The FAA budget reauthorization time bomb was audibly ticking this morning at the NBAA Convention’s opening general session. NBAA president Ed Bolen warned members that they must stand up to an airline lobby push for air traffic control privatization to be funded by user fees in place of fuel taxes and devoid of congressional oversight to allow commercial carriers to run the system themselves.
Urging the business aviation community to “help shape our destiny” by demanding support from the representatives, Bolen warned that the airline industry’s efforts to load up the long-anticipated FAA reauthorization bill with ATC privatization legislation represents “a real threat to our future.”
The FAA’s current budget extension is set to expire on March 31, 2016. NBAA and its allies in the General Aviation Manufacturers Association expressed concern on Monday about the fact that they still haven’t seen even a draft version of the anticipated legislation. To help the business aviation industry communicate with Congress, NBAA has created a mobile app to allow people to contact lawmakers.
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin and congresswoman Dina Titus (R-NV) were among the luminaries participating in the opening session for NBAA 2015. Huerta didn’t address reauthorization by name, but noted that adoption of NextGen technologies–a key component of any reauthorization proposal–has already yielded $1.6 billion in benefits to system users, with another $11.4 billion expected over the next 15 years. He cited DataComm, which replaces radio communication with text messaging, as one example, and noted the service is scheduled for implementation at more than 50 ATC towers and Tracons in 2016.
In her remarks on privatization, Titus, who represents Las Vegas and is a member of the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee and the GA Caucus, said, “We need to sustain and build on successes and not transform” what is the world’s “safest and most complex” ATC system.
Governor Fallin, showcasing Oklahoma’s support for GA, pointed to recent legislation empowering the state’s Aeronautics Commission to protect airports from development encroachment and said, “The biggest single airline in the United States is general aviation.”
Adding star power to the session, award-winning singer-songwriter and pilot Dierks Bentley told how aircraft allowed him to have a career and a home life. Having recently acquired a jet, he said he told his band mates, “Maintain the plane, we need to keep the hits coming” was their motto for 2016.
AOPA president and CEO Mark Baker illustrated the power of GA by spotlighting his organization’s recent Bizav and You promotion, which provided a small business with use of a Pilatus PC-12NG for a day, and presented a video showcasing all the winner was able to accomplish with the aircraft.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske had to cancel his scheduled appearance at the opening session, as unforeseen national security issues demanded his presence in Washington, D.C., in the wake of last Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
