in the Industrial Park and has had trouble paying rent since about spring, City Administrator Rick Duquette said. It now owes $845,000, he said.Cirrus is not looking to lower its rent so much as create a formula for repaying the debt in a manner that makes financial sense, he said.Cirrus President and CEO Brent Wouters showed city leaders a slide that indicated the company was in the red in 2008 and expects to lose more this year. It is, however, projecting profits in 2010.Weighed against the money Cirrus owes is the large number of area residents it employs. City economic development officials brought the young company to town back in the late 1990s, fighting with Duluth to be company headquarters - they lost that fight - because of the promised jobs. And not just service jobs, but manufacturing jobs that paid well and brought new dollars into the local economy.The city even bought the company's stock, a move that would be unusual today. The stocks would pay a dividend of $978,000 in 2001.At its peak in 2006, Cirrus employed 330 with an annual payroll of $9.6 million in Grand Forks. For three years, 2005 to 2007, it maintained employment above 300. This year it averaged 128 employees with a payroll of $1.8 million. Today, employment is down to 75 employees.As a maker of a high-end consumer product, Cirrus has been quite vulnerable to the big economic downturn that started in late 2008. At its peak in 2006, Cirrus Design delivered 721 aircraft to customers.This year, it's expecting to deliver 283. The rest of the industry faced similar trends with shipments of single-engine piston aircraft worldwide dropping from about 2,400 in 2007 to about 1,800 in 2008.Duquette said industry analysis indicates the market will bottom out by the end of this year or in 2010. It should recover to 2006 levels within the next 24 to 30 months, he said, though the recovery of the economy would have a lot of say in that.Wouters told city leaders that the company has survived the worst and is working aggressively to expand its market and invest in new technology.He said he anticipates sales will be 300 to 453 in 2010. That would be enough to bring Cirrus Design back to profitable status, according to data he presented.The number of employees, though, would probably not match earlier levels when Cirrus Design was selling as many aircraft. Wouters made a point that the company has made aggressive cuts, including in employment, and found new efficiencies. Wouters confirmed the company would not need the same number of employees to make the same number of aircraft as before.The efficiencies, though, mean it takes fewer aircraft sales to increase profits.Wouters said selling just 500 aircraft would probably be enough to generate record profits.City leaders, meeting as the Jobs Development Authority, deferred to the Growth Fund Committee to negotiate the details of Cirrus' repayment to the city. The fund is used to offer incentives to encourage businesses to expand or move to the area, including industrial space.Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com.2009-12-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Dassault cuts more than 200 LR jobs.htm?m=51&s=340&id=179LITTLE ROCK - Dassault Falcon announced Friday that it will lay off 150 employees and 55 contract workers at its completion center here.It's the third round of layoffs for the company, which finishes the interiors of corporate jets and paints exteriors at its Little Rock plant.Dassault, headquartered in Teterboro, N.J., laid off 153 workers in June and another 72 in September.Along with the 205 workers in Little Rock, the company also laid off 9 employees at its headquarters Friday.John Rosanvallon, president and CEO of Dassault Falcon, said the layoffs reflect difficult economic times."The challenges of the global economy continue to force us to make very difficult decisions," Rosanvallon said in a release. "While we see signs that the business aviation market may be stabilizing, it's too early to predict when sustained growth will return to our industry."Rosanvallon said the decision to make the cuts "is a very painful one,"made as a last resort to preserve as many jobs as possible.He said the layoffs would not affect current Falcon delivery schedules.Wichita-based Hawker Beechcraft Corp., a competitor which also operates a facility in Little Rock, announced layoffs in May and August.2009-12-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/OPINION: The corporate jet is not evil. It's practical..htm?m=51&s=340&id=178Oh, for crying out loud. Why would the average American drive a gas-guzzling automobile when so many other people in the world are walking, riding their animals or peddling bicycles?Here's why: Because most Americans know that cars are faster and that you get more done in a day by driving.Think about it: You go to work (the average commute is 16 miles), stop for groceries on the way home, tote kids around and maybe visit a friend in the evening. How much of your day would be spent on the trail if you didn't drive? If you are earning enough money to afford a car, chances are you have one.Businesses aren't much different; they just operate on a larger scale. The field of a company can span thousands of miles and many countries. If driving uses up a whole day, those who value time will fly if they can.That brings me to the sticky subject of company-owned airplanes, back in the news thanks to controversy over Xcel Energy's use of leased Learjets for executive travel.Some people mistakenly believe that private business aircraft are owned by companies with extreme profits and that the planes are used only to indulge pampered executives. Good grief. That's like saying minivans are owned only by the wealthiest families to indulge pampered children. With a minivan (airplane), a family (company team) can easily get to the places that provide income (opportunities), services (partners, customers) and products (suppliers) that are needed for health and development (to maintain and to grow). The big difference in the corporate world is distance.I can see my gentle readers sputtering, "But, but, what about executives' taking an airline flight like the rest of us?!" The answer is: They do. Sometimes flying the airlines makes sense. It is a matter of the benefit outweighing the cost. A company's leaders may consider whether to fly a private plane or book a flight with an airline much like you decide whether to drive your personal vehicle or take mass transit.An airliner is, after all, just a big bus with wings. Both a bus and an airline have fixed destinations and fixed schedules. When the schedule doesn't work or the airline doesn't go to the town where the CEO needs to go to, a private plane makes perfect sense. It's all about efficiency. There is no wasted time when a company uses its own airplane. And get this: A company plane is like a minivan. There is no extra cost to bring along a team of coworkers, as there would be on an airline.Here's a story. Let's say you have an opportunity for a high-paying dream job, say, pizza tasting for $98,000 a year. The outgoing chief taster wants a personal interview with you this afternoon. How would you get to his office 30 miles away? Forget about walking; that's crazy talk. If you have a car in the driveway, chances are you'll take it. Would you think about taking the bus? Maybe, if the bus could drop you off near your meeting, on time.Let's inject steroids to the story. You are the president of a successful company that spans the United States. You have the opportunity to meet the president of a company that is interested in a huge, mutually beneficial project. She is 3,000 miles away and can only meet with you tomorrow morning. If you have a company plane, chances are you'll take it. Would you think about taking an airline flight? Maybe, if it flies to her city and if you can get there on time.Business-owned aircraft are about flexibility and productivity, just like personal ownership of a car. A company is a group of people united to do business -- people trying to make a living and reach for opportunities. The difference between a family and a company is that when companies make money, they are able to provide jobs for you and me. I, for one, like to see companies making money. I say let them do it in whatever legal way works for them. Let them fly.Karen Workman is a freelance writer in Northfield.2009-11-30http://www.noplanenogain-org/Letter of the day: Xcel's Private Jet Made Perfect Business Sense.htm?m=51&s=340&id=177The Nov. 19 Star Tribune article about a local utility company's business airplanes ("Xcel execs fly high in leased jets, at ratepayers' expense," Nov. 19) painted these assets with a negative brush, when in fact, the use of an airplane is a sign of a well-managed company. Companies of all sizes -- in Minnesota and across the United States -- view a business airplane as an essential tool for providing customer service, reaching distant company offices, transporting sales and management teams and conducting a host of other types of necessary business flights. Businesspeople can make a trip involving stops at several locations, then return to headquarters the same day, saving time and travel expenses that would be needed to make the same trip over several days via auto, train or airline transport. Also, because employees can meet, plan and work with each other aboard business aircraft, productivity, confidentiality and security en route are assured. Studies have long underscored the return on investment a business airplane provides to a company. One study, conducted earlier this year, concludes definitively that by a host of measurements, companies using business aviation outperform those without aircraft. "In conducting this study, we found that companies using business aircraft outperform non-users across every key financial and non-financial measure of business success," the study's author noted. Here's the bottom line: Well-run companies routinely invest in telecommunications equipment, computer software and other tools that help employees work more efficiently and productively. A business airplane is that kind of tool, and its use should be encouraged, not disparaged. It's unfortunate this perspective was missing from your story. ED BOLEN, WASHINGTON; PRESIDENT/CEO, NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION2009-11-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Commentary: The Case For Private Jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=176This article focuses on advocacy for business aviation. NBAA's Ed Bolen says: "...The National Business Aviation Association has really put forward a campaign to try to educate people about just how essential business aviation is to our nation's economy and to our transportation system."  (story continues below video)   At the height of the recession, the private jet became the go-to symbol for corporate greed. Pundits and protesters reveled in the irony of auto executives boarding private jets to Capitol Hill to beg for taxpayer bailouts. As Rep. Gary Ackerman told Detroit's CEOs in November 2008, "It's almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo." Overnight, commercial was in, and the corporate jet became a public relations headache. For jet manufacturers, public furor translated into dismal sales. In the first three quarters of this year, manufacturers delivered 615 business jets, a sharp drop of 37.8% from the same period a year ago, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.The industry is battling back--fighting to educate the consumer, executives and especially Capitol Hill--on why the corporate jet is not just a luxury for the few, but a necessity for business. "With the financial collapse that occurred there was a lot of anger, a lot of hurt, a lot of people reaching out and striking at what became an image and the image was a corporate business jet," says Jack Pelton, CEO, Cessna. "We as an industry are now spending our time righting that wrong perception.We rounded up the industry's top executives, for their insight on how the anti-jet sentiment has hurt their business and how they're gaining ground in Washington. Ed BolenCEO, National Business Aviation Association Over the course of the past several months, the National Business Aviation Association has really put forward a campaign to try to educate people about just how essential business aviation is to our nation's economy and to our transportation system. The hallmark of that campaign has been to talk to people about the jobs created with business aviation and also the lifeline that business aviation provides to communities with little or no airline service. People are always surprised to find out that 85% of the companies that use business aviation are actually small and mid-sized companies, they are also surprised to find out that 70 to 75% of the time these planes are flown by middle managers. People don't really appreciate the kinds of missions [for which] business aviation is typically used. These are missions where companies are trying to visit three or five cities in a single day. They may be trying to take a team of people and turn that travel time into work time, have them discuss proprietary information en route or perhaps move products and services that can't be taken on commercial airlines. Craig FullerCEO, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association We took a step back and really studied what opinion leaders thought and think about general aviation early this year and they're pretty supportive. We launched our campaign, "General Aviation Serves America."[In it,] our members ... tell their stories about how they're using aircraft and through them really persuade opinion leaders that general aviation plays a very important role in our nation's transportation system. The best thing I've seen this year frankly, is the very strong support we have for general aviation in the Congress both in the House and in the Senate. We have a group of members of Congress who are pretty well persuaded that general aviation does play an important role and its worth protecting and worth nourishing in the years ahead. Frederico CuradoCEO, Embraer It's definitely a power business tool, if you have a typical road show, you have to be in 10, 12, 20 different places in three or four days. You just can't do that [without a business jet]. Traveling for example, within China or within Brazil relying on airline service takes certainly much more time. There was a very unfortunate moment in the beginning of the crisis where there was an association between business jet luxury and the crisis itself . Is it a luxury? Yeah it can be. It can also be a very powerful business tool.2009-11-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/A Turboprop Built for Trouble.htm?m=51&s=340&id=173Paul Schaller, a former Silicon Valley pilot and high-tech executive, has spent the past five years getting Quest Aircraft Co., a turboprop manufacturer in Sandpoint, Idaho, off the ground. But just when business was taking shape, he ran into a wicked recession that has made owning a private plane about as politically correct as wearing mink to a PETA convention.Schaller's salvation has been to exploit an overlooked and defensibleniche: utility turboprops for missionary and humanitarian organizations that need to access remote and dangerous regions. It's a growing $300 million market that hasn't seen much innovation since the Turbo-Beaver bush plane was introduced by de Havilland Canada in the early 1960s.Since becoming CEO in November 2004, Schaller has been able to get the prototype of the company's Kodiak aircraft--a rugged 10-seat hauler equipped to operate in harsh environments--commercialized and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. He's boosted deliveries from zero to 27, garnering customers ranging from the Mission Aviation Fellowship operating in Indonesia to a Saudi prince. Given that each Kodiak sells for a base price of $1.45 million, the steady revenue stream has helped fund production and the expansion of the company's workforce.Quest now employs 300 people in Sandpoint, a small resort town nestled 50 miles (80 km) from the Canadian border. Its lean manufacturing facility is rolling three Kodiaks off the assembly line a month. The company's goal is to double revenue to $60 million next year, which would put the start-up into the black. It's reachable, as the company has 120 planes on back order."It's taken more than a wing and a lot of prayer to get to this point,"says Schaller, who notes that the fundraising, cash-management and marketing skills he gained from working at various start-ups have helped him navigate the challenges of getting a new aircraft launched in a recession. Quest has spent $80 million to build, certify and start production of the Kodiak--all without venture capital or high-interest loans. Compare that with Cirrus Design, which plowed $70 million into its SR20 single-engine piston aircraft over five years before commercializing it. It later raised another $55 million to ramp up production.The tale is uplifting, especially during a time when the $150 billion business-aviation market is in free fall. After reaching lofty heights in deliveries and sales in September 2008, the industry has taken one of its sharpest nosedives in its history. In the first three quarters of 2009, there were 1,587 new aircraft deliveries worldwide--a 47% drop from the same period a year earlier, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association reports. "Backlogs for orders are also shrinking. In the third quarter, we estimate backlogs on business jets were valued at $48 billion, vs. $82 billion during the same time last year," says Brian Foley, an industry analyst who runs his own firm. "For the first time in history, I predict, cancellations will exceed new orders for the year."Hardest hit: makers of small, light and midsize jets, such as Cessna Aircraft Co. and Hawker Beechcraft. Cessna, the largest company in the category, has halved its workforce of 16,000 this year because projected2009 deliveries were cut almost in half, to 275. "I don't think the market will bottom out until the middle of next year," projects Jack Pelton, Cessna's CEO. "Then we will slowly crawl out of this predicament when corporate earnings improve in 2011." The demonization of corporate jets by Congress, prompted initially by the CEOs of the Detroit automakers, has helped kill thousands of jobs. The corporate-aviation market provided 1.2 million high-wage jobs in the U.S. before the financial crisis.Quest can fly above that storm. David Voetmann, along with aircraft designer Tom Hamilton, hatched the idea for the company in 1998. A former pilot who flew relief and medical-evacuation missions for a host of organizations in Africa, Voetmann realized in the '80s that someone had to develop a new bush utility plane, since refurbishing engines of old models like the Beaver was no longer cost-efficient. So he partnered with Hamilton and began tapping on the doors of nontraditionalinvestors: missionary-aviation organizations. His hope was that they would provide seed money in exchange for Kodiaks at cost.About 15 organizations, including Mission Aviation Fellowship, New Tribes Mission and JAARS, put up the financing to develop the prototype and created a trust to start product development. "It was a completely novel idea born out of the fact that I didn't want to raise venture capital and lose equity control of the company, nor did I want to have to pay back high-interest loans and executive salaries," Voetmann says."Honestly, our aim was not to make money but to find a way to help others," says Hamilton.What a crazy idea; he might make money anyway. There is a real need for a bush turboprop to be built with the latest aerodynamic and engine technologies. Organizations serving populations in crisis in developing countries need a plane that can operate safely on short dirt airstrips.The Kodiak, with its small wingspan of 45 ft. (15 m), advanced flap technology and high power-to-weight ratio, can land and take off in less than 700 ft. (210 m) and climb at a rapid 1,700 ft. per min. (520 m per min.). The Kodiak can be retrofitted for other uses such as border patrolling, hauling emergency equipment and carrying military paratroopers. That's why the British army and the U.S. Department of the Interior are also customers.Aviation executives can't help feeling inspired by Schaller's appropriately named Quest. The industry is marked by trailblazers who defied the odds. Clyde Vernon Cessna, a farmer whose imagination was sparked by a flying circus in Oklahoma City, launched his company just before the Great Depression; Cessna certified two of its monoplanes on Oct. 29, 1929, the day of the Crash. It takes vision and the right flight plan for any venture in this field to get airborne. Schaller might have both.2009-11-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/Editorial: Focus on getting Americans working.htm?m=51&s=340&id=174This editorial notes that, at a time when the business aviation community has been beset by job losses, a Presidential visit to Wichita, KS, "...would let the president see for himself how the loss of more than 13,000 aircraft-manufacturing jobs in a year affects a community of 350,000." Read the editorial:  http://www.kansas.com/opinion/editorials/story/1066553.html 2009-11-22http://www.noplanenogain-org/Study: Business jet sales to dip before rebounding.htm?m=51&s=340&id=175Business aviation manufacture, which contributes to the 1.2 million jobs generated by the overall industry, has dramatically declined in the wake of a recession and misperceptions about business aviation. This article reports that "some difficulties must be overcome." Read article:  http://www.kansas.com/business/aviation/story/1062135.html 2009-11-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cirrus lays off 32 in Grand Forks.htm?m=51&s=340&id=172DULUTH - Cirrus Aircraft said 58 production employees were laid off Wednesday, citing seasonal adjustments and not decreased demand.The airplane manufacturer cut 32 workers in Grand Forks and 26 at its headquarters in Duluth, said Todd Simmons, Cirrus' vice president of marketing. Wednesday's cuts put Cirrus' total employment at about 550, down from about 1,300 in August 2008.But Simmons said Wednesday's changes better position Cirrus, Duluth's largest manufacturer, for next year."We had been staffed to a level higher than current demand and(Wednesday's) changes are not a reflection of reduced demand," Simmons said. "It's a reflection of getting late in the year and knowing that we are building airplanes for the new year, and the first quarter is a time of weaker deliveries and demand." The layoffs come amid drastically reduced airplane production across the industry through the first nine months of 2009, according to a shipping report from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Cirrus has shipped 189 airplanes through September 2009, a drop from 425 in 2008 and 461 in 2007. "We would like that to be higher, but we are very, very competitive inside aviation with our direct competitors," said Simmons of piston-engine challengers such as Cessna, Diamond and Piper. "We have been able to maintain the market share that we initially saw earlier in the year. We have strong market share position. We are taking greater share, while the market continues to be a contracted market."By comparison, Diamond Aircraft's DA40 - which is a direct competitor to Cirrus' SR20 and SR22, Simmons said - had 81 sales in the first nine months of 2009, a drop from 144 in 2008 and 175 in 2007.Sales at Diamond fell 54 percent, while Cirrus had sales drop 60 percent, comparing GAMA numbers in the nine-month periods in 2007 to 2009."All in all, the market remains challenged and at some level volatile,"Simmons said, "so a conservative approach in production capability to demand is the right approach." The Duluth News-Tribune and the Herald are owned by Forum Communications Co.2009-11-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business jet market hit hard by recession.htm?m=51&s=340&id=171Industry numbers Thursday dramatically showed how the recession has hit the global business jet market and famed Omaha investor Warren Buffet's Net Jets Inc. added to the gloom.Bombardier Aerospace's business jet deliveries in the three months ended Sept. 30 totalled 36 aircraft, down 37 per cent from a year earlier, the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) said, with revenue falling to $1.02 billion U.S. from $1.42 billion U.S.Bombardier is the industry leader and such competitors as Gulfstream and Dassault have reported similar numbers, while saying the third quarter this year probably saw the bottom of the cycle. Asia remains the only expanding market.Net Jets, owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. holding company and an international air charter firm serving corporations and business executives, said it is laying off 495 pilots across the United States, effective Jan. 15, because of sagging demand. Net Jets employs 3,000 pilots worldwide.The company said the decision was based on a detailed analysis of current and projected flight demand.Copyright The Montreal Gazette2009-11-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Little airports big help to all who take to sky.htm?m=51&s=340&id=170The expense of flying a private airplane gives most people the impression that small airports have become exclusive clubs for the wealthy, whose political influence allows them to pass on the cost to taxpayers who don't benefit.That impression is inaccurate for many reasons. The 10,000 pilots in town this week to attend the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association aviation summit are one visible indication of the importance of private airplanes, and the small public airports that serve them, to the nation's economy.Many of these pilots use an airplane as a work tool. It is a serious business, even for those who fly only as a sport or to access remote vacation spots.In a recent editorial, USA Today complained that "a wildly disproportionate" amount of ticket taxes that airline passengers are charged is spent on more that 2,800 fields they'll never visit.Expressing a widely held view, the newspaper said, "It would be hard to find fliers who wouldn't rather keep their money or see it spent on airports they use."Passengers who use Tampa International Airport are fortunate that Lou Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough Aviation Authority, has a more informed opinion.An airport without scheduled passenger service does have an impact on airports that sell tickets. Miller knows that airplanes using the three small, public airports in Hillsborough County - Peter O. Knight, Tampa Executive and Plant City - are staying out of the air around the crowded major public airport. That's why he calls them reliever airports.Look up and you probably will not see an airplane. The sky is not crowded. Congestion occurs only around the big airports, especially the ones airlines use as hubs. Encouraging smaller planes to go to smaller airports helps minimize delays and avoids concentrating too much air traffic at one site.Visit a small airport and you'll see that not everyone who flies a private airplane has money to burn. Many airplanes are owned by groups of pilots who split the costs. Other pilots rent an airplane by the hour.One unrecognized way small airports serve the traveling public is flight training. About half the landings at Peter O. Knight are by students learning to fly or pilots improving their skills. Mixing these small, slow planes with the fast jets full of passengers is not a way a rational passenger would want to save a few dollars