Since the beginning of the economic crisis, European company executives flying in business jets largely have escaped being singled out as fat cats as infamously happened to the bosses of America’s big-three automakers when they flew from Detroit to Washington in three separate jets to ask for federal handouts in November 2008. In some respects this is strange, given Europe’s generally more left-leaning political complexion, but it may illustrate that business aviation has retained a very low profile on this side of the Atlantic. Paradoxically, there have been more cases of politicians being lambasted for private jet use over here.
Late in 2008, the European business aviation industry braced for negative publicity as a potential reaction to the controversy in the U.S. In an attempt to head off criticism, early in 2009 European Business Aviation Association chief executive Brian Humphries sent a letter to the editors of Europe’s leading newspapers strongly endorsing business aviation as a productivity tool at a time when most of Europe had followed America into recession. Around the same time, Dassault Aviation, Europe’s only business jet manufacturer, started spending some of its public relations budget on the same effort.
