In the view of NBAA chairman Patrick Cunningham, members of Congress began to listen to business aviation when the industry talked about jobs in their constituents’ districts and “when we communicate to them that the average business aircraft is not necessarily a Gulfstream jet or a BBJ.” Many legislators were surprised to find that the average business aircraft is a King Air and may be supporting a medium-size company and it might be vital to that company to have that airplane to do business.
“I think that once the folks in Congress gradually started to understand that,” Cunningham said, “they realized that a lot of the folks back home were thinking that general aviation was a pretty good thing and business aviation, too.” The other thing that Congress needed to hear, he said, was that aviation is an industry where our country is still strong. “I think the light bulb may have gone on for a few when they realized that out there in Wichita and in Savannah, Georgia, we’re employing a lot of people making state-of-the-art airplanes and it’s a real boon to the economy,” he added.