on the price of a ticket.Small airports are where many airline pilots come from. Some of the flight instructors are actually working on a career as an airline pilot, which requires many hours of flight time. Outside the military, there are few other affordable paths to a flying career.The money for Hillsborough's airports comes from user fees, not taxes.Ticket fees are collected from passengers, and pilots are taxed when they buy aviation fuel. But unlike the fuel used by cars and trucks, most of the fuel in an airplane is burned high above the ground and far from the runways, which are usually empty. It's easy to overlook how much money the pilots are contributing.Hangars and other amenities at Hillsborough's small airports are self-supporting. Maintenance done at the airports sustains good jobs.And the nation's network of small airports gives access to areas the airlines don't serve.These airports are used by law enforcement, firefighters, crop dusters, wildlife officials, charity flights, business executives, TV crews, medical services and tourists.Pilots flying for all those reasons and more will be in Tampa today for the start of the three-day summit. About 100 airplanes will be on display at Peter O. Knight on Davis Islands. Ferries will take pilots from the convention center to the nearby airport. The Experimental Aircraft Association and the National Business Aircraft Association also are participating in the summit.If you're interested in flying, you might want to check out the seminars and exhibits available today and Friday. More information is available at www.aopasummit.org.You can learn about flying and even sign up for a $70 introductory flight. If you do, you'll be taking off in a small airplane, and the jet pilots coming and going from Tampa International Airport will never see you.2009-11-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Use of Private Aircraft Stunted by Economic Downturn.htm?m=51&s=340&id=168GUILFORD -- The use of private aircraft by businesses has been stunted by an economic downturn that forced companies to lay off workers, cancel orders for new planes or close down flight units to strengthen cash flow. As the recession left the U.S. consumer with falling home values, job and investment portfolio losses and a credit crunch, automobile industry executives were lambasted for traveling to a congressional hearing via corporate jets.But when the National Business Aviation Association gathers next week for its annual meeting and convention in Orlando, Fla., expect rigorous discussion on whether use of private aircraft amounts to executive privilege or essential business tools.The event's theme is: "Demonstrating the Value of Business Aviation."Michael Dwyer, president of Guardian Jet on the Boston Post Road, will be attending and unveiling the company's new software program Guardian 20/20, designed to help executives show shareholders a return on investment in air-craft."Economic conditions, intense government scrutiny and recent negative news about business aviation have forced corporate flight departments to prove their value or eliminate their fleet," Dwyer said.Guardian Jet brokers the sale and purchase of planes and helicopters and offers consulting services.Guardian 20/20 enables companies to analyze acquisition, fixed and variable costs of their fleets, how often trips are taken, distance, numbers of passengers and whether those investments bolster profits."This is not just a luxury. There's a big cost savings and a big time savings," said Michael Mikolay, executive vice president of Guardian Jet.For example, Dwyer said, a client with $50 billion in revenue could spend $30 million a year to maintain six air-craft. "What's the scale of that? It's two-tenths of 1 percent," he said.According to the association, the types of business aircraft range from propeller-driven craft to jets to helicopters. They can be used to transport employees, customers or cargo and for medical emergencies."When you're going to a sales meeting, time is of the essence. Sometimes you'd like an extra hour to prepare. Their last chance is while sitting on the plane," said Stan Smith, director of technical services.David Cadden, professor of management for Quinnipiac University, said it can appear as if executives are flying around in the lap of luxury, but there seems to be some evidence that productivity can be significantly improved. "The problem is proving that to your shareholders and to the media," he said.Angela Carter can be reached at 789-5752 or acarter@nhregister.com2009-10-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation: Business vs. Luxury (Video Interview).htm?m=51&s=340&id=169NBAA's Ed Bolen speaks with Rich Karlgaard of Forbes Magazine about the many benefits of business aviation, and addresses popular mischaracterizations about the industry.2009-10-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Jet Demand Slowdown Continues.htm?m=51&s=340&id=167After peaking in 2008, new business jet deliveries are projected to decline roughly 30% in 2009 followed by a 10%-15% decline in 2010 before starting a recovery in 2011. So says the Honeywell Aerospace annual business aircraft outlook, which forecasts 2009 deliveries of 750-800 new business jets, down from 1,139 in 2008. Deliveries in 2010 are expected to drop below 700. The outlook is stronger starting in 2012 because of pent-up demand and an expected global economic recovery. By 2011-2012, there will be significant pent-up demand that will improve the outlook for order intake and new jet deliveries, says Rob Wilson, Honeywell Aerospace president of business and general aviation, in a statement. Long-term, "there is a strong demand out there," he says. "People still value business aviation and the efficiency and security."The 2009 business jet down cycle has been much more severe than originally forecast in 2008 survey "due to the sudden, unpredicted downturn in the global economy and limitations on credit availability,"according to Honeywell Aerospace.The 2009 survey of 500 business-jet fleet operators in North America finds respondents expecting to purchase aircraft equal to about 25% of their existing fleets for replacement or expansion in the future but not until 2012 and later. In the meantime, "we'll have to buckle down for a slow but steady recovery," says Wilson.2009-10-26http://www.noplanenogain-org/Corporate Jets Aren't Just for Fat Cats.htm?m=51&s=340&id=166"No plane, no gain" is the motto adopted by one sector of the aviation industry that's been hit hard by the economic collapse and souring public perception of corporate aviation. And contrary to the stereotype, corporate jets aren't used only to ferry fat cats who think flying coach with the rest of us is beneath them.A new study shows the use of business jets and other small aircraft is more about companies trying to gain efficiency and improve the bottom line than about providing a luxurious perk to those at the top of the corporate ladder. The industry wants to dispel many misconceptions about how and why companies use general aviation.While cases of corporate bigwigs using corporate planes to jet off to exotic locales tend to make the headlines, the reality is very different, according to the survey of passengers and flight crews. The study found just 22 percent of passengers on business aircraft (.pdf) were top-level executives, while 70 percent included mid-level managers, sales, technical and service staff. The average number of employees per company who flew on business aircraft during a six-month period before the survey was 85.In addition to aircraft usage, another key point highlighted in the report follows the old real estate motto of location, location, location. Almost half of the flights made by business aircraft in the survey are to airports with little or no scheduled airline service.One-third were to smaller, secondary airports.In other words, taking the corporate jet was the most efficient, if not the only, way to get there.There are more than 5,000 public airports in the United States, but only about 600 have any kind of scheduled service. What's more, most of the airlines fly in and out of just 70 major hub airports. The ability to utilize more of the airports not served by airlines benefits companies trying to save time by flying closer to their destinations. And it benefits the rest of us by reducing traffic - and therefore delays - at hub airports.The study was prepared by Harris Interactive for the National Business Aviation Association and the General Aviation Manufacturing Association ahead of this week's NBAA annual meeting in Orlando, Florida.While the numbers presented in the report may support the industry's claim that business aviation is a tool used by companies trying to make, not waste, money, public perception has been hard to sway. It's been almost a year since corporate aviation took a giant PR hit when CEOs of the Big Three automakers flew company jets to Washington, D.C., to ask for financial help from the government. Since that time several corporate flight departments and the broader general aviation industry have been hit hard by the public outcry.But the uproar is misplaced, aviation consultant Peter V. Agur, Jr. says in an editorial posted at AviationWeek. Agur writes that for many businesses, it makes no more sense for employees to fly on commercial airlines than it does for a fireman use a city bus to arrive at a fire.While such modes of transport might appear cheaper in the short term, they are less likely to achieve the desired goals in the long term.As for the often mentioned high cost of corporate jets, Agur says in these lean times, companies won't waste money on anything that doesn't bolster the bottom line. He points out business aircraft use is a tiny fraction of the budget for most of the companies that use them and says cars comprise a much larger percentage of most people's personal budgets.Whether public perception will be shifted on the topic remains to be seen. But the industry, like the economy, is starting to show signs of recovery. The number of used aircraft on the market is dropping, and companies at this week's NBAA meeting are seeing some trickles of light at the end of the very long tunnel. Though after plane makers like Cessna slashed half its workforce, the road (flight) to recovery is likely to be a long one.2009-10-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA, GAMA Unveil No Plane No Gain ‘E-Valuation’ Toolkit .htm?m=51&s=412&id=161For Immediate Release October 20, 2009 Contacts: Dan Hubbard (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.orgKatie Pribyl (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero Resource Helps Quantify, Communicate Business Aviation Value To Companies ORLANDO, FL, October 20, 2009 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today unveiled a new online resource to help businesses of all types and sizes calculate and explain the value a business aircraft brings to a company’s overall business objectives.   “Those of us in the business aviation community understand well how a business aircraft helps a company be more efficient, productive and successful,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “The idea behind this resource is to give people the tools they need to help them measure and explain the value of the asset to others.”   GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce agreed, adding: “With this toolkit, we’ve put the information for articulating the value of a business aircraft literally at people’s fingertips. We’re confident that this resource will be indispensible in helping the industry clearly communicate the benefits of business aviation.”   Bolen and Bunce announced the launch of the new Toolkit today as part of a Media Breakfast held during NBAA’s 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention.   Presented as part of the two Associations’ No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, the new Business Aircraft E-Valuation Toolkit identifies five basic resources every company in business aviation should have for measuring an aircraft’s value – regardless of the size or type of the business involved, which are:   ·         A policy statement for use of the company’s aircraft. ·         A method for establishing metrics to quantify an aircraft’s value. ·         A document-retention program to catalogue relevant information about the missions conducted with the aircraft. ·         A presentation for a company’s internal audiences, so that employees can become advocates for the flight operation, and; ·         A presentation for external audiences – including the news media, lawmakers and others – so that a company can promote the benefits of business aviation.   The toolkit contains essential guidance, including documents outlining best practices, sample templates and other resources. The documents are accompanied by a series of tutorial videos that walk viewers through the key considerations for developing the five resources. Each of the video presenters outlines the best practices currently used to measure and explain business aviation value; the presenters also provide tips and tools for applying those best practices.   NBAA and GAMA launched the No Plane No Gain advocacy program earlier this year to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies, and communities across the United States. As part of its mission, the campaign provides advocacy resources for people within the industry. Visit the Business Aircraft E-Valuation Toolkit at: http://bit.ly/3aMhE3 # # # ABOUT GAMAThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. To learn more, visit: www.gama.aero.  ABOUT NBAAFounded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.  Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release e-mail list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe.2009-10-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA, GAMA Unveil No Plane No Gain ‘E-Valuation’ Toolkit .htm?m=51&s=340&id=162For Immediate Release October 20, 2009 Contacts: Dan Hubbard (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.orgKatie Pribyl (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero Resource Helps Quantify, Communicate Business Aviation Value To Companies ORLANDO, FL, October 20, 2009 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today unveiled a new online resource to help businesses of all types and sizes calculate and explain the value a business aircraft brings to a company’s overall business objectives.   “Those of us in the business aviation community understand well how a business aircraft helps a company be more efficient, productive and successful,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “The idea behind this resource is to give people the tools they need to help them measure and explain the value of the asset to others.”   GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce agreed, adding: “With this toolkit, we’ve put the information for articulating the value of a business aircraft literally at people’s fingertips. We’re confident that this resource will be indispensible in helping the industry clearly communicate the benefits of business aviation.”   Bolen and Bunce announced the launch of the new Toolkit today as part of a Media Breakfast held during NBAA’s 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention.   Presented as part of the two Associations’ No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, the new Business Aircraft E-Valuation Toolkit identifies five basic resources every company in business aviation should have for measuring an aircraft’s value – regardless of the size or type of the business involved, which are:   ·         A policy statement for use of the company’s aircraft. ·         A method for establishing metrics to quantify an aircraft’s value. ·         A document-retention program to catalogue relevant information about the missions conducted with the aircraft. ·         A presentation for a company’s internal audiences, so that employees can become advocates for the flight operation, and; ·         A presentation for external audiences – including the news media, lawmakers and others – so that a company can promote the benefits of business aviation.   The toolkit contains essential guidance, including documents outlining best practices, sample templates and other resources. The documents are accompanied by a series of tutorial videos that walk viewers through the key considerations for developing the five resources. Each of the video presenters outlines the best practices currently used to measure and explain business aviation value; the presenters also provide tips and tools for applying those best practices.   NBAA and GAMA launched the No Plane No Gain advocacy program earlier this year to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies, and communities across the United States. As part of its mission, the campaign provides advocacy resources for people within the industry. Visit the Business Aircraft E-Valuation Toolkit at: http://bit.ly/3aMhE3 # # # ABOUT GAMAThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. To learn more, visit: www.gama.aero.  ABOUT NBAAFounded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.  Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release e-mail list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe. 2009-10-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/American Legend Arnold Palmer Lends His Voice to No Plane No Gain Campaign.htm?m=51&s=412&id=164For Immediate Release                        October 20, 2009                                       Contacts: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Katie Pribyl, GAMA, (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero   Golf Icon, Esteemed Businessman Featured in New Video, Print Ads   ORLANDO, FL, October 20, 2009 – Golf legend and accomplished businessman Arnold Palmer is lending his voice to support the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities in a new video and print advertising campaign for No Plane No Gain, the advocacy program jointly sponsored by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA).   “Arnold Palmer has always been an advocate for business aviation, because he has a first-hand understanding of its essential role in serving towns and communities across the country,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “For his entire career, business aviation has made it possible for him to succeed in golf and business – all from his hometown of Latrobe, PA, which doesn’t have airline service.”   GAMA President & CEO Pete Bunce added: “Through these new ads, we will be able to draw even more attention to the messages No Plane No Gain has been communicating: that business aviation supports over a million jobs, represents a lifeline for small- and medium-sized U.S. towns, enables companies to compete and succeed, and helps provide relief to people and communities in times of crisis.”   The new advertising, rolled out during the Opening General Session of NBAA’s 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention, includes three print ads and three 30-second video ads. The print and video ads complement one another, and build upon the efforts already undertaken through the No Plane No Gain program to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S.   With a simple, yet powerful delivery, Palmer speaks to the benefits of business aviation in the ads and responds to those who would devalue the use of an airplane for business.  For example, in one print ad, Palmer states: “People who build business airplanes make things fly. People who use them make things happen. A few others make things up.” In one of the video spots, Palmer states plainly: “For more than 50 years, using business airplanes is the single-most productive thing I have done.”   Addressing the large crowd gathered at the Opening General Session, Palmer explained why he felt compelled to lend his voice to the No Plane No Gain program. “I know the value of business airplanes,” Palmer said. “I know what they have done for me and my companies. I know how important they are to my hometown. And I know how important they are to this country. So I wanted to speak out and help set the record straight.”   ·         To view the video ads, visit the No Plane No Gain website: http://www.noplanenogain.org/Video_Advertisements.htm?m=47&s=385   ·         To view the print ads, visit the No Plane No Gain website: http://www.noplanenogain.org/Print_Advertisements.htm?m=47&s=416   ### ABOUT GAMAThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. To learn more, visit: www.gama.aero.    ABOUT NBAAFounded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.   Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release e-mail list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe.2009-10-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/American Legend Arnold Palmer Lends His Voice to No Plane No Gain Campaign.htm?m=51&s=340&id=165For Immediate Release                        October 20, 2009                                       Contacts: Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Katie Pribyl, GAMA, (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero   Golf Icon, Esteemed Businessman Featured in New Video, Print Ads   ORLANDO, FL, October 20, 2009 – Golf legend and accomplished businessman Arnold Palmer is lending his voice to support the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities in a new video and print advertising campaign for No Plane No Gain, the advocacy program jointly sponsored by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA).   “Arnold Palmer has always been an advocate for business aviation, because he has a first-hand understanding of its essential role in serving towns and communities across the country,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “For his entire career, business aviation has made it possible for him to succeed in golf and business – all from his hometown of Latrobe, PA, which doesn’t have airline service.”   GAMA President & CEO Pete Bunce added: “Through these new ads, we will be able to draw even more attention to the messages No Plane No Gain has been communicating: that business aviation supports over a million jobs, represents a lifeline for small- and medium-sized U.S. towns, enables companies to compete and succeed, and helps provide relief to people and communities in times of crisis.”   The new advertising, rolled out during the Opening General Session of NBAA’s 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention, includes three print ads and three 30-second video ads. The print and video ads complement one another, and build upon the efforts already undertaken through the No Plane No Gain program to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S.   With a simple, yet powerful delivery, Palmer speaks to the benefits of business aviation in the ads and responds to those who would devalue the use of an airplane for business.  For example, in one print ad, Palmer states: “People who build business airplanes make things fly. People who use them make things happen. A few others make things up.” In one of the video spots, Palmer states plainly: “For more than 50 years, using business airplanes is the single-most productive thing I have done.”   Addressing the large crowd gathered at the Opening General Session, Palmer explained why he felt compelled to lend his voice to the No Plane No Gain program. “I know the value of business airplanes,” Palmer said. “I know what they have done for me and my companies. I know how important they are to my hometown. And I know how important they are to this country. So I wanted to speak out and help set the record straight.”   ·         To view the video ads, visit the No Plane No Gain website: http://www.noplanenogain.org/Video_Advertisements.htm?m=47&s=385   ·         To view the print ads, visit the No Plane No Gain website: http://www.noplanenogain.org/Print_Advertisements.htm?m=47&s=416   ### ABOUT GAMAThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. To learn more, visit: www.gama.aero.    ABOUT NBAAFounded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.   Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via e-mail. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release e-mail list, submit the online form at www.nbaa.org/news/pr/subscribe. 2009-10-20http://www.noplanenogain-org/Report Focuses On Biz Av For Small Companies.htm?m=51&s=340&id=163The National Business Aviation Association and General Aviation Manufacturers Association are hoping to dispel the "fat cat" perception of business aviation with a new report that stresses the role business aviation plays among small and medium-sized companies. The report is the second released by the associations in recent weeks to fight the negative public image of business aviation that has perpetuated over the past year. Unlike the first report, Business Aviation--An Enterprise Value Proposition, which links business aviation with the success of top companies (BA, Sept. 28/135), the latest report focuses on the range of companies and employees that have used business aviation. Conducted by Harris Interactive, the report, The Real World of BusinessAviation: A Survey of Companies Using General Aviation Aircraft, finds that some 70 percent of companies operating business aircraft have fewer than 1,000 employees, and the majority (59 percent) have fewer than 500. The report also finds that only 22 percent of passengers aboard business aircraft are top management. The majority of passengers are other managers, or technical, sales or service staff. Some 75 percent of companies only operate one aircraft, and nearly half of business aircraft flights travel to airports with infrequent or no scheduled airline service. "These findings stand in stark contrast to recent mischaracterizations of business aviation operators," said GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce."The reality is, companies of all sizes rely on many different types of aircraft to be more competitive, productive, efficient and successful." NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen agreed. "The industry is often not well understood. This important study will help people see the real face of business aviation and underscore its importance to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S."   2009-10-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Perspective: Airplanes crucial in helping businesses grow .htm?m=51&s=340&id=156This Wichita Businessperson says: "Just as the bulk of business in America is small business, the vast majority of passengers on business aircraft are nonexecutive types. The people flying are the ones doing the work...Here's a site you'll want to check out: www.NoPlaneNoGain.org."Click below for the full story:http://www.kansas.com/business/perspectives/story/1012767.html2009-10-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/The state of Kansas' business aviation industry.htm?m=51&s=340&id=157 The state of Kansas' business aviation industry This article makes clear how the deep recession and misperceptions about business aviation have hit the industry, which employs over a million people. "Thousands of jobs lost. Production cuts. Furloughs. The cancellation of a major new aircraft program," the article points out. Click below for the full story:http://www.kansas.com/business/aviation/story/1012772.html2009-10-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA, GAMA: New Survey Provides Accurate, Clear Picture Of Business Aviation .htm?m=51&s=412&id=159Findings May Surprise Industry Critics For Immediate Release            October 15, 2009                    Contacts:  Katie Pribyl, GAMA (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Survey available online: http://bit.ly/3GbFpJ   Washington, DC, October 15, 2009 – The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today published a new survey showing conclusively that some of the recent portrayals of business aviation are inconsistent with the true nature of the industry.   