NBAA, GAMA Slam Report on Private Jets

By Chad Trautvetter

June 26, 2008
General Aviation, Business Aviation

NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) have denounced a report on private jet travel and the general aviation industry issued by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Essential Action (EA), two left-leaning Washington think tanks. In short, the report echoes the airline industry’s claim that GA does not pay its fair share of ATC costs and is the cause of airport congestion.

Additionally, it accuses the “ultra-rich Americans” who use private jets of threatening “our environment, security and the cohesion of our country,” at the expense of ordinary citizens. “The IPS/EA report is…misleading as it attacks general aviation for everything from tax incentives for the industry, to endangering national security, to damaging ‘social cohesion,’” GAMA said in its response.

“Not surprisingly, its proposed remedies amount to taxing general aviation until it disappears. In NBAA’s rebuttal, association president and CEO Ed Bolen concluded, “This report is 30 pages of nothing but outrageous claims and the warmed-over rhetoric used by the nation’s big airlines.

It is unfortunate that at a time when businesses are struggling and communities are losing air service, we see political screed masquerading as a policy report.

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