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John Olcott John W. Olcott, President of the NBAA:

"We need a better understanding
on Capitol Hill"

It's been a good year for Business Aviation! We see more flight departments in existence today, than a year ago. Our member companies are flying more. There is more international activity and all the signs are indicating a positive development. As of June 95, US flight departments numbered 6,991, as of June 96 this number had increased to 7,240.

Business Aviation is really coming into its own. There is greater acceptance: More and more companies are realizing that in todays era of rightsizing Business Aviation is the right form of transportation. Companies today are trying to get more productivity out of fewer people. To do that you have to be very efficient in travel. Business Aviation helps companies being efficient in travelling their personnel.

But although there is greater acceptance of business aviation today there is still considerable room for improvement. We still have many of the challenges that we had in the past and we will have many challenges for many years to come. We are continously adressing inappropriate images of business aviation that appear in the press and we are continously attempting to have a better understanding on capitol hill.

The big issues that we see now, focus on reform of our Federal Aviation Administration and the impact that funding mechanisms have for the FAA and modernization of the Air Traffic Control system.

The essential question is: What fees should be charged for use of the ATC-System or should the system of funding the FAA be as it is today through a system of excise taxes and fuel taxes. We recommend that the existing system of excise taxes on commercial transportation and fuel taxes on turbine fuel sales and gasoline sales is the most efficient and most fair way to collect moneys for FAA-use. We also believe that there is a strong logical argument for having the user pay for a percentage of the FAA's budget but not all of it. We believe that the present mix of approximately 75 percent payment from users and 25 percent funding from the federal treasury is a correct approach and one that should be maintained.

There's a bright future for Business Aviation and it's there for several reasons: Companies today recognize that travel is fundamental to their market development and their business success. They are examining the means with which they achieve travel. And more and more companies are accepting business aviation as one of their travel tools.

90 percent of the companies within the Fortune 500, that over the last 10 years have returned the most to shareholders in form of dividends or capital gains - in other words the companies that you and I would like to own as shareholders - are operators of business aircraft. Those companies obviously know how to use their most important assets - people and time - most productively and most profitably. And their way to do this is to use Business Aviation.

Last updated November 17, 1996

"We need a better understanding on Capitol Hill"

"We need a better understanding
on Capitol Hill"