The survey, conducted for GAMA and NBAA by Harris Interactive, depicts an industry in which the typical company is a small or mid-sized business flying a single aircraft that is used by a broad mix of employees to make business trips utilizing community airports, often with little or no airline service. “These findings stand in stark contrast to recent mischaracterizations of business aviation operators,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. “The reality is, companies of all sizes rely on many different types of aircraft to be more competitive, productive, efficient and successful.” NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen agreed, adding: “Although the manufacture and use of business aircraft contributes significantly to the national economy, the industry is often not well understood. This important study will help people see the real face of business aviation and underscore its importance to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S.” The survey, based on actual interviews conducted with pilots and passengers involved in business aircraft flights, finds: Small companies operate the majority of business aircraft. Most companies (59%) operating business aircraft have fewer than 500 employees, and seven in ten have less than 1,000 employees.  Companies using business aviation typically operate only a single aircraft. The majority (75%) of companies operate only one turbine-powered aircraft.Managers and other mid-level employees are the typical passengers on business aircraft. Only 22% of passengers on business aircraft are top management (i.e., a company’s Chairman, Board Member, CEO or CFO); the majority are other managers (50%) and or technical, sales or service staff (20%).Employees use their time onboard company aircraft more effectively and productively than when they are on airline flights. Some passengers even estimate that they are more productive on the company aircraft than they are in the office because of fewer distractions.  A large majority of flights (80%) are made into secondary airports or airports with infrequent or no scheduled airline service.The survey was conducted online and by mail within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of GAMA and NBAA between June 1-October 6, 2009 among 350 Pilots, Flight Department Mangers, and Directors of Aviation of business aircraft and 289 passengers of business aircraft. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated; a full methodology is available.   NBAA and GAMA commissioned the survey in an ongoing effort to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S. The two associations’ combined advocacy work takes place through a jointly sponsored campaign, entitled “No Plane No Gain.” To learn more, visit: www.noplanenogain.org. To review a full copy of the Harris Interactive survey, visit: http://bit.ly/3GbFpJ # # #   ABOUT HARRIS INTERACTIVE Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.  ABOUT GAMA The General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. To learn more, visit: www.gama.aero.  ABOUT NBAA Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. 2009-10-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA, GAMA: New Survey Provides Accurate, Clear Picture Of Business Aviation .htm?m=51&s=340&id=160 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Findings May Surprise Industry Critics For Immediate Release            October 15, 2009                    Contacts:  Katie Pribyl, GAMA (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero Dan Hubbard, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Survey available online: http://bit.ly/3GbFpJ Washington, DC, October 15, 2009 – The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today published a new survey showing conclusively that some of the recent portrayals of business aviation are inconsistent with the true nature of the industry. The survey, conducted for GAMA and NBAA by Harris Interactive, depicts an industry in which the typical company is a small or mid-sized business flying a single aircraft that is used by a broad mix of employees to make business trips utilizing community airports, often with little or no airline service. “These findings stand in stark contrast to recent mischaracterizations of business aviation operators,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. “The reality is, companies of all sizes rely on many different types of aircraft to be more competitive, productive, efficient and successful.” NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen agreed, adding: “Although the manufacture and use of business aircraft contributes significantly to the national economy, the industry is often not well understood. This important study will help people see the real face of business aviation and underscore its importance to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S.” The survey, based on actual interviews conducted with pilots and passengers involved in business aircraft flights, finds: Small companies operate the majority of business aircraft. Most companies (59%) operating business aircraft have fewer than 500 employees, and seven in ten have less than 1,000 employees.  Companies using business aviation typically operate only a single aircraft. The majority (75%) of companies operate only one turbine-powered aircraft. Managers and other mid-level employees are the typical passengers on business aircraft. Only 22% of passengers on business aircraft are top management (i.e., a company’s Chairman, Board Member, CEO or CFO); the majority are other managers (50%) and or technical, sales or service staff (20%). Employees use their time onboard company aircraft more effectively and productively than when they are on airline flights. Some passengers even estimate that they are more productive on the company aircraft than they are in the office because of fewer distractions.  A large majority of flights (80%) are made into secondary airports or airports with infrequent or no scheduled airline service. The survey was conducted online and by mail within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of GAMA and NBAA between June 1-October 6, 2009 among 350 Pilots, Flight Department Mangers, and Directors of Aviation of business aircraft and 289 passengers of business aircraft. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated; a full methodology is available. NBAA and GAMA commissioned the survey in an ongoing effort to educate policymakers and opinion leaders about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S. The two associations’ combined advocacy work takes place through a jointly sponsored campaign, entitled “No Plane No Gain.” To learn more, visit: www.noplanenogain.org. To review a full copy of the Harris Interactive survey, visit: http://bit.ly/3GbFpJ # # # ABOUT HARRIS INTERACTIVE Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.  ABOUT GAMAThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. To learn more, visit: www.gama.aero.  ABOUT NBAA Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.2009-10-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/As Aviation Jobs Take Off, Wichita Frets Its Future.htm?m=51&s=340&id=158As Aviation Jobs Take Off, Wichita Frets Its Future 'Air Capital of the World' Looks to Lure New Industries as Tight Credit Markets, Stigma of Corporate Jets Weigh on Key Sector WICHITA, Kan. -- At the sprawling Cessna Aircraft Co. factory here, business jets sit half-assembled after work was halted midstream. Across town at rival Hawker Beechcraft Corp., massive machines that build fuselages are quiet. Until recently, this city of 366,000 possessed something few other regions in America could claim: a robust manufacturing sector. Wichita, the self-proclaimed "Air Capital of the World," is home to dozens of plane makers and suppliers. These companies provided thousands of stable, well-paying jobs for factory workers and engineers alike. Even as manufacturers of products from household appliances to textiles fled to lower-cost factories abroad, Wichita's airplane-making businesses thrived. As recently as mid-2008, companies such as Cessna and Bombardier Learjet, a unit of Bombardier Inc., were reporting stellar results, as easy credit fueled strong sales of corporate jets and recreational airplanes. But the recession, tight credit markets and popular outrage at executives traveling on private aircraft combined to drag business to a near-standstill here in the second half of 2008. "We had customers with $1 million deposits for jets who just walked away and left their money," said one Cessna official. Cessna, a unit of Textron Inc., has announced 8,200 layoffs and has forced hundreds of other workers to take furloughs. Closely held Hawker Beechcraft has cut at least 2,600 jobs this year and has announced plans for more. Bombardier Learjet has shed 800 workers and pushed others to take furloughs. All told, more than a quarter of the area's aviation work force has been let go, not including thousands more layoffs among parts suppliers and support businesses. Wichita's unemployment rate was 8.9% in August, still below the national average of 9.7% that month. Many are now trying to figure out what it would take to bring the industry back. Few expect credit markets to return to the levels that, not long ago, allowed even small companies to finance the purchase of their own aircraft. In addition, the stigma of buying corporate jets has yet to fade. And even if the industry does rebound, it isn't clear that jobs would return here. Many manufacturers had already begun to build up production facilities abroad during the boom times to create extra capacity. "We're feeling the crunch now and it will stay around throughout 2010," said Jeremy Hill, director at the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University. Wichita's mayor, Carl Brewer, a former factory hand and engineer who once worked at both Cessna and Boeing Co. supplier Spirit AeroSystems Inc., said he was concerned that the city might not be able to count on aviation in the future the way it has in the past. "We're going out and trying to recruit new businesses here to diversify what we have and we're also looking for additional aviation opportunities," he said. In 1925, Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman -- all aviation pioneers in their own right -- joined to form the Travel Air Manufacturing Co., which built planes in Wichita. After only a few years, Mr. Cessna left to form his own company and Mr. Beech in the early 1930s started Beech Aircraft Co. Mr. Stearman eventually formed his own firm that over the years became part of Boeing. Wichita became a hub of military-aircraft manufacturing during World War II and turned out thousands of airplanes to fight the war. The industry weathered ups and downs in the past, but always rebounded. That created a steady supply of well-paying manufacturing jobs that allowed even those with moderate education and skills to earn a decent living. Harelda Goldston, who began as a sheet-metal assembler at Hawker Beechcraft in 1990, was laid off last month in the latest round of cuts. The 59-year-old Wichita native was making about $30 an hour when she lost her job -- a wage she said would be nearly impossible to match outside the industry. "I'll try to find a decent job while I'm drawing my unemployment, but the ability to find something for near what I was making is none to nil," she said. "Even if I work two jobs, I think it will be hard to make up for it." She has looked into a job-retraining program offered by the city but found there were already 990 people on the waiting list and that the program was short on funding. Adding to the uncertainty about the future is the recent push to manufacture offshore that many Wichita aerospace companies have embarked on. Some companies have opened operations in Mexico. During the boom times in late 2007, Cessna announced it would build a new, small propeller plane in China. That plane would be shipped to Wichita for reassembly and delivery to U.S. customers. While the companies are guarded about their plans in light of the downturn, officials concede that it is unlikely that they would expand their Wichita operations beyond today's level. Any future growth would probably happen abroad. Write to Peter Sanders at peter.sanders@wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A5  2009-10-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Left Seat - No Surprise: Bizav Pays.htm?m=51&s=340&id=153Another detailed study, the NEXA Business Aviation Report, is out and it shows, yet again, that companies that use business aviation outperform non-airplane users by wide margins in every measure of financial success. That is welcome news in a time when private airplanes have been under attack, but it is also nothing new. Study after study over the decades has shown the same result.When I started at the magazine 33 years ago, we were teamed with Business and Commercial Aviation magazine and several other aviation titles under the same ownership. At that time, the corporate jet had been around for barely 15 years and the number of operators was small.Each year there was a study we would report on of the top companies in the United States and in every case those using business aviation always did better in growth, profits, stock appreciation and other measures than those who did not operate business aircraft.The case for business aviation became so strong over the years that many began to take it for granted. It was almost like saying that companies that used computers did better than those who stayed with adding machines and drafting boards. Of course, a company's employees are more productive traveling in a private airplane than public transportation.It became obvious.But the logic of business aviation went out the window last year when the economy crashed. Nobody said get rid of your automated factories, stop using advanced materials, or toss out that e-mail system and get back on the phone. But they did attack business jets. I guess our industry failed to realize that airplanes had not completely moved into the mainstream of normal business equipment in the eyes of the public and politicians.Perhaps it is the very success of private aviation that has been part of the problem. As the public transportation system crumbled under the weight of cost cutting and security delays, the business airplane became even more important to a company's success. And that intensified the envy of all who didn't have access to private aviation.In any event, I was pleased to see that a new study returned the same old results - business aviation makes your business better. But just like the old days when bizav was still new, we have to keep building the case.2009-10-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Has the Wichita economy hit bottom yet?.htm?m=51&s=340&id=155The nation's economy appears to have hit bottom and started to recover, "but Wichita economy is still slowing as the aircraft industry deals with a worldwide evaporation in demand," this story reports. The situation has taken a toll on the business aviation industry, which has traditionally accounted for 1.2 million jobs.  For the full story, please click below: www.kansas.com/business/story/993785.html 2009-10-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Some Frequent Travelers Prefer to Be in Cockpit.htm?m=51&s=340&id=154Airport Discomforts Prompt Business Owners to Become Their Own Pilots, Avoiding Stress of Commercial FlightsStephanie Kornegay used to find shuttling back and forth between her two businesses -- which required 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls and a four-hour drive -- a trying ordeal. Then she got her pilot's license.Ms. Kornegay, who owns two hotels in Mount Olive, N.C., and provides private golf instruction in Charlotte, N.C., now drives a short distance to the Mount Olive Municipal Airport and flies her personal aircraft across the state to an airport near Charlotte. She says the entire trip takes an hour and a half. "That adds up to an additional five hours each week that I can be doing something else," she says.Self-piloting doesn't make sense for every business owner, especially in a recession. Flight instruction typically costs up to $9,000, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association in Frederick, Md., and buying a used aircraft will run between $50,000 and $70,000, plus annual fees for storage and maintenance.Some entrepreneurs tout private planes as major time savers. Business owner Stephanie Kornegay pictured with her personal aircraft.The Federal Aviation Administration says the number of pilots with a private license has dropped about 14% in the last 10 years, to nearly 223,000 in 2008.There's also an inherent risk of danger and you may be grounded in bad weather. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there were 491 fatalities in private aviation in 2007.Still, some entrepreneurs who travel frequently find being their own pilot makes good business sense, allowing them to dodge long drives and airport delays. "There's not necessarily a monetary case to be made for it," says AOPA spokesman Chris Dancy. "But when you start to add in lost productivity and the additional hotel and rental car expenses, aviation makes a much stronger case than trips using airlines."The AOPA estimates that the cost of flying an aircraft provides the most return for flights that are less than 500 miles.About 85% of companies that use personal aircraft are small or midsize companies, estimates Ed Bolen, president and chief executive of the National Business Aviation Association in Washington. The lobbying group was active last fall when chief executives of the Big Three auto companies were criticized for flying company jets, advocating that such flights are time efficient.After eight years of regular road trips, Peter La Colla secured his pilot license in 2000, and subsequently earned his "instrument rating,"which allows him to fly in reduced visibility. As CEO of McColla Enterprises Ltd. in Topeka, Kan., which owns the Street Corner mini-convenience store chain, Mr. La Colla flies to visit some of his 50 franchise locations in places such as Danbury, Conn., Bloomington, Minn., and Nashville. "I just wanted to swing through those cities but doing that commercially would be miserable," he says.Mr. La Colla says his time in the air costs about $100 an hour, including the fuel, oil, repairs and engine wear. So flying time from Topeka to Chicago, which is just shy of 600 miles and takes more than two hours each way, costs almost $500 round trip. That trip on the commercial airlines averages about $150.But that doesn't account for the extra five hours Mr. La Colla would have to spend getting to and from the commercial airports and passing through security, nor the inconvenience of traveling on the airline's schedule.To make the trips more worthwhile, Mr. La Colla tries to visit 15 to 20 cities in a week by landing at one of the 5,200 airports open to the public in the U.S. By comparison, commerical air carriers are bound to only 500 of those airports and must adhere to strict timetables.There are hidden perks, too. Small airport operators often provide complimentary services, such as arranging rental-car pickup. "They will have a rental car waiting for you, often times with the heat and AC already running," Mr. La Colla says.Mr. La Colla points out that he is also able to take up to three employees with him on the flights, and can write off usage of the plane as a business expense. He credits the flights to various locations with improving his business. "There is a direct correlation between sales in franchise stores and the amount of time I fly," Mr. La Colla says. "Most of my work is done by email, but to close a deal, I need to meet face-to-face."Michael Roth, an information technology manager, flies regularly for his job at Complete Production Services Inc., an oil company in Houston. Mr.Roth recently launched a personal aviation consulting company called Horizons Aloft, a part-time venture based in Denton, Texas, that aims to introduce more entrepreneurs into flight. He has been touring the country offering cost-analysis services to business owners."It's difficult convincing people that it's in their reach," says Mr.Roth, who has yet to sign his first client. "I've met with some people who are interested but don't think they are capable right now in this economy."Mr. Roth believes that prospective clients would get hooked after trying it once. "It's a relaxing and rewarding activity," he says.Write to Emily Maltby at emily.maltby@wsj.com 2009-09-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/BizAv Groups Link Performance, Aircraft Use .htm?m=51&s=340&id=152Business aviation advocates are hoping that a new study underscoring the economic benefit of business aircraft use will provide ammunition in combating the ongoing wave of negative publicity that has battered the industry over the past year, as well as assuage the concerns of corporate boards as they make aircraft purchase decisions. The study, 'Business Aviation - An Enterprise Value Proposition,' finds that business aircraft users outperform nonusers in several financial measures and that "business aviation is a tool that provides a unique competitive benefit to America's business, manifesting in higher shareholder and enterprise value."Released last week by the National Business Aviation Association and General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the study analyzed the financial performance of companies included in the Standard & Poor's(S&P) 500 between 2003 and 2007. Companies in the S&P 500 with business aircraft posted a 116 percent higher average revenue growth on a market cap-weighted basis than nonbusiness aircraft users. They also had average annual earnings that were 434 percent higher, average annual earnings before income and taxes that were 81 percent higher, total stock and dividend growth that was 252 percent higher and market capitalization growth (measured by market value growth) that was 496 percent higher."Business aviation drives values in many ways unique to American enterprise. Over a broad range of uses, business aircraft can materially benefit shareholders," the study concludes. "Most surprisingly, we found that business aircraft users had a dominant presence, on average of 92 percent, among the most innovative, most admired, best brands and best places to work, as well as dominating the list of companies strongest in corporate governance and responsibility.""This study shows what the people in the business aviation community have always known," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. "A business airplane is the sign of a well-managed company, because business aviation helps companies of all sizes be more efficient, productive and competitive.""It's no surprise that America's best-performing and most-admired companies rely on business aviation to provide concrete and unique competitive benefits that are reflected in shareholder and enterprise value," added GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce.The report was completed by Nexa Advisors, which specializes in transportation advisory services to companies and management teams."The failure of America's business leaders to grasp important business aviation concepts and value drivers could lead to value destruction of our most admired, innovative and successful companies," Nexa said. "We conclude that the challenge for any company is to identify all of the potential uses and benefits of these assets and to operate them in ways that will produce the greatest gain."2009-09-28http://www.noplanenogain-org/Speaker: Image Is Biz Jets' Challenge.htm?m=51&s=340&id=151As this story reports, "Business aviation faces a host of challenges, but the one that worries Ed Bolen the most is its negative image, the CEO of the National Business Aviation Association said Wednesday. 'We've got to make sure our lawmakers and policymakers think business aviation is essential,' he said."For the full story, please click below:www.kansas.com/business/aviation/story/983556.html2009-09-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA, GAMA Welcome New Study Showing Business Aviation Helps Companies Be More Efficient.htm?m=51&s=412&id=147NBAA, GAMA Welcome New Study Showing Business Aviation Helps Companies Be More Efficient, ProductiveCompanies using business aircraft consistently outperform those that do notContacts: Dan Hubbard, NBAA (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Katie Pribyl, GAMA (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero Washington, DC, September 23, 2009 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today welcomed a new study showing that, by a host of measurements, companies using business aviation outperform those without aircraft.“This study shows what the people in the business aviation community have always known,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “A business airplane is the sign of a well-managed company, because business aviation helps companies of all sizes be more efficient, productive and competitive.”“It’s no surprise that America’s best-performing and most-admired companies rely on business aviation to provide concrete and unique competitive benefits that are reflected in shareholder and enterprise value,” said GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce.The study, conducted by NEXA Advisors, concludes: “Business aircraft users had a dominant presence, on average of 92 percent, among the most innovative, most admired, best brands, and best places to work, as well as dominating the list of companies strongest in corporate governance and responsibility.” The report also finds that business aviation alone is the only asset capable of accelerating strategic transactions and therefore providing a competitive edge to top-performing companies. The study’s authors examined how companies included in the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 performed in revenue growth, profit growth and asset efficiency from 2003 through 2008, the most recent six-year period for which complete data was available. Business aircraft use was tied to key enterprise drivers outlined in the study; S&P 500 executives were also extensively interviewed, and an independent cross-reference of findings was performed. “In conducting this study, we found that companies using business aircraft outperform non-users across every key financial and non-financial measure of business success,” said the study’s lead author, Michael Dyment, managing director of NEXA Advisors. By way of illustration, Dyment pointed to a number of compelling findings included in the study. For example: Average annual revenue growth on a market cap-weighted basis was 116 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users;Average annual earnings growth was 434 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users;Total stock and dividend growth was 252 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users;Total share price growth was 156 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users, and;Market capitalization growth as measured by market value growth was 496 percent higher for business aircraft users than for non-users; The study also points to a number of other noteworthy connections between well-run companies and those that use business aviation, including the following: Among Business Week magazine’s 2009 “50 Most Innovative Companies,” 95 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among the same magazine’s 2009 “25 Best Customer Service Companies,” 90 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among Fortune magazine’s 2009 “100 Best Places to Work,” 86 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among the same magazine’s “World’s Most Admired Companies,” for 2009, 95 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among Business Week/Interbrand’s 2008 “100 Best Brands,” 98 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users, and;Among The CRO’s 2009 “100 Best Corporate Citizens,” 90 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users. The study comes as NBAA and GAMA continue to highlight the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S., through the two associations’ joint advocacy campaign, “No Plane No Gain.” Launched earlier this year, the campaign educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the essential role of business aviation in the nation’s economy and transportation system. To learn more, visit www.noplanenogain.org. For a copy of the NEXA Capital Partners Study, visit http://www.noplanenogain.org/images/Business%20Aviation%20-%20An%20Enterprise%20Value%20Perspective.pdf  # # # ABOUT NBAAFounded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. ABOUT GAMAThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. ABOUT NEXA ADVISORSNEXA Advisors provides highly specialized transaction-focused advisory services to companies and management teams in the aerospace and transportation sectors in the U.S. and around the world. Committed to delivering enterprise value through innovation, NEXA Advisors collaborates with our clients to help them become high-performance businesses. The ultimate measure NEXA’s value and workflow analysis initiatives is their clients’ ability to drive and deliver enterprise value. Learn more about NEXA at www.nexacapital.com.2009-09-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA, GAMA Welcome New Study Showing Business Aviation Helps Companies Be More Efficient.htm?m=51&s=340&id=149NBAA, GAMA Welcome New Study Showing Business Aviation Helps Companies Be More Efficient, ProductiveCompanies using business aircraft consistently outperform those that do notContacts: Dan Hubbard, NBAA (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Katie Pribyl, GAMA (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aero Washington, DC, September 23, 2009 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today welcomed a new study showing that, by a host of measurements, companies using business aviation outperform those without aircraft.“This study shows what the people in the business aviation community have always known,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “A business airplane is the sign of a well-managed company, because business aviation helps companies of all sizes be more efficient, productive and competitive.”“It’s no surprise that America’s best-performing and most-admired companies rely on business aviation to provide concrete and unique competitive benefits that are reflected in shareholder and enterprise value,” said GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce.The study, conducted by NEXA Advisors, concludes: “Business aircraft users had a dominant presence, on average of 92 percent, among the most innovative, most admired, best brands, and best places to work, as well as dominating the list of companies strongest in corporate governance and responsibility.” The report also finds that business aviation alone is the only asset capable of accelerating strategic transactions and therefore providing a competitive edge to top-performing companies. The study’s authors examined how companies included in the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 performed in revenue growth, profit growth and asset efficiency from 2003 through 2008, the most recent six-year period for which complete data was available. Business aircraft use was tied to key enterprise drivers outlined in the study; S&P 500 executives were also extensively interviewed, and an independent cross-reference of findings was performed. “In conducting this study, we found that companies using business aircraft outperform non-users across every key financial and non-financial measure of business success,” said the study’s lead author, Michael Dyment, managing director of NEXA Advisors. By way of illustration, Dyment pointed to a number of compelling findings included in the study. For example: Average annual revenue growth on a market cap-weighted basis was 116 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users;Average annual earnings growth was 434 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users;Total stock and dividend growth was 252 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users;Total share price growth was 156 percent higher for users of business aircraft than for non-users, and;Market capitalization growth as measured by market value growth was 496 percent higher for business aircraft users than for non-users; The study also points to a number of other noteworthy connections between well-run companies and those that use business aviation, including the following: Among Business Week magazine’s 2009 “50 Most Innovative Companies,” 95 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among the same magazine’s 2009 “25 Best Customer Service Companies,” 90 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among Fortune magazine’s 2009 “100 Best Places to Work,” 86 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among the same magazine’s “World’s Most Admired Companies,” for 2009, 95 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users;Among Business Week/Interbrand’s 2008 “100 Best Brands,” 98 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users, and;Among The CRO’s 2009 “100 Best Corporate Citizens,” 90 percent of the S&P 500 companies were business aircraft users. The study comes as NBAA and GAMA continue to highlight the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the U.S., through the two associations’ joint advocacy campaign, “No Plane No Gain.” Launched earlier this year, the campaign educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the essential role of business aviation in the nation’s economy and transportation system. To learn more, visit www.noplanenogain.org. For a copy of the NEXA Capital Partners Study, visit http://bit.ly/5k2i4  # # # ABOUT NBAAFounded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The Association represents more than 8,000 companies and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org. ABOUT GAMAThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association represents 67 of the world’s leading manufacturers of fixed-wing general aviation airplanes, engines, avionics, and components. In addition to building nearly all of the general aviation airplanes flying today, GAMA member companies also operate aircraft fleets, airport fixed-based operations, pilot training, and maintenance facilities worldwide. ABOUT NEXA ADVISORSNEXA Advisors provides highly specialized transaction-focused advisory services to companies and management teams in the aerospace and transportation sectors in the U.S. and around the world. Committed to delivering enterprise value through innovation, NEXA Advisors collaborates with our clients to help them become high-performance businesses. The ultimate measure NEXA’s value and workflow analysis initiatives is their clients’ ability to drive and deliver enterprise value. Learn more about NEXA at www.nexacapital.com.2009-09-23http://www.noplanenogain-org/Two new companies let you hop a private jet for less .htm?m=51&s=340&id=145It may not seem like the best time to launch a company catering to the private business flier.Business travel is down. Companies have been pressured by an angry public to sell their corporate fleets. And at a time when environmental responsibility is critical to many consumers, few CEOs want to be called out for leaving a big carbon footprint.But at least two new ventures are turning those challenges into selling points, offering services that allow you to fly private but preserve cash, the climate and possibly your corporate reputation.Greenjets and CoGoJets help bring together travelers willing to share a ride - and the cost - of a private plane. They also will find the aircraft the passengers need.Leisure travelers are part of their clientele. But the companies believe the business community can be their source of success, as executives seek to get where they need to go without being dependent on commercial flight schedules, try to save money and avoid angering shareholders outraged by corporate excess during the economic downturn."I think the socioeconomic and political climate for this ... right now is spot on," says Dean Rotchin, 45, president of Greenjets, based in West Palm Beach, Fla. "We're seeing people looking at alternative solutions, being able to still access private airports and private jet experiences but doing it in a way that's more responsible."There's little doubt business air travel is in a slump. The use of private planes for business trips is down about 30% compared with the same time last year, according to the National Business Aviation Association.Ride-sharing cuts costs Corporations have been getting rid of their jets to cut costs and to dodge the firestorm that erupted last year in response to perceived corporate greed and recklessness. Outrage reached fever pitch in November, when the CEOs of Detroit's automakers -Ford, Chrysler and General Motors- flew on corporate planes to ask Congress for a multibillion-dollar bailout.There were 3,014 business jets for sale worldwide at the end of August, 36% more than that time last year, according to UBS Investment Research.If they're not eliminating fleets, many companies are shrinking them.Citigroup, for instance, has said it will reduce its number of planes to two from five. Contrary to the popular image of a Fortune 500 titan jetting around in luxury, 85% of the businesses using private planes are small and midsize firms that are flying midlevel managers because it's the most efficient way to conduct business, says Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association.CoGoJets, based in Omaha, launched a website in December that allows fliers to coordinate trips among themselves online. Once they've booked the trip, CoGoJets will act as a broker, finding them a plane to charter.Based on the number of people flying, a passenger could pay as little as $500 an hour for a seat on a light jet vs. about $3,000 an hour if they'd chartered the plane themselves, says CoGoJets founder Jamie Walker. "The private jet industry has really taken a black eye, and this concept ... reduces the cost so much you really can't lobby against it," says Walker, who adds that a couple of trips a month have come together through the website.Greenjets, which launched in April, says about 200 people have used its service, which works with travelers wanting to share a ride between Chicago, Boston, New York and South Florida.The service allows jet poolers to pay a flat rate of $3,850 for a seat, Rotchin says. Those who purchase a Greenjets discount card pay less and are entitled to perks, such as some free trips.'Having your cake' Greenjets has made saving the environment part of its pitch. It says sharing a flight means fewer planes in the sky and a reduction in air and noise pollution. Sharing chartered flights may be one of several options that companies turn to in the future to avoid the scrutiny that can come with owning their own jets, says Brian Foley, who consults on business aviation management."There are many companies that are a little gun-shy about the perception of owning a business jet today," he says. Instead, businesses may do more leasing of planes or purchasing of jet cards that allow them a certain number of prepaid hours on private aircraft."They're not going to give up business aviation," Foley says. "They still see the benefits. ... They'll find ways to use the business jet without having it on their books where it sticks out like a sore thumb."Lawrence Moens, who owns a luxury real estate company in Palm Beach, says that he has been flying private for about 25 years. In recent months, he has used the Greenjets service."It's certainly easier on the ... environmental footprint that I'm leaving and obviously more economical," says Moens, who recently shared a ride between Chicago and New York. "I thought it was nice."He's recommended it to others, saying that jet pooling can give a business person the benefits of flying privately but at a fraction of the cost. "It's like having your cake," he says, "and eating it, too.2009-09-22http://www.noplanenogain-org/Smaller airports defend fed funding.htm?m=51&s=340&id=146In the past three decades $32 million in federal funds have been awarded to airports in the Lafayette area.Local airport managers say that without that infusion of money their airports might not survive or be able to make repairs and update equipment for expansion."If we didn't get that money I suppose we would be a one-horse airport, and that is how we would stay," said John Townsend, manager of the White County Municipal Airport in Monticello. "Since this money is available and we can't use this for anything other than improvements, why wouldn't we take it?"In total, the national network of general aviation facilities has received $15 billion in federal funding since 1982, a USA Today analysis found. That money, going to airports that carry few if any commercial airline passengers, is generated from airplane ticket purchases.Critics say this money could be better spent toward alleviating flight delays and other issues facing the struggling commercial airlines.But supporters of these smaller airports counter that they offer many benefits to their communities - from making travel easier for business leaders to crop-dusting, air ambulance flights, law enforcement activities and pilot training. The White County airport is one of thousands nationwide that serve private and business aircraft but are closed to airline passengers. It has received almost $2 million from 11 grants for capital projects since 1982. In May it celebrated the opening of a new terminal funded in part by a Federal Aviation Administration grant of about $450,000.In Indiana more than 50 general aviation airports are spread across its92 counties. Some are less than a 30-minute drive from each other."I don't think there are too many," said Brian Stirum, manager of the Delphi Airport, which is about 20 miles northeast of Lafayette. "It is always advantageous to have people land as close as you can to the location they need to get to."Delphi's airport was started in the early 1970s, Stirum says, partly for the city's pork and manufacturing industry. The airport made it easier for salespeople, owners and others to visit the factories.Last year it received $736,677 to repair its cracking runway by overlaying concrete on the asphalt.Without the federal money, Stirum says, the airport could survive but could no longer afford those type of upgrades."We are almost self-sufficient now," he said. Income is generated from selling fuel and hangar rentals. The city provides additional funding. "The great taxpayers of Delphi help us out a great deal, too," Stirum said.The federal Airport Improvement Program gives money to about 2,000 airports each year for projects such as runway repairs and noise mitigation. The money goes to all types of airports - general aviation and commercial - that apply to the FAA for grants.The Purdue University Airport has received $15.3 million in grants since 1982. It boasts the highest traffic of Lafayette-area airports. Last year it had 106,655 flights, thanks in large part to the aviation program at the university.Purdue heightening fencesRecently the airport received a $816,000 grant from the FAA, via stimulus funds. The money is being used to heighten about 30,000 linear feet of fence around the airport by 2 feet, to 10 feet. The project also will add 2 feet of two-strand barbed wire on top of the fence. The original fencing will be removed and buried along the bottom of the fence to block burrowing animals, such as coyotes, said airport director Betty Stansbury."We couldn't afford that without the grant," Stansbury said. The Purdue airport has been without a commercial carrier since Corporate Airlines, an American Airlines connection, left in 2004. It was the 14th airline to fail at Purdue in the past 36 years.Without the carrier, the airport misses out on around $1 million annually in FAA entitlement money and other airline income."We are always looking for someone," Stansbury said. "It is difficult because we are a small market."Now, Purdue's 527-acre airport includes two runways, a system of parallel taxiways, an apron area and two passenger terminal buildings and hangars. It also houses the university's aviation technology academic program.Even though Purdue's airport is close to airports in surrounding counties, that doesn't mean smaller ones shouldn't exist, said John Sjaardema, manager of the Jasper County Airport in Rensselaer."Everybody serves a different area. We co-exist. There is no real competition," Sjaardema said. "The whole key behind an airport is getting close to where you are going to go."http://www.jconline.com/article/20090921/NEWS02/909210012009-09-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/General aviation counters media.htm?m=51&s=340&id=143"The airlines took a gratuitous swipe at general aviation," NBAA's Ed Bolen tells the Wichita Eagle about recent news coverage that negatively portrayed small airports and business aviation. For the full story, please click below:www.kansas.com/business/aviation/story/976964.html2009-09-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Wheeler Downtown Airport hopes to take off again .htm?m=51&s=340&id=144SECTION: A; Pg. 1Before the sun rises, the Waddell & Reed corporate jet, sleek and white, accelerates along Runway 1/19 of Wheeler Downtown Airport, lifts its nose and climbs.“This is Hallmark’s ready to go,” Melissa Cooper, the assistant airport manager, points out as she watches the next aircraft soon to taxi toward the runway.After that, the Commerce Bancshares jet, the VF Corp. (owner of Lee jeans) jet, the Russell Stover jet.Name a major Kansas City corporation — American Century, Cerner, Sprint, Kansas City Life — and these days you will find its corporate jets departing and arriving from Wheeler, which over the past five years has quietly been undergoing a nearly $70 million transformation. Much of the construction is about to begin, even as airport officials prepare for a possible fight to keep the tower open full time.The hope is that as the economy begins to climb out of its recessionary dive, a newer and better Wheeler not only will help lift the airport, but also Kansas City’s finances and its economic development.“We have definitely turned the corner,” said Wheeler manager Mike Roper. “We anticipate good growth at the airport going forward.”It can’t come soon enough for the old airport, where flights coming or going dipped from nearly 118,000 in 2001 to about 88,500 last year. In that same time, aircraft based there dropped from 300 to 192. The airport expects 220 aircraft by the end of this year.“I would say that over the last 20 years we have lost business and several hundred small airplanes from the Downtown Airport, most because they just didn’t have any place to put their airplanes,” said Aviation Director Mark VanLoh.At Wheeler, what few city-owned hangars existed were 60 years old and full, allowing scant new growth or revenue.Old runways were in need of repair, prompting aircraft owners to go elsewhere, such as to municipal airports in Johnson County or Lee’s Summit.Bulldozers, concreteNow change isn’t just in the air, it’s on the tarmac.Among prominent improvements, most paid for by federal funds or fees at Kansas City International Airport:•$28 million to raze and resurface the airport’s only two runways. Runway 1/19 (at 7,001 feet) was finished in September 2006. Runway 3/21 (at 5,052 feet) was finished last December.•$20 million to bulldoze 40 old hangars and replace them with 96 new hangars to raise revenue for the city from rents ranging from $310 to $1,400 a month. The project is expected to be completed in October.Already finished: new taxiways, a fueling station to earn new revenue, and a regraded airport surface to fix massive drainage problems.“We make money from leases and fuel,” Cooper said.•$16 million for runway safety. Earthmovers on Monday broke ground to install an EMAS — engineered materials arrestor system.Some 300 feet of crushable concrete blocks are being placed at the north and south ends of both runways. The blocks, placed under a thin membrane, crush like plastic foam under the weight of a plane, stopping an aircraft in its tracks without damage should it skid off a runway.•$1 million for a new general aviation terminal at the northwest side of the airport. Construction is to begin Sept. 28.•A $20 million private project, H10, or Hangar Ten, founded by James E. Stowers III, son of the founder of American Century.The project, in direct competition with Executive Beechcraft, includes three large hangars for corporate jets and other aircraft on 10 acres on the airport’s northwest side.Groundbreaking could begin as early as Monday.Executive Beechcraft currently is the airport’s prime tenant, holding the leases on much of the land and hangars.Beechcraft did not return phone calls seeking comment.“An airport like this is kind of rare among the larger cities in America. Most do not have airports in the heart of downtown,” said Mike White, the attorney representing Hangar Ten. “As air travel becomes more and more difficult, with the waiting and hassle, I think more and more companies will turn to private aircraft and charters to get from one place to another. Jim Stowers sees this as an opportunity. There will be major growth in private aircraft.”City officials argue that a robust airport is a key to keeping downtown’s renaissance going by appealing to businesses with downtown offices and even attracting acts to the new Sprint Center.Garth Brooks, who helped inaugurate the new arena with nine performances, came to Kansas City under an agreement that he could fly home to Oklahoma from the downtown airport between performances.The Royals already use the airport, and a future basketball or hockey team at the Sprint Center may want to as well.“Wheeler Downtown Airport, in our case, is part of the overall set of factors that make Kansas City more competitive,” said Jeff Kaczmarek, president of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas CityTo be sure, until very recently the turbulent economy had all but grounded the business jet and general aviation industry — use, sales, flights, everything.Business aircraft orders hit historic lows, forcing Cessna and other leading manufacturers to lay off thousands of employees. Used planes for sale glutted the market. To preserve money and corporate images — especially after an ill-fated decision by the Big Three automakers to fly to Washington on corporate jets to plead for bailouts — flights on corporate jets plummeted.“It walloped the industry,” said Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association.But in the last six to eight weeks there are meager signs, he said, “that things are getting incrementally better than the previous free fall.”“Things have quit getting worse,” Bolen said. “Flight activity in August was up a little bit more than in July.”At Wheeler, flights in July were up about 7 percent from July of last year — a blip, but encouraging.“As the economy strengthens, we know that general aviation, business aviation, will resurge,” airport manager Roper said.One Wheeler tenant, Executive Airshare, which sells what amount to time-shares or “fractional ownerships” in business planes, recently put 44 new aircraft on order in anticipation of growing business at airports from Wichita to Fort Worth, Texas. Several will be based in Kansas City.“I would say, if you’re going to be in Kansas City general aviation and go after the business and high-end leisure customer, there is no place to be but downtown,” said Bob Taylor, chairman and chief executive officer.For businesspeople who believe time is money, he said, the convenience is prime.“It makes a big difference to us. It would be much more challenging and expensive to us if we had to house our plane at KCI or in Johnson County,” said Bob Matthews, executive vice president of Commerce Bancshares, which owns a corporate jet that flies out of downtown, often to St. Louis, multiple times each week.Tower issueBut an ill wind of change is also kicking up at Wheeler. It concerns the airport’s 24/7 air traffic control tower.Just as the airport is improving, the Federal Aviation Administration is contemplating leaving the airport’s tower unmanned — essentially shutting it down — in the wee hours after midnight when air traffic in and out of the airport is slowest.Cutting hours would cut costs for the feds. But city officials worry that shutting down the tower would hurt business and development. Corporate people like the easy access and the ability to come and go when they wish.Planes could still land without a tower, but because of safety concerns, some airplane insurers may not allow it during the unmanned hours. Some pilots may not want to risk it in winter or bad weather.Beyond the business concern, there is the medical concern. The Midwest Organ Bank and Children’s Mercy Hospital also fly planes out of Wheeler, bringing in organs for transplants or children in need of emergency care.“For us, and for probably every other air medical program that flies out of there, it’s very important to be able to have someone there (in the tower) at all hours,” said Sherry McCool, director of transport operations for Children’s Mercy. “It could mean life or death.”City Manager Wayne Cauthen said he would bring up the tower issue with the FAA’s new Central Region administrator in Kansas City.“We are looking at if we should continue it 24 hours a day,” said Tony Molinaro, FAA Central Region spokesman. “We look at how many flights are handled by our controllers each hour, especially overnight.”If the number of flights dips below five an hour, the FAA considers cutting tower personnel. Wheeler is at less than four.“We have to look at the cost of our operation,” Molinaro said.No firm decision has been made, however.For now, the tower remains manned. So are the bulldozers.“We’re busy with all this stuff going on,” said Cooper, the assistant airport manager, as she watched a corporate jet taxi up to the runway and take off into the pink morning sky.“But with so much of what we’ve asked for coming through,” she said of the construction, “we’re not complaining.”Clipped wings and a prayer-Yearly takeoffs, landings and aircraft based at Wheeler DowntownAirport:YearTakeoffs/ landingsBase aircraft2001117,7913002002121,2452382003118,8212342004110,6432322005101,429206200680,875*229200795,438229200888,5671922009 (projected)85,110220*Main runway 1/19 under constructionTo reach Eric Adler, call 816-234-4431 or send e-mail to eadler@kcstar.com . Source: Kansas City Aviation De-partment2009-09-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/County hopes business travel will soar at Henderson airport.htm?m=51&s=340&id=139No plane, no gain.That is the message on how important general aviation is to the local economy delivered last week at the Henderson Executive Airport by representatives of an organization boosting business aviation nationwide.In fact, that is the tag line the National Business Aviation Association as well as the General Aviation Manufacturers Association use to generate awareness of aviation issues and it was a centerpiece of one of the organization's regional forums.More than 300 industry backers were at the daylong event Sept. 10 at the Ribeiro Hangar Complex at Clark County's showcase general aviation airport. The event included updates on some issues facing the industry, exhibits by vendors serving general aviation and a display of more than a dozen business aircraft.Steve Brown, senior vice president of operations for the association, told people at the event that the Washington-based organization focuses on building awareness and the image of business flying as well as monitoring issues such as the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, emissions-trading legislation and airport and aircraft security."It's a tough time for all aviation," Brown said, "but it's also an important time for us to get the truth out about general aviation regarding business and the sound implementation of policy."Although commercial air travel has slumped because of the recession, the business aviation industry has expanded in the past five years.Corporations, hoping to dodge flight delays and airport security hassles, moved toward acquiring aircraft or participating in shared lease programs. Both are viewed a means to avoid wasting time and keeping high-paid executives productive.Not only is business flying more hassle-free, many corporate jets have high-tech air-to-ground telecommunications systems that enable executives to communicate during a flight.Southern Nevada is a prime destination for businesses with trade shows and conventions, and Las Vegas is a frequent incentive travel destination.Henderson Executive Airport, one of 55 public-use airports in Nevada, is the premier reliever airport for the Clark County Aviation Department.The airport recently underwent $30 million in improvements including a Wi-Fi-equipped 24,000-square-foot terminal with a pilot lounge, conference room and restaurant.Cecil Johnson, assistant director of general aviation at the Henderson airport, said Clark County officials are continuing to encourage general aviation and corporate pilots to use Henderson and North Las Vegas airports instead of McCarran to maximize the capacity at the international airport.Johnson said Clark County is encouraging the use of the Henderson airport by building four acres of aircraft parking and 100 corporate hangars. The airport also sells fuel at a lower cost than at McCarran.In 2007 the Henderson airport's busiest year, 132,722 passengers were served, 6.8 percent higher than in 2006. The recession resulted in199,206 passengers in 2008 and, through July, passenger traffic is down14.9 percent from 2008 to 59,324 passengers.The airport is popular among corporate pilots, listed as one of the top 40 fixed-base operations in a survey.The association's regional forum program brings aviation representatives together from across the West. Nevada is in a region that includes Alaska, Hawaii, California, Arizona and New Mexico. The organization's national convention - an event that packs most of the Las Vegas area's airports - will return to Southern Nevada in 2011.By then, Brown hopes a number of issues confronting business aviation will have been resolved. Some of the topics on the association's agenda:* The organization is working with the Transportation Security Administration to get it to reconsider its large aircraft security program. Under the proposal, aircraft as small as 12,500 pounds - which includes many corporate aircraft operating today - would be subject to additional inspections. The program also proposes to ban more than 80 items from aircraft. One reason companies fly corporate jets is to transport items they can't get on commercial flights.* The organization is concerned about the financial implications of "emission trading" as proposed by the European Union as a means of battling climate change. Brown said some corporations that fly to Europe could be subject to the plan, which is expected to implemented in 2013 and would require companies to purchase allowances for their carbon dioxide emissions. The association fears similar legislation could be proposed in the United States.* Like its counterparts in commercial aviation, the association is lobbying to reauthorize FAA funding and, through that, a next-generation, satellite-based air traffic control system. Brown said he is confident that general aviation's financial contribution to funding programs through a tax on aviation fuel would be approved instead of commercial aviation's proposal to fund it with user fees - a less costly option that can be passed along to passengers.* Greater awareness about the role of business aviation is being developed with the "No plane, no gain" campaign. The message the association is delivering is that business aviation provides jobs for communities and small aircraft provide a transportation lifeline to small cities with little or no airline service.Ninety percent of American cities have no scheduled service. Brown also noted general aviation's humanitarian efforts, with air ambulance flights between small towns and cities with medical centers. "No plane, no gain" has a Web site at noplanenogain.org and is accessible on Facebook and Twitter.2009-09-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/No Plane No Gain Responds to Negative Small-Airport News Coverage.htm?m=51&s=412&id=141For Immediate ReleaseNo Plane No Gain Responds to Negative Small-Airport News Coverage Contacts: Dan Hubbard, NBAA, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Katie Pribyl, GAMA, (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aeroWashington, DC, September 18, 2009 - In light of recent news coverage maligning small airports and general aviation, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today issued the following statement. "The recent news reports in USA Today and on NBC's Today show completely ignored the essential benefits provided by general aviation, including business aviation, for citizens, companies and communities across the United States. Business aviation operates out of small community airports like those maligned by the news organizations, and those flights help generate jobs and local economic activity. In fact, business aviation has a presence in every state in the country; it generates over a million jobs, provides a lifeline to communities with little or no airline service, helps companies be more efficient and productive and provides relief to neighbors and communities in times of crisis. Because the news coverage said nothing about the many ways business aviation provides value, viewers were unfortunately left with a distorted view of the industry. We had hoped for a more balanced approach to such an important story."NBAA and GAMA issued this statement as part of the two association's No Plane No Gain advocacy effort, which educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the essential role of business aviation in America today.The two associations also issued independent statements about the news coverage; NBAA's statement can be found at http://www.nbaa.org/news/pr/2009/20090917-070.php; GAMA's statement can be found at http://www.gama.aero/media-center/press-releases/content/gama-counters-misleading-article-role-ga-airports . 2009-09-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/No Plane No Gain Responds to Negative Small-Airport News Coverage.htm?m=51&s=340&id=142For Immediate ReleaseContacts: Dan Hubbard, NBAA, (202) 783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org Katie Pribyl, GAMA, (202) 393-1500, kpribyl@gama.aeroWashington, DC, September 18, 2009 - In light of recent news coverage maligning small airports and general aviation, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today issued the following statement. "The recent news reports in USA Today and on NBC's Today show completely ignored the essential benefits provided by general aviation, including business aviation, for citizens, companies and communities across the United States. Business aviation operates out of small community airports like those maligned by the news organizations, and those flights help generate jobs and local economic activity. In fact, business aviation has a presence in every state in the country; it generates over a million jobs, provides a lifeline to communities with little or no airline service, helps companies be more efficient and productive and provides relief to neighbors and communities in times of crisis. Because the news coverage said nothing about the many ways business aviation provides value, viewers were unfortunately left with a distorted view of the industry. We had hoped for a more balanced approach to such an important story."NBAA and GAMA issued this statement as part of the two association's No Plane No Gain advocacy effort, which educates policymakers and opinion leaders about the essential role of business aviation in America today.The two associations also issued independent statements about the news coverage; NBAA's statement can be found at http://www.nbaa.org/news/pr/2009/20090917-070.php; GAMA's statement can be found at http://www.gama.aero/media-center/press-releases/content/gama-counters-misleading-article-role-ga-airports###  2009-09-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/IAMAW President Buffenbarger to Invite President Obama to visit Wichita.htm?m=51&s=340&id=137The No Plane No Gain campaign's message about the value of the 1.2 million jobs generated by business aviation was echoed by machinists union president Tom Buffenbarger, who this week invited President Obama to visit Wichita "to see to see the importance of the business jet industry."To read the full story, please click below:www.kansas.com/business/aviation/story/971204.html2009-09-15http://www.noplanenogain-org/Citation Jet Owner Pilots Association Holds First Annual Meeting In Aspen.htm?m=51&s=340&id=134Over forty Citation jets from the United States, Canada and South America flew into the Aspen airport for the first annual meeting of the Citation Jet Pilots owner pilot association (CJP) over the Labor Day weekend. More than 150 attendees participated in two and a half days of technical seminars and presentations.Ed Bolen, president of NBAA, and Craig Fuller, president of AOPA, were featured speakers detailing the importance of business and general aviation to the economy and prosperity of our country. The themes of "No Plane, No Gain" and "General Aviation Serves America" communicate the reality well known to Citation pilots and businessmen. The familiar faces of John and Martha King joined the Jet Training Round Table exchanging valuable safety and training viewpoints.Presenters Cessna Aircraft Company, Flight Safety International, Pratt and Whitney Canada, Williams International, Rockwell Collins and Garmin International found the meeting instrumental for cementing current relationships and creating new ones. Mike Croitoru, Flight Safety's Director of Business development said, "We were able to have face to face communication on a variety of issues. The event was extremely beneficial to Flight Safety, and we are so pleased that CJP invited us to participate. We'll look forward to the second annual meeting."Organizers said everyone departed with valuable technical information and new relationships that will help them operate their aircraft more safely, professionally and economically.  Mark Brown from Falcon Insurance, said " I think this should be renamed 'CJP Family Reunion', because that's the immediate feeling I got from the warm reception on the ramp and the hospitality from the open house hosted by Citation owners and local residents, Ronnie and Marci Morgan."The combination of technical and safety training with 'fun events' was extremely well received by our owner-pilot members" said John Hayes, CJP President.  "The event helped owners learn more about their aircraft as well as provide feedback to Cessna and the major system providers to the Citation fleet." he added.2009-09-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Corporate Jets: The Good And Bad By The Numbers.htm?m=51&s=340&id=136Says the Daily Herald, corporate jets became a popular symbol of wasteful spending after the Big Three automobile executives flew in to visit Capitol Hill seeking federal government bailout cash late last year. The implication is that corporate jetting had become passe, or more to the point, inappropriate. A couple of trade organizations have started a campaign to underscore the financial damage that would occur if those aircraft are grounded. Everything from generating less money through jet fuel taxes to jobs at airports and in surrounding communities is at stake, supporters say.The other side of the aisle has launched a "No Plane No Gain" campaign, in association with the National Business Aviation Association and General Aviation Manufacturers Association, which addresses the benefits of private planes.The initiative includes positive business aviation messages on a Facebook page and YouTube videos. They also have developed a television and print advertising campaign to boost the industry's image.Here are some facts about the corporate jet industry by the numbers:Business flights make up much of the activity at Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling. Here are local businesses with revenue generated over one year from Signature Flight Support clients and operations, which provide fueling, hangar and office rentals, maintenance and other business aviation services.745The number of hotel reservations booked by Signature Flight clients$83,880in revenue for Hilton Northbrook, Wingate Inn and other nearby hotels from Signature Flight clients3,385car rentals from Signature Flight clients$580,446in revenue for on-site Hertz Rent-a-Car at Atlantic Aviation1,388taxi cab rides originating from Chicago Executive$48,544in revenue for 303 Taxi cab service originating from Chicago Executive$17,796spent in Wheeling-area restaurants for Signature Flight-related business meetings [Chicago Executive Airport]2009-09-09http://www.noplanenogain-org/Do corporate jets actually put money into the local economy?.htm?m=51&s=340&id=132Corporate jets became a popular symbol of wasteful spending after the Big Three automobile executives flew in to visit Capitol Hill seeking federal government bailout cash late last year.So intense was the outrage that the auto leaders responded by driving from Detroit for a return trip to Washington, D.C.Toronto-based Nortel Networks Corp. was one of many businesses that grounded its corporate jet, citing financial woes, not long after.The message was loud and clear: Corporate jet travel was suddenly so uncool.Industry experts are now trying to repair that image by stressing the economic benefits of corporate jet use to companies and communities alike.Two trade organizations have started a campaign to underscore the financial damage that would occur if those aircraft are grounded.Everything from generating less money through jet fuel taxes to jobs at airports and in surrounding communities is at stake, supporters say.Locally, the main suburban facilities for business aviation - Chicago Executive Airport, Waukegan Regional Airport and DuPage Airport in West Chicago - have a vested interest in the effort."I guess we were the target of the day," said Dennis Rouleau, manager of Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling. "But when you think about it, we need business aviation."However, critics such as Sarah Anderson, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., said nothing has changed. Excessive pollution and unnecessary rewards for executives are some of the complaints in a 2008 report she co-authored called "HighFlyers: How Private Jet Travel is Straining the System, Warming the Planet and Costing You Money.""It's become a symbol of extreme excess," Anderson said.Trying to blunt the critics in the recently launched "No Plane No Gain"campaign, the National Business Aviation Association and General Aviation Manufacturers Association stress the benefits of private planes.The initiative includes positive business aviation messages on a Facebook page and YouTube videos. They also have developed a television and print advertising campaign to boost the industry's image.An image boost is critical, local business aviation airport officials say, because of what's at stake.Waukegan Regional Airport Manager Jim Stanczak said about 270 jobs at his facility are at risk if the number of business flights continues to slide. Stanczak said business travel is not tracked separately, but falling jet fuel sales are a strong indicator. At Waukegan Regional, sales declined from about $4.5 million in 2007 to $4 million in 2008, with 2009 purchases so far down roughly 24 percent from last year.Jet fuel sales have been falling at DuPage Airport and Chicago Executive as well, records show.But officials insist more than suburban airport jobs are in play.Hotels, restaurants and rental-car agencies are among the businesses with financial links to those airports.Also, Rouleau said, airports such as Chicago Executive can be a draw when a business decides where to locate. As an example, the airport's convenience for a nearby company allows it to fly parts to out-of-state manufacturing clients when emergencies arise, he said.In the most recent report from 2006, DuPage Airport was responsible for$375 million in annual economic activity in the county, said Executive Director David Bird. That amount will slip if corporate flights dwindle, he warned."The majority of the impact was being driven by the growth in the corporate aviation component of our business," Bird said. "So I think it's safe to assume that the significant reduction in fuel sales we've experienced has eroded the economic impact of the airport on the surrounding communities."Chicago Executive Airport pumps nearly $331 million into the Northwest suburbs, according to the most recent report issued in 2007.Studies for the DuPage and Chicago Executive airports used similar criteria in measuring effects on the local economy, such as annual purchases of goods and services associated with aviation and visitor spending.The Institute for Policy Studies' Anderson said she doesn't doubt the economic benefits to suburban airports catering to business aviation, but jobs and spending can be created in different ways.She also cites in her report the Department of Homeland Security's concerns about possibly lax security controls for private planes flying into smaller airports."In this case," she said, "you have to weigh the (financial) benefits against what the costs are."And, Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at The Corporate Library, said public records filed with the U.S. Security Exchange Commission show frivolous corporate jet use occurs. The Maine-based organization provides independent corporate governance research and analysis for clients.Hodgson questions companies that view personal use of corporate aircraft by executives as a business expense because it's required for security reasons. In a 2007 report, he listed 12 chief executive officers who led the way in personal use of corporate jets, with the one-year cost ranging from $540,000 to $1 million.Waukegan Regional's Stanczak said it's easy, but unfair, to criticize private planes as being excessive or wasteful."Most corporations are very cautious in the utilization of their aircraft," he said. "They don't just go flying them to fly them."Ed Bolen, president and chief executive officer of the National Business Aviation Association, said the image of a top executive gallivanting on corporate jets is a common stereotype."A CEO is on an airplane on 15 - one-five - percent of its missions,"Bolen said.Roughly 85 percent of private airplane travel for business is by small and mid-size companies, he said. Companies that own planes use them only when they make financial sense, he said.Airport officials insist a private plane is cost-effective for employees who need to hit two or three cities within a few hundred miles of each other to strike deals in a day."You could have a very, very talented sales guy," Rouleau said. "And if that sales guy can only make one sales call a day, and with a business jet he can make three sales calls a day, you just improved the productivity and you've helped out the whole company and the country."Critics who say companies can save money by always flying commercial and get the same job done are missing the point, he said. There are times when employees need to discuss sensitive information or go over last-minute sales strategy for a multimillion-dollar deal - tasks that require a private plane, he said.And, someone can be well on their way to a destination to close a time-sensitive deal from Chicago Executive in the hour-plus typically required just to park and reach a gate at O'Hare International Airport.Despite the advantages, Bolen said, some companies are still scaling back."That does not help American competitiveness," he said. "It does not help job growth."-----Private jets' economic impactBusiness flights make up much of the activity at Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling. Here are local businesses with revenue generated over one year from Signature Flight Support clients and operations, which provide fueling, hangar and office rentals, maintenance and other business aviation services.745The number of hotel reservations booked by Signature Flight clients$83,880in revenue for Hilton Northbrook, Wingate Inn and other nearby hotels from Signature Flight clients3,385 car rentals from Signature Flight clients$580,446 in revenue for on-site Hertz Rent-a-Car at Atlantic Aviation1,388taxi cab rides originating from Chicago Executive$48,544 in revenue for 303 Taxi cab service originating from Chicago Executive$17,796spent in Wheeling-area restaurants for Signature Flight-related business meetingsSource: Chicago Executive Airport, 2007 report2009-09-08http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Industry Suppliers Struggle along with Makers of Planes.htm?m=51&s=340&id=133WICHITA  - Companies that supply aviation manufacturers have cut at least 1,000 jobs in the area since October as companies cancel or defer orders for planes.Wichita's three general aviation manufacturers - Cessna Aircraft, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier Learjet - have eliminated more than 12,000 jobs in Kansas in the past year. Their cutbacks have forced suppliers to reduce hours and furlough or lay off workers.Companies with a large focus on business aviation have been hit the hardest. Those with commercial airline work from Spirit AeroSystems or Boeing are faring better.About 150 suppliers and subcontractors turn out parts, subassemblies and other products for the planemakers in the Wichita area, where the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent in July. One out of every 10 people living in the city works in aviation manufacturing.The Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas said it knew of about 1,000 job cuts at aviation-related companies since October.Precision Pattern, which makes aircraft furnishings, has cut 43 percent of its work force since October and rows of stations sit empty."This place was busting at the seams," general manager Brian DeKamp said. "It's really tragic what's happened in the industry."Employment at composite parts producer PCI is down nearly 60 percent."We were hiring people, training people; we were very busy," general manager Jeff Whitehead said. "Then, man, after the first of the year, it was really like falling off a cliff."2009-09-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/NBAA's Bolen visits Atlantic Aviation at Chicago Executive Airport.htm?m=51&s=412&id=190"NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and Barry LaBov, president and CEO of NBAA Member Company LaBov & Beyond Marketing Communications, Inc., visited Atlantic Aviation at Chicago Executive airport to appear in several interviews on Fox Business News to dispel negative stereotypes of business aviation," the newsletter reports. "The two discussed the value business aviation brings to thousands of companies across the country." 2009-09-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Maintenance Companies Feel a Pinch .htm?m=51&s=340&id=135DAYTON - The recession has taken a bite out of revenues for aviation maintenance companies, particularly those that service planes operated for corporations that have slashed business travel.The maintenance companies are counting on a loyal customer base, an eventual economic recovery and new sales initiatives for a rebound.These companies do aircraft inspections and provide an array of other services for aircraft owners and operators, including upgrades of electronic systems, repainting, interior redesigns and engine overhauls."We're probably 35 percent below what we were the previous year," said Mick Waltz, service manager at Stevens Aviation Inc., at Dayton International Airport. "It's economy-driven: Costs of fuel, business is slow, flights are down."We've been very fortunate, with our customer base. It has been steady, but it is down," Waltz said.Stevens Aviation services corporate jet and turboprop aircraft, along with Beechcraft and Cessna planes.At Commander Aero Inc. located at Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport, business is down about 20 percent from a year ago, said John Bosch, president and chief executive officer. He noted, though, that his company's 2008 revenues were up about 30 percent from 2007.Providing maintenance for Cirrus aircraft, as an authorized service center for that manufacturer, is a growing part of the business along with providing aircraft avionics upgrades, Bosch said."People who come in for inspections are often wowed by the advancements in avionics," Bosch said.Those include weather-tracking systems, navigation and communications equipment and systems designed to avoid collisions with other planes.Commander Aero also services - as its name implies - Aero Commander aircraft.Bosch's company is taking advantage of worldwide online access to offer maintenance services to new customers internationally, he said.The economic downturn has hit aviation hard nationwide. Shipments of new planes for general aviation were down by 46 percent in the first six months of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier.Because of the global recession, industry consultant AeroStrategy has projected the total market for commercial aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul in 2009 at $41 billion, down by 7 percent from the peak in 2007. The recession has resulted in contraction of some aircraft fleets, reducing those maintenance opportunities, AeroStrategy found.Stevens Aviation has done some cost-cutting to ride out the recession, but has avoided laying off any employees, Waltz said."We've been through this in aviation, many times. ... You have peaks and valleys," Waltz said. "I'm very confident that we're going to come out of it."http://www.daytondailynews.com/business/aviation-maintenance-companies-feel-a-pinch-283892.html?cxtype=rss_business2009-09-05http://www.noplanenogain-org/Private Firms Balk at Paying Takeoff Fee.htm?m=51&s=340&id=138Small private aircraft operators should not have to pay a bigger share of modernizing the nation's air traffic control system, the chief executive of a nationwide trade group for business aviation said Thursday during a speech in Colorado Springs. The National Business Aviation Association, which represents more than 8,000 companies that own or use small private aircraft, has been fighting for more than two years proposals by the airline industry to help raise money to develop the so-called Next Generation air traffic control system planned by the Federal Aviation Administration.Under those proposals, operators of small private aircraft would pay a fee each time they take off, in addition to fuel taxes they already pay, said Ed Bolen, the group's president and chief executive."The airlines want to shift $2 billion in taxes and fees to business aviation and take control of the system away from Congress through a board they would dominate. Our studies have shown that we pay our fair share and are not the cause of delays at airports," Bolen said in a speech before the group's local chapter."The airlines have portrayed business aviation in their lobbying as fat cats going to play golf, when in fact 85 per-cent of business aircraft are used by small and midsized companies."The business aviation industry provides more than 1.2 million jobs and provides business travelers access to more than 100 small towns that have lost most or all of their airline service, Bolen said.Business aircraft also are used to reach multiple cities in less time than it would take on airline flights, to ship products and tools that cannot be transported by airlines and allow employees to meet and discuss company business more securely, he said.2009-09-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Fractional Jet Ownership Evolves.htm?m=51&s=340&id=130With shakeups in the executive suite, major startup failures and questions of survival for some established providers, Brian Foley Associates president Brian Foley concludes the fractional jet industry is in the midst of major transformation. "Regrettably there'll be more turmoil in the charter, air taxi and fractional arenas before year-end,"he notes. "We're only in the fifth inning."The recent $1.5B cancellation of Bombardier Learjet 60 XR orders and options by Portugal-based Jet Republic should have come as no surprise."A year ago we publicly warned that start-up fractional companies would be particularly vulnerable during this downturn," reminds Foley.  "But this was especially dramatic because it concerned one of the largest business jet fleet orders ever placed."Fractional fleet sizes are flattening out, evidence that the industry has matured and discovered that demand is not limitless. "The problem,"Foley says, "is that the existing business model is geared to rapid growth. So long as fleets expanded, providers could profit by buying new aircraft at discounts and selling them at list price to customers. But now, with fleet size very nearly constant, the emphasis must be on making the operational side profitable -- or changing the business model altogether."Despite the current unsettled state, Foley points to three positives for the sector. "Given all of the recent negative business jet publicity, it's believed that the market will lean a little more toward ownership structures that keep the jet under the radar such as leasing, jet cards, charter and of course fractional." And second "Those fractional companies that can adapt and survive will eventually end up in a world with fewer competitors and hence the ability to raise prices -- a must for long-term viability. Three:  We're predicting double-digit percentage gains in year-over-year fractional flight activity(operations) later this year, which will be a healthy sign the slump has bottomed out and turned the corner."2009-09-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Hawker Beechcraft Reveals More Cost-Cutting Measures .htm?m=51&s=340&id=129Following up on a letter last week from CEO Bill Boisture, Hawker Beechcraft has clarified how it will adjust to the current down market.On the chopping block at least through next year are company matching payments for retirement programs, and employees will also be required to cover more of their health care premiums. There is also a chance of further layoffs and furloughs "to match our business demands and revenues." Cutbacks are said to be across the board, with management affected as well as hourly workers.2009-08-27http://www.noplanenogain-org/Cessna Readies For Piston-Production Cuts .htm?m=51&s=340&id=128Cessna Aircraft has announced plans for another round of production cuts at its Independence, Kan., and Columbus, Ga., plants, which focus on single-engine piston production.A letter from Jim Walters, Cessna's senior vice president for human resources, says that the market remains soft. "While we continue to see signs of stabilization in the overall economy, we are not ready yet to say we've hit the bottom of this downturn," he wrote.During its recent earnings call, Cessna parent Textron announced the reduction of jet production for 2009, Walters said. "It is now apparent that we need to reduce the single-engine piston production schedule for 2009. This work force adjustment, along with the planned reduction already announced in my June 12 memo, will still not exceed 500 employees," he said.Walters acknowledged suggestions from employees on how to handle another three weeks of furloughs scheduled through the end of 2009. "Since many of you naturally looked to the short weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas to take required furlough time, it makes sense to close the facility for both these weeks, which we can do without compromising our delivery commitments to customers," he wrote.Cessna also will begin tracking furlough time by hours instead of weeks, giving employees more flexibility, Walters said. "Every employee who is required to take seven weeks of furlough can now count 280 hours, instead of weeks or days," he explained.2009-08-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/Pilatus Cuts Hours, PC-12 Production Rate.htm?m=51&s=340&id=127To help ride out the downturn in business aviation, Pilatus Aviation has decided to cut work hours at its Stans facility starting next month as it scales back PC-12 output.The decision cuts across the company and will result in a 15 percent reduction in work and affect 350 employees. The move will avoid layoffs, the company says.The move has become necessary because of the rate of cancellations for the PC-12NG as well as a lack of orders for training aircraft.Company CEO Oscar J. Schwenk says he sees the measure as a short-term step. "We expect that the market will stabilize during 2010 and start growing in 2011."The production system is sufficiently flexible to quickly ramp up output, once that becomes necessary, Schwenk indicates. What should aid the company is the hope of securing a significant trainer aircraft order in the next 12 months, Schwenk says, without identifying the customer for what is likely the PC-21.2009-08-21http://www.noplanenogain-org/Watsonville Airport is a Wonderful Asset for the City.htm?m=51&s=340&id=126In 1942, the City of Watsonville paid $93,000 for 287 acres of land to be used for development of the Watsonville Airport. The U.S Navy leased the land from the city in 1943 to support the war effort. The Navy completed the construction of the airport runways and ramps and operated the airport as NAAS Watsonville from 1943 to 1947. The Watsonville Municipal Airport, like many airports, is considered a part of the national transportation system. Major improvements and renovations are funded by federal grants through the Federal Aviation Administration, while day-to-day operations are funded by airport users.As is the case with many airports, local tax dollars are not used to fund Watsonville Airport operations or projects. The Watsonville Airport is operated as a quasi-private business or, in government terms, as an enterprise operation. As such, all revenue generated by the airport can only be used for the benefit of the airport. Oversight of airport operations and capital improvement projects is provided by the city's Public Works and Utilities Department. As an enterprise, the airport pays the city for all support services it receives, such as accounting, personnel, and legal services.With strong City Council support, the airport has pursued and received millions of dollars in FAA grants over recent years for upgrades to the runways, runway protection zones, taxiways and navigational aids. Hangar construction, building maintenance, operating expenses and other airport improvements are funded with local, airport-generated revenue such as hangar rental fees and fuel sales. The Watsonville Airport is classified as a regional general aviation airport. This designation simply means the airport is used by all types of aircraft, with the exception of commercial air carriers. A study conducted in 2003 by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments indicated that user activity at Watsonville Airport can be categorized as approximately 57 percent business and 43 percent tourism. Certainly, both business and tourism airport users contribute significantly in supporting our local economy.One of the great things about GA airports is the unique access they provide to the rest of country. Rarely can you get directly where you want to go using commercial air carriers. Local businesses can use the Watsonville Airport to travel, at relatively low cost, to places like Visalia, Bakersfield or to any of the other 13,000 airports around the country not served by commercial air carriers.In addition to great access to areas not served by the air carriers, business and other travelers also have the freedom of choosing the time of departure and arrival. For example, a pilot flying a single-engine Beechcraft with three passengers can leave Watsonville at a time of his or her choosing and fly from Watsonville to Burbank in about 1 hour, 20 minutes at a total operating cost of less than $200.In contrast, there are no direct commercial flights to Burbank out of San Jose or Monterey. Leaving Monterey on a commercial carrier, with a plane transfer in San Francisco, the travel time to Burbank is 2 hours, 30 minutes at $342 per person. Add the hour-and-a-half drive and early check-in time, and you're looking at a total of four hours. Not only is flying from Watsonville cost-effective for local business and other travelers, but it also saves considerable time and is much more convenient compared to using a commercial carrier.The city has some exciting plans for the future development of the Watsonville Airport, including a significant extension of the main runway, replacing visual slope indicators, and installing a new precision approach system. We are currently performing engineering studies to develop a master airport utilities and drainage plan.Additionally, the city has plans to build 100 new hangars. This increase in hangars will provide additional shelter for aircraft parking, increased revenues for the airport, and an increase in tax revenue for the city and Pajaro Valley Unified School District due to the increased number of aircraft based in Watsonville. The Watsonville Airport is already a tremendous asset to our community and local economy. With the many future improvements in the works and strong City Council support, the airport's future looks bright.More information regarding the Watsonville Airport can be found by visiting www.watsonvilleairport.com or by contacting the airport at 728-6075.***David Koch is the public works and utilities director for the City of Watsonville. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily those of the Register-Pajaronian. http://www.register-pajaronian.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=77&story_id=75812009-08-18http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation's impact seen across Iowa economy.htm?m=51&s=340&id=125Aviation is a key contributor to Iowa's economy, supporting more than 47,000 jobs statewide while making an annual economic impact exceeding$5.4 billion, a new report shows.The research documents how the air transportation industry has developed economic reach extending far beyond commercial airline passenger service, said Michelle McEnany, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation.This includes activities as varied as air package deliveries spurred by Internet sales and aerial spraying for agriculture. It encompasses emergency medical flights on helicopters, corporate and military aviation and other aircraft-related activity, McEnany said.McEnany said she doesn't expect any additional Iowa airports to be built as a result of the study but said the findings will help state and local policymakers better understand the roles of airports in their communities.Iowa has 111 publicly owned airports, including eight airports with regularly scheduled commercial flights. There are also 14 privately owned general aviation airports. On-airport activities, businesses and related construction projects support 9,000 jobs with an annual payroll of $346 million, the study said.The study, prepared for the Iowa DOT, shows the Des Moines airport is responsible for 5,476 jobs, with an annual economic impact of $522 million. Next in impact is the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, linked to 2,695 jobs and an impact of $224 million.Third is the Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, which hosts the Iowa Air National Guard's 185th Air Refueling Wing. It generates 1,570 jobs and an economic impact of $218 million, the study found.In Newton, the Iowa Speedway's motor sports facility was intentionally built adjacent to the Newton airport, said Mike Beecher, the track's director of media relations. He said former NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace, who designed the track, is a jet pilot who was intrigued by the initial plans for the speedway, knowing an airport was already next to the racing site."The airport has become a key mechanism in the development of the Iowa Speedway," Beecher said.Many elite racing teams have traveled to Newton by air. In addition, Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson arrived at the Iowa Speedway earlier this year via a helicopter flight to the Newton airport from the Ankeny airport, avoiding heavy vehicle traffic, Beecher said. Growing numbers of fans fly to the speedway as well, he said.One indication of how closely aviation and the economy are tied: the recession's impact on airports. At the Des Moines airport, air passenger traffic from January to July was down 10.6 percent compared with a year earlier, with 1.03 million people getting on and off planes, records show. Air cargo shipments, measured in pounds handled, were down by 21 percent compared with the same seven months in 2008.The efficiency of hundreds of Iowa businesses is improved and their productivity is increased through use of aviation, according to the study, which was conducted by Wilbur Smith Associates in cooperation with McClure Engineering Co. and Snyder & Associates. For example, the report estimates the annual productivity of agriculture is increased by$214 million as a result of aerial applicators that spray about 4 million acres of crop annually.Among all private-sector Iowa employers, productivity is increased on an annual basis by $12.8 billion by using air transportation, researchers estimated.Military aviation units are stationed at airports in Boone, Davenport, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Sioux City and Waterloo. These units are responsible for almost 1,250 jobs, more than $84 million in annual payroll and almost $279 million in annual economic activity, the report said.More than 25 Iowa businesses are involved in aviation or aerospace industries, including such major employers as Rockwell Collins of Cedar Rapids and Alcoa's Davenport Works. These employers support more than 30,500 jobs with an annual payroll of more than $2 billion.Roy Criss, the Des Moines airport's marketing director, said key players in the state's aviation industry already know the important role that aviation plays in the state's economy."These studies are really for the public, which doesn't really understand the massive impact that the aviation system has in Iowa, and how important it is when you are trying to recruit business and allow business to expand," Criss said.Dubuque Airport Manager Robert Grierson, president of the Iowa Public Airports Association, said he will share the aviation study's findings with city officials, chamber of commerce leaders and other policymakers.Just looking out the window of his airport office last week, he described seeing two corporate aircraft, a small 1950s-era airplane and a regional passenger jet from American Airlines."This is what it is all about. It is very much an industry," Grierson said.http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090816/NEWS10/908160335/-1/NEWS042009-08-16http://www.noplanenogain-org/Ark. senators defend company use of private planes .htm?m=51&s=340&id=123By CHUCK BARTELS LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Arkansas' U.S. senators on Wednesday defended the use of corporate aircraft, saying flying aboard jets allows executives to accomplish business that can help revive the state's economy.Members of Congress blasted auto executives in November after they flew to Washington on private aircraft to seek billions of dollars in government aid. In the aftermath, executives from many companies canceled orders for corporate jets."It was a factor in the erosion of our business," said Jeff Habib, senior vice president for U.S. and Canada sales for Paris-based Dassault Falcon, a corporate jet manufacturer with a major finishing plant at Little Rock. "New business is slow. This combined with cancelations has produced a very difficult year for all of us."At a forum to discuss aviation's impact on Arkansas' economy, Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor noted that executives often must make it to meetings quickly. Arkansas residents, for instance, can fly few places nonstop."When corporate America is looking to be competitive ... what they do is look to general aviation," said Lincoln, who said she learned to fly as a teenager in eastern Arkansas."The truth is, that's how business is done," he told a crowd of about 500 workers sitting in front of a Falcon 2000LX jet.More than 3,500 people work in Arkansas' aviation industry, which was responsible for $1.4 billion in exports in 2008. Only agriculture - with$2.2 billion in exports in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available - is a bigger business here. Measured against individual commodities, aviation is the state's top export.Paris-based Dassault and Wichita, Kan.-based Hawker Beechcraft Corp.have completion centers at Little Rock, where workers paint the planes and fit them with custom interiors. Both companies have suffered layoffs this year because of canceled orders. Dassault now has 2,100 employees, while Hawker Beechcraft has 600.Pete Bunce, president and chief executive of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, said corporate jets provide an efficient means for executives to go from place to place and make deals that keep the economy moving."We shouldn't have to defend these machines that are one of the bright spots of the economy," Bunce said.Pryor, who sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, said he has tried to help the general aviation industry by opposing a proposal to ban some companies that received economic stimulus money from using corporate jets.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in January had Citigroup cancel delivery of a new corporate jet it planned to buy after receiving billions of dollars from the government.Congress passed a tax break to help the general aviation industry just a few months after the run-in with the auto executives.2009-08-12http://www.noplanenogain-org/Gulfstream's jets are work horses.htm?m=51&s=340&id=122SHORT-SIGHTED CRITICS who are questioning the federal government'sdecision to buy three Gulfstream jets for the U.S. Air Force are playingto the cheap seats, not taking the long view of what's best fortaxpayers and national security.The recent decision by the House Appropriations Committee to buy theGulfstream G550s business jets to ferry top government officials andmembers of Congress is a sound one.Take costs.The long-range flight capacity of the G550 easily links Washington withfar-flung cities like Dubai, Singapore and Toyko, and its interior canbe configured to include work spaces for up to 18 passengers.Compare that to the Air Force's existing aircraft. The planes are older,less efficient and slower.Commercial airlines aren't always a bargain either.Imagine how much it would cost taxpayers to send high-ranking generalsand their staffs to meetings in far-flung places around the world oncommercial jets. Some airlines don't even fly to places these officialsvisit. Time and money would be wasted getting them to theirdestinations.Take security. Getting U.S. officials around the globe safely must be apriority.Imagine the cost if a top official was taken hostage or injured whileflying commercial to a high-risk region. A corporate jet reduces thedanger.Unfortunately, it's easy to take pot shots at corporate jets, which someview as symbols of greed. But when properly used, these planes are workhorses that pay for themselves over time.We applaud the House committee's decision to buy three Gulfstream G550s,which are manufactured in Savannah, for nearly $200 million. Neither theAir Force nor taxpayers will be disappointed.2009-08-11http://www.noplanenogain-org/J.P. Morgan: Bizjet Market Stabilized, but Stagnant .htm?m=51&s=340&id=121Data from a J.P. Morgan business jet report released on Tuesday indicates "evidence of stabilization" in the business jet market "but no improvement. According to the report, pre-owned business jet inventories remain at record highs-staying at about 14.5 percent of the in-service fleet for the fifth consecutive month-but have not gotten much worse. Large-cabin and light jet inventories increased slightly, while midsize jets eased a bit. Of 23 business jet models J.P. Morgan tracks, 12 saw higher sequential inventories last month. Pre-owned aircraft prices have continued "a steady downward march toward supply-demand equilibrium," noted J.P. Morgan aerospace/defense analyst Joseph Nadol III. Prices fell 1.9 percent last month, with used large-cabin jets experiencing the most contraction at -2 percent. Meanwhile, business jet flight activity continued to flatten sequentially, with 285,000 takeoffs and landings recorded in the U.S. in June-a 21-percent decline over the same month last year. This is "the fourth consecutive month in the 280,000 to 285,000 range and [takeoffs and landings] appear to have stabilized at this depressed level off a low of 264,000 in February," the investment firm said. "We still see few signs of moving off the bottom, however, and were not much encouraged by second-quarter earnings," Nadol concluded. 2009-08-06http://www.noplanenogain-org/Report: Airplane shipments down nearly 46 percent.htm?m=51&s=340&id=120WICHITA, Kan. - A new report from a general aviation trade group says aircraft shipments and billings continue to decline.The General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported Tuesday that total general aviation airplane shipments fell 45.9 percent in the first half of 2009. Manufacturers shipped 1,036 planes from January through June compared with 1,918 in the same period of 2008.Industry billings are down 22.7 percent to $9.26 billion.GAMA president Pete Bunce said in a news release that layoffs continue and the industry has been forced to slow or halt production lines.Shipments of piston-powered airplanes were the hardest hit, down 58 percent. Turboprop shipments fell 13.6 percent, while shipments of business jets declined by 37.9 percent.2009-08-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/Wichita Aviation Industry Still Turbulent.htm?m=51&s=340&id=1192009 is proving to be one of the most challenging years for Wichita's general aviation industry.Last week, Cessna reported a total of 243 cancelled orders in the second quarter, compared to a balance of 124 sold positions remaining for delivery for the second half of this year.Aviation analyst Brian Foley questions whether there will be enough orders to cover the hundreds of plane cancellations."It could be a negative order year for business jets in 2009," Foley says.Foley also questions whether the order deferrals are reliable because jet customers risk losing sizable deposits if they cancel.By deferring delivery, the planemakers can hope the customer's financial situation will improve enough to finally make payment and take delivery.Foley is optimistic planemakers will start getting meaningful orders next year as the economy recovers. 