Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

Industry leaders attending the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) State of the Industry event yesterday agreed that the business aviation market is entering 2019 with a stronger footing, but also conceded that the partial government shutdown that ushered in with the New Year will take months to resolve. “This has been an interesting start of the year,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce.&nbsp;

 


He has previously pointed to the work slowed during the shutdown, particularly on the certification front, and has detailed that the restart will require manufacturers to readjust schedules to get back into an already full queue for FAA resources.&nbsp;But yesterday he also credited FAA senior leadership for providing as many resources as possible, as the law permitted, during the shutdown to coordinate on workflow.

 


Bunce further noted that the shutdown underscored the importance of organization delegation authorization (ODA). Over the past decade, GAMA has been pushing for greater use of ODA to make certification processes more efficient. Without it, “We would have been dead in the water” during the shutdown, he said. “That doesn’t mean it wasn’t painful,” but under the partnership with FAA and with programs such as ODA, “we were able to work our way through.”

 


Gulfstream president and GAMA chairman Mark Burns, who presented <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-02-20/gama-genav-industry-sees-across-board-jump-2018">the 2018 industry results</a> at yesterday's event, agreed that ODA was “invaluable,” but acknowledged the shutdown did backlog projects. