Inside the Fence

May 4, 2007
On the general media, notes from Orlando, and kudos ...

From time to time NPR reporter Lisa Napoli calls, looking for information and a quote. The topic is usually the A-380 ... the show Marketplace seems fascinated with the aircraft.

I suggested that since she and her show did a good job of presenting an issue, perhaps she’d like to take on the current discussion going on in industry and Congress over funding. The general media is barely reporting on it, never mind trying to really get its arms around it.

Tough sell, she said, but she’d take a look. Indeed, it is a tough sell, one the industry isn’t very effectively getting into the mainstream. It could be helpful if the general public got on board the discussion. To date, the most the general public has heard about aviation funding has come from the air traffic controllers.

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Biggest scuttlebutt at the Aviation Industry Expo/NATA FBO Leadership Conference in Orlando was that Landmark Aviation was going to be sold to Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, Ltd., in a deal purportedly put together by former Honeywell execs. As we go to press, sources say it’s so, in a $1.8 billion deal for the Mesa-based Landmark. The deal includes Standard Aero.

Landmark, of course, was formed in 2004 and brought together Garrett Aviation, Piedmont-Hawthorne, and Associated Air Center. It’s reported that the FBOs are now in play.

Some other AIE/NATA notes ...

  • Expect more in the way of required security for general aviation. TSA is getting ready to expand the 12/5 program and it’s undergoing a review of SIDA regulations. It says the latter review will include a look at GA facilities. Meanwhile, NATA’s Jim Coyne continues to caution that the U.S. Senate is serious about requiring more secure GA operations.
  • At the end of the funding discussion day, what might be expected is a noticeable increase in the fuel excise taxes, and jumps in various FAA fees. And a PFC boost, of course. That seems to be the mood of what’s out there. What seems to have fallen off the radar screen is ATC modernization and how we will attack it. GA groups, says Coyne, have put it on their back burners.
  • Best business quote: “We’re going to buy close to 150 million gallons [annually] by 2008.” — Jim Christiansen, president, NetJets, who adds that the bizjet biz should remain strong, based on the backlogs for new aircraft at the OEMs.
  • Favorite show quote: “We will be doing this with you, not at you.” — Charlotte Bryan, TSA general manager, on expanding the 12/5 rule.

Finally ... few people are nicer; few are more successful in this business; and few exemplify the tradition that is the FBO business as Bob and Kim Showalter at Orlando Executive. Now in their third generation, the Showalters were given NATA’s lifetime achievement honor, the Ong Award. We add our congratulations.

Thanks for reading.