2009-08-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/Panel backs plan that may bring more jets to Scottsdale .htm?m=51&s=340&id=124Saying the economic benefits are many and the noise levels and safetyrisks minimal, Scottsdale's Airport Advisory Commission recommendedunanimously Wednesday night that the city raise the aircraft weightlimit to make it easier for high-end business jets to come toScottsdale.Commission members voted 6-0 for the second option proposed in theairport's first-ever Strategic Business Plan. Vice Chairman GunnarBuzzard was absent but sent a letter of support."I don't know how you grow a city and a community without growing theinfrastructure," Commissioner Bo Calbert said, adding that keeping thestatus quo would lead to economic decline. Raising the limit is expected to have little impact on noise and thenumber of takeoffs and landings but would increase revenue and theability of the airport to serve and possibly attract new companies tothe Scottsdale Airpark, Commissioner William Bergdoll said. The Strategic Business Plan was commissioned to explore ways to keep theairport competitive with Valley rivals that want a piece of itsprestigious business-jet market. Consultants came up with four options ranging from the status quo toadding commercial service.The preferred option, they said, would be to raise the airport'saircraft weight limit to 100,000 pounds from the current 75,000 pounds.That would allow business jets such as the Gulfstream V and theBombardier Global Express to come to Scottsdale without having to complywith current restrictions and to leave fully fueled for any trips toEurope or Asia.More than 60 people filled the airport's terminal for the discussion,and those who spoke were more often in favor of the proposal thanagainst it.Opposition came from a number of homeowners in neighborhoods north andwest of the airport.Some questioned the safety of jets carrying extra fuel, while otherspleaded to prevent increases in noise or worried that the change wouldopen the door to commercial service. DC Ranch residents are concerned about the number of aircraft flying inand out, said Gerry Hrenchir, president of the community council."There are not many in the bad economy, but as soon as it picks up, youcould see two or three times that," he said.Not all homeowners saw change as negative."I would hate to see an initiative that would create jobs and economicactivity be put in jeopardy because of rumors and innuendo," IronwoodVillage resident Chad Willems said.Pilots and employees of aviation businesses said the move would bring inmodern, quieter and safer jets along with executives who would dobusiness in Scottsdale."It's revenue. It's taxes. It's a no-brainer," pilot Brian Ready said.2009-08-03http://www.noplanenogain-org/Greenville stands up for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. jobs .htm?m=51&s=340&id=118The jets built by Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. arrive in Greenville "green" - bare-boned shells decked in primer the shade of pea soup.When they leave, they are the sleek, fast, meticulously appointed tools for firms bent on being, like their jets, the best of their breed.Gulfstream, a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp., is a key economic driver for the region, employing 700 highly skilled employees with annual salaries averaging $62,000 at its base near Appleton.These days, the company is stressing its products' function over form in the aftermath of spectacular business failures by some of its industry's well-known customers. Some of the failures - and the resulting public outrage over symbols of corporate malfeasance - have put domestic builders of business aircraft in a bind.All are struggling with sales declines due, in large part, to frozen credit lines and the hobbled global economy. But it's the new weight of the "image issue" facing the industry that confounds Greg Laabs, general manager of the Gulfstream operations at Outagamie County Regional Airport."General aviation provides 1.2 million highly skilled, high-paying American jobs," Laabs said. "As an industry, we're not used to having to sell the idea that airplane manufacturing is good for the economy."That's part of the new cost of doing business amid the public castigation of firms that are asking for taxpayer bailouts. It arose after the CEOs of the Big Three automakers flew luxurious corporate jets into Washington, D.C., to seek federal dollars.The national media reported their flight arrangements, promptly leading to a national skewering of the auto executives - two since departed - as mindless fat cats. Business aircraft makers, by association, became collateral damage."There's a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into D.C. and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand," Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., said Nov. 19, dressing down the trio of CEOs at a congressional hearing.In January, President Barack Obama's administration pressured Troubled Asset Relief Program recipient Citigroup to cancel delivery of a corporate jet it ordered before accepting the taxpayer funds.Citigroup "should know better," Obama said.Greenville Town Chairman Randy Leiker, echoing the view of the general aviation industry, contends Washington, in its zeal to score points by taking bailout recipients to task, left an American-dominated manufacturing industry twisting in the wind."It is very easy these days to use inflammatory phrases like 'big-wigs and their fancy corporate jets,'" Leiker wrote in a July 3 letter to Obama."Certainly, as President, you understand. ... Is it possible to be elected to national office today without private jet travel?"Car trouble, plane troubleThe Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream employed 790 here as recently as January, but cut 1,400 jobs this year companywide, reducing its total payroll to roughly 9,000, said Heidi Fedak, its communications manager.It also announced furloughs of a month or more affecting a total of 2,200 production workers in Savannah. The moves followed a dive in orders for new aircraft and sharply reduced demand for maintenance of existing jets, which are spending less time aloft.Gulfstream, whose product line features jets set for delivery this year at starting prices ranging from $15 million to $49 million, delivered a record 156 jets last year. It will deliver 97 this year, Fedak said, a decline of nearly 38 percent.The company doesn't get much sympathy from Washington for its plight. The business aviation industry was able to fight off a provision that would have required TARP recipients to rid themselves of all corporate aircraft, but not before legislators reinforced the public image of business planes as essentially bad business.By the start of this year, healthy companies were canceling orders for aircraft; others dumped those they owned, flooding the market with used corporate planes.Laabs, manager of Gulfstream's sole major productions site in a cold-weather locale, said the weak economy alone doesn't explain the drop in sales since the Big Three's jets ignited a populist firestorm. Lately, successful firms that consider planes essential to their success aren't buying them."The media is a big part of the problem." Laabs said. "People are afraid to buy a business jet out of concern that some individual will use that to give them a black eye."First-quarter shipments of business jets fell 36 percent year to year, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported.The trade association, and its counterpart, the National Business Aviation Association, responded to the image with No Plane No Gain, a public campaign touting the value of private aircraft to businesses, communities, and the national economy, and confronting the fat-cat stereotype of corporate jet users.Cessna Aircraft Co., a Gulfstream competitor that cut more than 4,600 employees this year, tried a different tack, launching a national ad campaign challenging its customers to show some spine."Pity the poor executive who blinks," Cessna's ads said. "True visionaries will continue to fly."They may be doing less of it on private jets, however. FlightAware, a Houston-based tracking service, reported noncommercial jet operations during June were down 21 percent from June of last year, while all general aviation activity fell 8.5 percent.Meanwhile, GM plans to shed its fleet of seven Gulfstream craft, the Washington Post reported. Chrysler is doing the same.Made in the USAFedak, the Gulfstream spokeswoman, flew coach from Atlanta to the Fox Cities last week to lead a Post-Crescent reporter and photographer on an exclusive tour of the local Gulfstream and General Dynamics Aviation Services operations.The flight took about 8½ hours out of her day, Fedak said. Once aboard the commercial airliner, she had no opportunity to complete work related to her job, which requires privacy because she's often dealing with proprietary information."But I can tell you what the people on either side of me were working on during the entire flight," she said.But if a flight was needed for critical, or urgent corporate business - final preparations for a key appearance before Congress by the firm's CEO, for example - the use of private jet would have been "absolutely appropriate," Fedak said."These aircraft are mobile offices," she said. "They provide an environment where (top officers and staff) can work together, so you can get as much done as possible in a short amount of time."The government patronage is no small irony for a company that does business in a market sector whose prospects are in freefall, its advocates contend, partly because Washington politicians grouped fat cats, jets and bailouts into the same talking point.Leiker, the Greenville town chairman, met with Gulfstream officials last month and said he's still awaiting a response to his letter to the White House."I think President Obama should have stood up and said, these (jets) are really business tools," Leiker said. "There's no way he could have gone to five or six different places in one day during the campaign without using a private jet."2009-07-29http://www.noplanenogain-org/Planes aren't flying.htm?m=51&s=340&id=116BROOKHAVEN, Miss. -- With the McComb-Pike County Airport closed untilmid- to late-August while its 5,000-foot runway is repaved, the Brookhaven Municipal Airport could see increased air traffic - if anyone were flying.Corporate jets aren't flying much in these uncertain financial times, and McComb's private plane owners are just going to stand on the brakes and stay out of the sky while the 30-day paving project is carried out, said Perry McKinney, part owner of the airport's fixed base operator, Air Services of Mississippi."The last couple of months, traffic for us and everybody else has been really low," he said. "Business jet traffic is really falling off.People are just not sure if they want to invest their money."Even if the corporate jets were taking to the skies, not many would be coming to Brookhaven.Paul Barnett, chairman of BMA's advisory committee, said a combination of limited hangar space and an inadequate Instrument Landing System puts the city's airport at risk to lose traffic to other airports, like Hammond or Baton Rouge.Plane owners are "less than eager" to leave their aircraft outside in the weather, he said, and the airports with a more advanced ILS will attract aircraft planning to fly while the weather is less than ideal."That makes them more desirable for a standpoint of jet traffic,"Barnett said. "But this time of year, that's not really much of an issue."Barnett said the airport would likely receive a small boost from pilots stopping over for fuel while on route to other destinations, but that boost won't be possible until the facility refills its tanks with aviation gasoline. The airport still has plenty of Jet A fuel used by jets, turbo props and helicopters, but has been out of aviation gas since last week, he said.The decision was made to go without fuel because the facility's two new, 12,000-gallon fuel tanks are installed and should be hooked up within a week. It would cost even more to pump the fuel out of the old tanks and into the new ones, Barnett said."The contract for installing the new tanks calls for the removal of the old tanks, and to get the fuel transferred to the new tanks would cost a couple thousand more dollars," he said.The project to install the new aboveground tanks began in May, and costs around $300,000. The underground fuel farm they are replacing was 40 years old, and has had leakage problems in the past.Once the new tanks are online, however, the airport will be able to reap some small benefits from air travelers.Airport manager Al Morrow said the Brookhaven strip has the capacity to handle anyone who wants to stop. Visiting pilots are allowed the key code to enter the office and even use of the airport vehicle during their stopover.Morrow said medical air services may opt to use Brookhaven's airport to transfer patients to McComb's Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center."We may get some of the air ambulances from places like Little Rock(Ark.) and Monroe (La.) - they may have to come into Brookhaven for delivery of patients and use the ambulance to take them down to Pike County," he said.2009-07-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/Aviation Copes With Recession.htm?m=51&s=340&id=115Professionals in the aviation industry recently have been doing something commonly done by passengers of commercial airlines: They're waiting.They're waiting for customers to return, waiting for business to pick up; they're waiting for a recovery. General aviation has been affected by the recession just as much as the air travel business.The General Aviation Manufacturers Association stated that in first quarter 2009 - the most recent for which numbers are available - deliveries of general aviation airplanes fell 41.1 percent compared to a year earlier and billings dropped 18.2 percent.According to a news release from the Air Transport Association, passenger revenue decreased 26 percent in May compared to May 2008, the number of passengers declined 9.5 percent, and the average price per mile fell 17.6 percent.Flying OutEnplanements at Fort Smith Regional Airport dipped 7.91 percent to22,491 in second quarter 2009 from 24,424 in second quarter 2008.Although significant, the pace of the decline appeared to slow in the second quarter when compared to that from January through June.In the first six months of 2009, 40,419 passengers enplaned at the airport, a decrease of 11.15 percent from 45,492 in 2008."The overall demand in the United States still is declining," said John Parker, airport director. "It could be that the traditional, (summer) travel season is helping to level that out a little."With the merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, the Fort Smith Airport lost a carrier and flights to Atlanta.However, passenger demand on the remaining carriers - Delta, now offering service to and from Memphis, and American Eagle, offering service to and from Dallas - is up about 20 percent, he said.Parker said he doesn't expect air travel demand to rise greatly during the remainder of 2009, but the month-to-month and quarter-to-quarter comparisons may get easier."We saw significant changes in the second half of last year, which continued into 2009," he said. "Maybe by September, our numbers would be much closer because the bad news started about then."Instead of holding a recession month up to a non-recession one, the comparables will be between recessionary months in different years.Staying AloftSierra Foxtrot Aviation, owned by Stephanie and Frank Maslakow, has coped with the recession by trying to diversify and seek new customers.The business makes plastic injection molded parts for aircraft, and offers flight instruction and training.Its principal business is located at the Fort Smith airport, but it recently also expanded operations to the Sallisaw airport as well, hiring two new instructors there."With our new instructors, and being a woman-owned business with the only female instructor, we're going to start a program that really targets the working woman to get them up in the air," said Frank Maslakow.On the manufacturing side, Sierra Foxtrot has started making aviation-related products like plastic wheel chocks."We're like hunting dogs," he said. "If we can't find a rabbit under a bush, then we're going to go some place else and find a rabbit. That's what we're doing in manufacturing. We choose not to participate in this recession. I expect to continue generating customers and not have so many eggs in one basket or one manufacturing product in one category."Cyndie Crider, owner and vice president of Crider Aircraft Painting at Mena Intermountain Municipal Airport, said she couldn't put a percentage on the decline in business Crider Aircraft has experienced since 2008, but employment at the business has dropped from 35 to 17.In addition to painting, Crider refurbishes plane interiors, repairs engines and does sheet metal work.At the start of the downturn, customers quit calling. Now, they're calling for price quotes on work, but few are ordering.Instead of seven or eight planes being worked on at one time, Crider is doing two or three, she said.The company has offered discounts and incentives to keep that business.Crider said she is not budgeting or planning on any increase in the second half of 2009.Rick Lanman, Mena airport director, said some of the other aviation businesses on the field haven't been so lucky, at least two have closed.Sales And ServiceAlthough Mena has no commercial air service and only about 30 based aircraft on the field, it has more than a dozen aviation-related businesses.Flight operations have stayed strong, keeping total fuel sales from falling greatly, Lanman said.At TAC Air, the fixed-base operator at the Fort Smith airport, fuel sales have fallen between 20 percent and 25 percent in the first half of2009 compared to a year earlier, said Carol McNally, TAC manager.Texarkana, Texas-based TAC has fixed-base operations businesses in 13 locations nationwide.Danny Walsh, TAC's vice president of aviation, said the fall-off has varied widely from location to location.Walsh, McNally and Lanman all to different degrees attribute some of the drop to the sale of corporate jets outside the market.Companies that have kept their planes also are flying them less and refueling them less as a consequence. Sales have cut customers, and cutbacks in flying have reduced volumes.Lanman also points a finger at what he calls the "corporate-jet bashing"that occurred early this year when Chrysler and General Motors executives flew on corporate jets to Washington, D.C., to ask for a federal bail-out of the auto industry.For companies looking to save money as the recession hit, the backlash from that made them more willing to sell their jets or cut back on their use, he said."I'm sure it affected business somewhat," said McNally. "For some the people in the different flight departments, it's been a challenge to overcome. ... Because general aviation was already down, it didn't give us any good publicity or help any. They just slaughtered general aviation rather than come back and talk about how aviation can be a useful tool in business."She said TAC in Fort Smith has managed to avoid laying off any of its about 20 employees. It has had to adjust schedules and cut an open position to do that.Like Crider, Parker and others in the local aviation sector, Walsh doesn't expect a significant turnaround any time in 2009.Beyond that, all they can do is hope and wait.2009-07-19http://www.noplanenogain-org/Leading Bizjet Market Analyst Predicts 10 Years Of Slower Deliveries .htm?m=51&s=340&id=114Peak Year Of 2008 Was A "Perfect Storm" For The IndustryIn its proprietary forecast of worldwide deliveries of new business jets, market analysts Brian Foley Associates do not anticipate the industry topping 2008 levels within their 10 year forecast horizon. "A confluence of factors came together to create last year's record breaking 1,313 aircraft deliveries" according to President Brian Foley."The probability of each major market driver of business jet sales simultaneously peaking again seems remote."In evaluating the factors which created the phenomenal 2003-2008 business jet delivery upturn, nearly everything that could possibly go right for new sales materialized according to Foley. Worldwide stock market indices set new highs, Gross Domestic Product was strong with some regions registering double-digit figures and corporate profits and personal wealth were growing and abundant. In addition, the value of the dollar plummeted which stimulated international markets to buy dollar-denominated business jets in great numbers.Foley also cites that around 50% of all business jet purchases are financed. "The easy credit environment featuring low interest rates, zero down payments and extended terms just won't exist any time soon which will completely eliminate a stratum of buyers in the next upturn.This will be compounded by negative Capitol Hill business jet rhetoric which will dampen enthusiasm in the world's largest market (the US) for the next few years.""Since aircraft deliveries lag sales by a year or two, the perfect sales environment would have to materialize again within the next 8 years to be captured in our multi-engine delivery forecast through 2018.  That seems unlikely in this environment following a worldwide recession,"Foley said. "Analogous to the airline industry, as the relatively young business jet industry matures it will eventually discover that there's a finite market for business jets and that every upturn will not necessarily have to be bigger than the last."2009-07-10http://www.noplanenogain-org/Fox Business News Tells Viewers: No Plane No Gain.htm?m=51&s=340&id=111NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and Barry LaBov, president and CEO of NBAA Member Company LaBov and Beyond, appeared today in several interviews on Fox Business News to dispel negative stereotypes of business aviation. The two discussed the value business aviation brings to thousands of companies across the country.2009-07-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Fox Business News Tells Viewers: Business Aviation Makes Sense.htm?m=51&s=340&id=112In another interview Fox Business News interviews Ed Bolen, NBAA president and CEO, and Barry LaBov, president and CEO of LaBov and Beyond, about the benefits of business aviation. Companies can visit multiple sites in a single day, work en route and grow their business using business aircraft.2009-07-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Fox Business News: Business Aviation Helps Companies Ascend.htm?m=51&s=340&id=113In another interview Fox Business News interviews Ed Bolen, NBAA president and CEO, and Barry LaBov, president and CEO of NBAA Member Company LaBov and Beyond, about the benefits of business aviation. Companies can visit multiple sites in a single day, work en route and grow their business using business aircraft.2009-07-07http://www.noplanenogain-org/Business Jet Market Faces Slow Recovery.htm?m=51&s=340&id=110The business jet market, which soared in recent years as US companies posted record profits and new foreign buyers raised demand, is now facing a hard landing. The sector could be poised for big drops in demand as corporations cut back discretionary spending during the recession and dried-up credit makes purchases by smaller companies and individual owners more difficult. Attacks from politicians who have portrayed business jets as extravagant and frivolous have also hurt. Some analysts say recovery will be slow in the face of lower demand and increased competition from used aircraft that have flooded the market. ''We don't see the number of deliveries even hitting 2008's level in the next 10 years,'' said Brian Foley, president of Brian Foley Associates, a business aviation consulting practice. Last year, deliveries of business jets reached a peak 1,315, according to data from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), a Washington, D.C-based group that tracks noncommercial aviation. Its data shows deliveries rose annually from 2003 to 2008. Though GAMA does not forecast deliveries, it noted that business jet shipments dropped nearly 36 percent in the first quarter, to 191 from 297 a year earlier. Restructuring firm AlixPartners LLP projects business-jet deliveries will fall 30 percent this year, with an another 10 to 15 percent drop forecast for 2010. ''The demand will not start to bottom out until 2011,'' said Philip Toy, managing director and co-leader of AlixPartners aerospace and defense practice. Even though major jet makers such as Textron Inc's Cessna unit have already cut thousands of jobs to cope with slumping orders, more cutbacks could still be ahead. Textron said earlier this year it expects corporate jet deliveries to continue to decline in 2010. Cessna, the world's largest maker of corporate aircraft, expects to deliver 290 to 300 planes this year, down from 467 in 2008.2009-07-04http://www.noplanenogain-org/No Plane No Gain: On The Air.htm?m=51&s=340&id=108Since the launch of the No Plane No Gain program in February, the campaign has spoken with a variety of news outlets, or coordinated interviews with people in the industry, to explain the importance of business aviation to the nation's economic and transportation systems.The interviews have included a number of appearances on national and local television programs, and the No Plane No Gain web site now has some highlights from the coverage.2009-07-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Special Report: Servicing Smalltown, USA.htm?m=51&s=340&id=109The largest chunk of America's population lives in the smallest towns. In its explanation of business aviation's significance to the United States, the NBAA, GAMA and others are focusing on the 1.2 million jobs it comprises, the $150 billion in economic activity it generates, its positive trade balance and its humanitarian work, by rushing human organs for transplant, transporting cancer victims to treatment centers and reuniting wounded veterans with their families and friends, among other things. Everyone can appreciate those attributes.However one benefit also cited may be lost on those residing in larger population centers - the importance of private and business aviation to the vibrancy and relevance of small communities. If you're a denizen of Manhattan's concrete canyons with five airline-served airports within 50 miles of Times Square, it can be hard to appreciate the lot of travelers, shippers and businesses in Manhattan, Kan., where a single regional carrier offers flights to just four destinations, two of which are Salina and McCook, Kan., or of those in Santa Fe, N.M., which lost scheduled service altogether for a while, and now has limited commuter service to DFW.For such communities, business and general aviation aircraft are primary sources of lift, delivering people, cargo, commerce and relief.How many such communities and residents? Every 10 years, the United States Census Bureau, under the Department of Commerce, counts the people who reside within our borders; in fact, we're due for another national tally in 2010. The results of the count have a direct bearing on politics, as states may gain or lose representatives in the House.But the data are also explored in depth and compiled in an almost infinite variety of ways.The Census Bureau publishes a tome called the Statistical Abstract of the United States based on the most recent head count; the latest edition was published in 2009. According to the Abstract, the total population living in incorporated communities with populations of fewer than 10,000 was 28.7 million. The cumulative population in incorporated communities in cities of one million or more totaled 24.0 million. The top four groupings by size (100,000 to one million) totaled 82.4 million. The bottom four (<10,000 to 99,999) totaled 105.9 million.So, while some perceive America's large cities as more important than its towns and villages, the aggregate population in the smaller communities is actually the larger of the two groups. And out of the total year 2000 national population of roughly 281 million people, 188 million lived in incorporated communities, leaving 93 million people residing outside of such communities - a figure 3.9 times the total population of the largest cities.While there are many other reports and analyses provided by the Census Bureau, the Abstract is probably the most useful as an overview of how and where people live in the United States. And population data are not limited to the products of the census. In fact, counting goes on in the form of estimates and projections between census years, one example being a population "clock" that continually estimates the total population based on current birth and date rates. (At the moment, it reads 306,530,556. Check it out at factfinder.census.gov) Following the collapse of the housing market, such interim reporting mechanisms indicated an entirely predictable follow-on effect: a virtual freezing of the population in place. The moment will be remembered as a time when the nation's citizenry, once so highly mobile as to be virtually nomadic, came to screeching halt.This plunge in mobility should be confirmed by the 2010 count. But employers and workers have already learned an important lesson: It turns out that the relative ease of buying and selling houses - their relative liquidity, in other words - is a kind of lubricant for a population that had become used to changing jobs, and relocating, at an almost frenetic pace. And business could count on the willingness of a talented worker to relocate. That's over - at least for now. The ripple effects of the housing crunch on the broader economic engine have yet to play out as the ability of a work force to adjust to changes in the economic landscape has become crippled. If the workforce is temporarily immobilized, transportation and telecommunications can provide a partial remedy, linking people with work. While current airline maps interconnect the major population areas with a filigree of city pairs, there are enormous wide-open spaces in the country with little or no commercial air service. If you have a problem getting your arms wrapped around the concept of no service, open up your cell phone company's coverage map and observe where the white spaces are. Now expand that area by a factor of 100 or so.Add to that the fact that airline service is shrinking, not expanding, as the major airline companies tighten their belts. It's not that there's nowhere to land near the smaller towns and villages. In fact, the number of airports accessible to business aircraft is roughly 