Page 25 - Volume 18 Number 1

NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION • focus
Continued From Page 21
For example, we asked 10 CEOs from well- recognized and respected organizations to explain how using business aviation has contributed to their company’s success. We’ve compiled their testimonials into a publication called “Top Ten,” and we’re using these testimonials in NBAA’s latest advertising initiatives.
Business aviation will continue to face many challenges in the New Year, including possible service cuts, driven by a new round of budget sequestration, at federal agencies providing critical
aviation-support services. Our industry will also likely face the prospect of new taxes and fees to pay for those services, in order to address our nation’s continuing fiscal crisis.
The good news is that everything NBAA and GAMA have been saying for the past five years about the benefits of business aviation - to citizens, communities, and companies - is true. We have the data to prove it, and the voices to tell it. As we move forward, I also invite Twin & Turbine readers to communicate that message to government officials and the public, in 2014 and beyond. m
the region’s first state aviation caucus in the Washington legislature. Sponsored by state Sen. Jim Honeyford (R-Sunnyside), the caucus aims to support GA interests and community airports throughout the state.
The new caucus in Washington compliments several that have been recently formed in other states, from Texas, to Massachusetts, to New
York and elsewhere.
And outside the state capitol buildings, state agencies have been weighing in with a data-driven case that demonstrates the significant contributions from
the industry.
For example, an independent study, commissioned by the Missouri Department of Transportation, found that the state’s nine commercial airports and 99 general aviation fields contribute an estimated $11.1 billion in total annual economic output, 4.3 percent of the Show Me State’s total gross domestic product and a 17.1 percent increase over the past decade.
Moreover, the study determined that business aviation was a key factor in that growth. “Business aviation fueled a large part of that growth, which came despite the economic downturn in recent years,” said MoDOT Aviation Operations Manager Bryan Gregory. “By comparison, the amount of commercial airline activity in our state has remained largely the same since 2002.”
These and other demonstrations of support for business aviation in 2013, backed by readily available data and indisputable evidence, were imperative in promoting the standing of an industry that is so important at the local, state and national level. NBAA will continue to foster this strong support in the year ahead, and persist in efforts that strengthen business aviation. m
JANUARY 2014 TWIN & TURBINE • 23