GAMA and NBAA Publicly Attack Comments on GA

Both the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) this week publicly refuted claims about GA recently broadcast by external parties.

In both situations, the private aviation sector was inappropriately positioned, GAMA and NBAA said.

Today, GAMA said that an Institute for Policy Studies and Essential Action (IPS/EA) report unfairly recycled the claim that GA failed to pay its share of the costs associated with air traffic control (ATC) services.

The GA industry pays its fair share of the costs of the ATC system through hefty fuel taxes imposed on piston fuel called AvGas and turbine jet fuel, GAMA said in its response. Furthermore, to speed the modernization of the antiquated ATC system in the United States, the GA industry has expressed to the U.S. Congress its willingness to pay an even higher fuel tax as defined in the current FAA reauthorization proposal.

GAMA also said that the airlines themselves drove the costs of a hub-and-spoke model that was built primarily to meet their needs. It attacked other claims in the IPS/EA report.

Separately, a Stanford Transportation Group press release said that business aviation drove trends in first-class airline travel and linked its claims to NBAA data. In turn, the NBAA reported that the STG report overlooked factors unrelated to business aviation that actually affect first-class airline travel.

Among the press release's errors is a metric for measuring business aviation activity, NBAA said.

"The true measure of business aviation activity in the United States is the annual number hours flown, not the number of airplanes parked at airports around the country," NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said.

Bolen added that without using credible criteria in its material, STG is enabling airlines to blame economic woes on the GA industry.