10 times the number of large terminal airports served by major airlines.Turning that on its head, the airlines serve roughly 10 percent of the nation's airports. According to the NBAA, there are roughly 500 airports that have some form of limited commercial airline service, but almost all airline flights operate to and from only 70 major hubs. In the year2008 alone, more than a hundred cities suffered a decline in airline service and more than 30 small communities lost all their air service.The most recent monthly figures from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics are for February 2009. Total (scheduled and non-scheduled) revenue passenger enplanements dropped from 56.97 million to 50.19 million. No surprise, when total available seat miles dropped from 81.94 billion to 73.14 billion. By reducing available seats, the airlines were able to minimize the impact of lower boardings on passenger load factor, which barely moved from 74.77 to 73.09 during the same period.As discouraging as the reduction in air service may be, most business managers believe there are advantages to locating their manufacturing and service centers away from densely populated, high-cost urban areas.They know such locations provide a significant competitive advantage in affordable land and lower taxes, along with advantages in such intangibles as improved lifestyle; e.g., it's a good place to raise kids.More importantly, small-town business provides economic sustenance to what turns out to be the largest portion of the nation's population. The Census Bureau tracks internal population movement by noting shifts in the calculated mean population center of the country, which has been moving west and slightly south in a steady fashion, away from the densely populated Northeast; its current location is southwest of St.Louis. When a business is in the process of sizing up a new location, it usually heads straight for the appropriate local economic development agency, be it state or county. For local governments and representatives of industry, this is where the rubber meets the road as such complexities as land costs, taxes, infrastructure and workforce support (think of specialized training at strong community colleges and vocational schools) are woven into a proposal inviting the business to locate there.Although it's likely to pause for a while, the southwestward creep of the center of gravity of American business has been driven by managers seeking the best deals for their companies and finding them outside the traditional industrial belts. Foreign automakers seeking assembly facilities in the domestic United States have voted with their wallets and located in the Southeast. Suppliers for such companies as BMW, Mercedes and Nissan set up nearby. Silicon Valley used to be the name of one area in California; now the term is loosely used to describe belts just outside the urban sprawl of cities from Massachusetts to Texas. In 1993, microchip foundries in Texas exceeded California's in production capacity for the first time, according to Richard Winegarner of Sage Concepts, a consulting firm that tracks the semiconductor industry. It's not that the airline companies have anything against small-town America; they simply can't make their business models work in markets characterized by a Long Tail. The term Long Tail first appeared in the October 2004 Wired magazine in an article by Chris Anderson, who went on to write a book about the concept. Among business aviation circles, the term Long Tail was most recently used in describing the business model for DayJet, a now defunct air-taxi company. The example that's probably most often used to describe the Long Tail market is the retail sales of recordings of popular music. People used to flock to record stores like Sam Goody's to buy their LPs, tapes and then CDs. A retail record store has just so much floor space within which it can stock only a fraction of the available titles at any given time. So Goody's and stores like it stocked the titles that moved the most units and left smaller labels and niche artists to find alternative distribution.Ignoring for the moment the disruptive technology of Apple's iPod and its distribution model, which eliminated the necessity for a tangible medium like a CD, what put Goody's out of business was an earlierdevelopment: Amazon, CDNOW.com, Barnes & Noble and other massive Internet-based distribution systems that could offer to millions of customers their choice of millions of titles - not just the most popular titles, but all of them.Take that same idea, put wings on it, and you have the basic model for DayJet, an air taxi service that sought to connect small towns serviced by small airports and with just a handful of travelers at each airport.In fact, DayJet avoided any city pair that had enough traffic to qualify for a regional jet or turboprop.During the most recent boom for sales and manufacture of business aircraft, company earnings drove many managers to invest in aircraft, some for the first time. But corporate aircraft owned and operated by individual firms don't define business aviation. At this juncture, the roles of charter, fractional and air taxi operations are in the ascendant, and much of the charter fleet represents aircraft owned by individual companies but operated under management to provide charter services. No airline can operate a model in which four people leave from an uncontrolled airport, travel to three destination airports, and return to the origin in the same day.The notion of major market city pairs and hub airports as the dominant model for air travel is illusory when that model cannot serve the majority of the nation's population. And so back to the focus by GAMA, the NBAA and others on business aviation's importance to Smalltown America. If the person or thing needs to get there by air, the airplane that brings it probably won't be doing so on any published schedule, but that fact makes the mission no less vital. It's what business aviation does, day in and day out, Out There.2009-07-01http://www.noplanenogain-org/Inaccurate stereotypes of jet-setting execs taking toll, operators say.htm?m=51&s=340&id=107 Corporate aircraft sit on the tarmac outside the executive terminal at Crites Field. Some say auto executives' high-profile corporate flights hurt the general aviation industry. Close Back in November, general aviation - nearly everything that flies other than commercial airlines and military aircraft - was being buffeted by the recession.Then, a handful of auto executives flew to Washington, D.C., on corporate jets to ask Congress for a bailout. The fallout from those flights was devastating."It was like putting a stake in the heart of general aviation," said Jim Retzlaff, airport manager at the West Bend Municipal Airport. "It was a noticeable downturn when they did that."Of the roughly 55 public airports in Wisconsin that can handle corporate air traffic, only eight are served by scheduled airlines.Some managers and operators at the other 47 airports say their customers have been unfairly singled out and stereotyped as well-heeled titans traveling in luxury at the expense of taxpayers."We did take a tremendous hit" when the auto executives made their infamous trip to Washington, said Jeff Baum, president of Wisconsin Aviation Inc., based in Watertown. The company also has operations at the Madison and Juneau airports."The vast majority of flights are very reasonable business trips," Baum said. "It's not like we're going to Hilton Head or Key West every trip.For every trip like that we do, we take 50 to Peoria or Fargo."Less popular destinationsGeneral aviation aircraft are used to shuttle service technicians, sales reps, engineers and critical equipment parts to places that are difficult to reach using a scheduled airline, Baum and others said."A lot of the operations out there serve small businesses," said Eric Byer, vice president of government affairs for the National Air Transportation Association.Across the nation, general aviation business is down 10% to 65%, Byer said."Overall, we're a hurtin' industry," he said.The number of hours being flown by businesses is down by about a third, said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association.He also said the characterization of jet-setting excess by businesses isn't accurate."A lot of them are based in, or have major operations in, communities without good air service," Bolen said. Those businesses rely on general aviation to remain competitive.Across Wisconsin, general aviation brings personnel and equipment to manufacturing and service businesses that are a fair distance from metropolitan areas."Corporate traffic is down quite a bit," said Joe Wheeler, airport manager in Stevens Point. "It's not putting us into a bind, but we're feeling it."At Waukesha County's Crites Field, the situation is much the same."It's down," said Harry Becker, general manager for Atlantic Aviation Services, which manages the airport along with the county. "It really affects us in the aviation community."General aviation is also a harbinger for economic activity, and while business has improved since November, there are no signs of a sustained recovery."We had a fairly good May, but in June, it slowed back down," Becker said.Nationally, Byer said, "We're starting to see some locations where traffic is beginning to pick up."Whether that uptick takes hold won't be known until fall, Byer said.Even with the downturn, those in the general aviation business expect a rebound eventually."If they are going to market their products elsewhere, chances are they will need an airplane to do that," Becker said.2009-06-25http://www.noplanenogain-org/WSJ runs NBAA letter about sensationalist industry coverage.htm?m=51&s=340&id=106A Letter from NBAA's Ed Bolen published in the June 24 edition of The Wall Street Journal responds to the newspaper's recent account of business aviation, which missed key facts about the mode of transportation and overlooked its benefits. The Wall Street JournalLetter To The EditorJune 24, 2009This article greatly mischaracterizes business aviation and does a disservice to tens of thousands of American companies of all sizes that rely on business aircraft to succeed, especially in these tough economic times.You barely acknowledge that, although a company's nonbusiness use of its aircraft is but a tiny portion of the missions a typical plane flies, there are good reasons that allowances are made for it. It minimizes employee time away from the office, and company officials can stay in touch with the office while in flight. Many businesses also mandate that some employees travel aboard company airplanes out of safety and security concerns. At public companies like those featured in your story, allowances for nonbusiness use of company aircraft are made with an eye toward what is best for the company, and in total compliance with tax law and Securities and Exchange Commission rules.Ed BolenPresident and CEONational Business Aviation AssociationWashingtonLetter as originally submitted:The Wall Street JournalLetters to the EditorJune 18, 2009To the Editors:Your June 19 article about companies' non-business use of their airplanes utterly mischaracterized business aviation and did a disservice to tens of thousands of American companies of all sizes that rely on business aircraft to succeed, especially in these tough economic times.For starters, the story barely acknowledged the fact that although a company's non-business use of its aircraft is but a tiny portion of the missions a typical plane flies, there are good reasons allowances are made for it. The aircraft minimize employees' time away from the office, and company officials can stay in touch with the central office while in flight.Many businesses also mandate that some employees travel aboard company airplanes out of safety and security concerns. At public companies like those featured in your story, allowances for non-business use of company aircraft are made by with an eye toward what is best for the company, and in total compliance with tax law and SEC rules. Equally disappointing, in focusing on only one type of aircraft use, your article failed to acknowledge that for thousands of companies, utilization of an airplane is the most effective, efficient and prudent way to do business. When time is critical, when multiple locations need to be reached in a single day, when proprietary information must be discussed, or when business must be done in areas with little or no airline service - a company's airplane provides the transportation solution that allows a business to remain nimble and competitive. The bottom line is that business aviation is and will remain an invaluable tool for companies all across the U.S., especially in this challenging economic climate. It's unfortunate that this reality was overlooked in your story. Sincerely, Ed BolenPresident and CEONational Business Aviation AssociationIn response to the following article:The Wall Street JournalJUNE 19, 2009CEOs of Bailed-Out Banks Flew to Resorts on Firms' Jets By JESSE DRUCKER and MARK MAREMONT Some executives at banks propped up by government aid have retained a coveted perk: personal use of the company jet.Flight records show numerous occasions when banks receiving federal money have flown their planes to destinations near resorts or executives' vacation homes, including spots in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean, south Florida and Aspen, Colo. In some cases, it's clear that bank executives were traveling for personal reasons; for other flights, many of which were over weekends or holidays, the passengers and purpose couldn't be established.Regions Financial jet N605RF landed at the Prestwick, Scotland, airport on Nov. 12, 2008.Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., received $3.5 billion from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, on Nov. 14. Twelve days later, the day before Thanksgiving, two Regions jets left Birmingham within minutes of each other, bound for a small airport in West Virginia.The destination: the historic Greenbrier resort, where the bank's chief executive, C. Dowd Ritter, and family members spent four nights over the holiday, according to a person familiar with his accommodations.The round-trip flights cost Regions roughly $17,700, according to a calculation by Conklin & de Decker Aviation Information, a consulting firm. A Regions spokesman declined to comment on the trip or the cost estimate but said all travel on company jets "either for personal or business was within our policy."The Wall Street Journal identified 14 federally aided banks that register planes under their own names. It reviewed Federal Aviation Administration flight records for these planes from October, when the bank aid program began, through mid-March, the latest information the Journal was able to examine.Disclosure of the flights comes at a time when the Obama administration is setting limits on how banks that receive federal money may compensate their executives. Aid recipients' use of corporate jets, even for business, has been a sensitive matter since last fall, when a flap arose after auto executives flew to Washington on company jets to plead for a public bailout. In January, President Barack Obama berated a major aid recipient, Citigroup Inc., for planning to add to its fleet of jets.Citigroup canceled the order.Banks aren't unique either in owning corporate jets or in sometimes letting top executives use them for personal travel. Many big companies do so, saying this helps executives use their time more efficiently and is more secure. Some companies even require certain executives to use company planes for all travel. At Regions Financial, a proxy statement says the CEO should always use bank-owned or other noncommercial aircraft, unless flying commercial is more efficient and "does not involve unreasonable personal risks."For banks receiving federal money, the cost of personal use of planes is small relative to the aid packages, some in the billions or even tens of billions of dollars. Nonetheless, some banks have curbed or eliminated personal use of company planes in recent months, citing federal aid or the economic downturn.At Citigroup, two days after the bank canceled the jet order Mr. Obama criticized, former Chief Executive Sanford Weill boarded a Citigroup-owned plane for a flight to a small airport at Saranac Lake in New York state's woodsy Adirondack region. Flight records show it was the seventh trip a Citigroup plane had made to Saranac Lake, near where Mr. Weill has a vacation home, since the bank first received federal aid last fall.The flight returned to its point of origin, in Westchester County north of New York City, on Sunday, Feb. 1. That same day, Mr. Weill announced he was waiving his contractual right to use Citigroup aircraft. His spokesman said Mr. Weill "cares deeply about the future of Citi and recognizes the extraordinary commitment by the American taxpayer." The statement came on the same day that a much longer Weill flight on a Citigroup jet -- taking family members to the Mexican resort town of San Jose del Cabo in Baja California over New Year's -- was disclosed in the New York Post.The Presidential Suite at The Greenbrier That plane, a Bombardier Global Express, sat on the ground at Cabo for eight days, FAA records obtained by the Journal show. The cost to Citigroup of the round-trip flight was about $33,500, according to Conklin & de Decker, a consulting firm based in Orleans, Mass., that was asked to make an estimate.A spokesman for Citigroup said personal use of company planes is limited to certain executives, who are encouraged to fly commercial when possible.Under Internal Revenue Service rules, executives who receive free personal travel on company jets owe tax on "imputed income." The IRS dictates a per-mile valuation method, which would have resulted in about $3,300 of taxable imputed income for Mr. Weill for each person on the Cabo round trip. A charter flight would have cost about $90,000, Conklin & de Decker says.One of the largest recipients of government money is Bank of America Corp., which got $15 billion in October and $30 billion more in January in connection with its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. In between the injections, a Bank of America Gulfstream V flew from Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., to Aspen, Colo., on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and to the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in mid-December.The latter flight was one of a number to Savannah/Hilton Head in the second half of 2008. Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis has part ownership in a home on Spring Island, S.C., near Hilton Head.Just after Christmas, as the bank's controversial deal to buy Merrill was about to close, a Bank of America Dassault Falcon 2000 jet flew to a small airport near Greensboro, Ga., FAA records show. Mr. Lewis spent the following three days at a nearby Ritz Carlton resort, the Reynolds Plantation. A different Bank of America Falcon 2000 traveled back to the bank's headquarters city from Greensboro on Dec. 30. Flying time each way was about 38 minutes, versus about four hours it would take to drive.A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment on specific trips but said, "We are implementing a new policy in 2009, under which personal use of aircraft will not be permitted."Morgan Stanley received $10 billion in October from TARP, a government program to encourage lending amid the credit crisis by infusing banks with cash in return for preferred shares. In subsequent months, Morgan Stanley jets traveled twice to Wilmington, N.C., where property records show Chief Executive John Mack owns several beachfront properties. A Morgan Stanley Gulfstream V that went to Wilmington over the Thanksgiving break later flew to Paris and London over the Christmas holiday.A spokesman for the bank declined to comment on individual flights but said its policy was to allow Mr. Mack personal use of corporate jets, with the cost "fully disclosed" in annual proxy filings. The value of his personal jet usage last year was $368,675, one filing shows.Morgan Stanley's most recent proxy filing said that as of March 10, Mr.Mack began to reimburse the firm for personal use of its aircraft. The price used is the maximum sum the FAA allows plane owners that aren't commercial operators to charge under "time-sharing" arrangements. That price typically is less than it would cost to charter a similar aircraft.At some banks that received federal aid, executives have been able to use company planes for personal travel. See some examples. Morgan Stanley repaid its federal TARP funds on Wednesday. The Treasury has just issued a final rule saying TARP recipients must implement a policy on so-called luxury expenditures, including aircraft use, and make these policies public within 90 days.Among aid recipients that have halted executives' personal use of planes is Synovus Financial Corp., a Columbus, Ga., bank that received $968 million in federal funds in December. Its most recent proxy statement said that in light of "current economic conditions," the board's compensation committee in December suspended personal use of aircraft for 2009, though it could approve exceptions.Marshall & Ilsley Corp., a Milwaukee-based bank that got $1.7 billion in TARP funds in November, ended personal use of its aircraft in February, a spokeswoman said, "in light of receiving capital from the U.S.Treasury." She said the bank is trying to sell its two planes. Before the ban, the bank's ex-chairman, James Wigdale, used a company plane at least three times in recent months to fly to and from Vero Beach, Fla., the spokeswoman confirmed. He owns a home near Vero Beach.That Florida city has been a frequent destination for aircraft owned by Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. PNC announced on Oct.24 it would receive $7.7 billion of federal money to help it acquire a troubled Cleveland bank. That evening, FAA flight records show, a PNC jet took off for a weekend trip to Vero Beach. Property records show PNC Chief Executive James Rohr owns a beachfront house about nine miles from the Vero Beach airport.The day PNC received its federal aid, Dec. 31, the same company plane was parked at Aspen, Colo., where it had traveled from Pittsburgh for a five-day trip over New Year's. PNC planes also flew numerous times to Fort Myers, Fla., near vacation homes owned by other PNC executives.While declining to comment on specific flights, a spokesman for PNC said its board requires Mr. Rohr and the bank's president to use corporate aircraft for all personal and business travel. Since Jan. 1, senior executives have had to reimburse the bank for personal travel, at the top rate the FAA allows in jet time-sharing deals. Previously, they had to reimburse only after the value of total perquisites, including travel, topped $50,000 in a year.At Regions Financial in Birmingham, two weeks after the October announcement it would get TARP funds, a company jet took off for a weeklong trip to the U.K., including a three-day stop in Prestwick, Scotland, which is near several famed golf courses. A Regions spokesman declined to discuss the trip but confirmed the Alabama-based bank has no operations in Europe.At the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia a few weeks later, Regions CEO Mr. Ritter was accompanied by other family members, including son Bill, who is also a Regions executive, according to the person familiar with their stay. They rented the seven-bedroom, $4,515-a-night Presidential Suite. The spokesman for Regions said its executives pay for their own accommodations when traveling for personal reasons.The Ritter family has reserved the Presidential Suite for this year's Thanksgiving weekend, according to the knowledgeable person.-Ianthe Jeanne Dugan, Dan Fitzpatrick and Tom McGinty contributed to this article.2009-06-24http://www.noplanenogain-org/2010 seen as another bumpy year for business jets.htm?m=51&s=340&id=102PARIS -- With the commercial aircraft market in the doldrums, perhaps the best news for business jet manufacturers these days is: It's probably not going to get any worse."There are some signs that maybe we're hitting the bottom," said Kelly Ortberg, chief operating officer in charge of commercial systems at Rockwell Collins Inc., supplier of avionics equipment to the likes of Gulfstream and Cessna."There's been more activity in used aircraft, [and] cancellations as reported from most of the [original equipment manufacturers] appear to be declining. But orders are not picking up substantially, so I guess the good news is that it's not negative, but the return to good growth is still in question.""We anticipate 2010 is going to be a tough year for business aviation,"Ortberg said during an interview at the Paris Air Show last week.Business jets have been hit the hardest in the recent downturn as corporations slash capital costs to conserve cash and prepare to ride out a potentially long recession.Prior to last fall, the business jet market had been booming with orders from fast-growth emerging markets such as Russia and the Middle East, as well as established markets like North America."Now is not the time to make a new airplane acquisition to the corporate board as they are laying people off, so we're hoping for stabilization in employment toward the end of the summer," Ortberg said.Fundamentally, any upturn in business jets will be driven by economic recovery, helped in part by government stimulus packages, with growth in trade and improved global employment, he said.Rockwell Collins provides communication and aviation electronics used on a variety of aircraft for both commercial and military customers worldwide. Just over half of its annual revenue comes from government contracts.The company will have equipment on the coming Airbus A350 XWB, its largest Airbus platform ever, with potential revenues of about $2.5 billion over the next 20 years.The company also provides products for regional jets built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., business jets built by Cessna and Gulfstream, and the 787 Dreamliner that Chicago-based Boeing Co. is close to rolling out, as well as other wide-body aircraft. Textron Inc. and General Dynamics Corp., respectively, are the corporate parents of Cessna and Gulfstream.On the commercial side, Ortberg said he doesn't anticipate any substantial orders next year, despite the general expectation that there will be an economic recovery later in 2009.Boeing and Airbus, two of Rockwell Collins' largest commercial customers, have remained adamant that they won't have to cut their narrow-body production rates despite the economic malaise, but Ortberg noted that there's skepticism in the market over whether the aerospace giants can actually hold to that view."The question is how fast [air traffic] demand will come back," Ortberg said. "If we go through another year of soft demand, I think they are going to have a hell of a time with current production rates without some adjustment."In April, Boeing said it would reduce its production rate for the wide-body 777 in June 2010 and also delay increases for its 767 and747-8 programs.At the end of 2008, Rockwell Collins had a total backlog of $4.5 billion, of which $2.9 billion came from funded government orders.In April, Rockwell Collins slashed its earnings outlook for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 to $3.70 to $3.90 a share, compared to its prior view of $4.10 to $4.30 a share given in February. Sales for fiscal 2008 were $4.77 billion, about half of which came from government sales and of which 34 percent came from overseas markets.2009-06-22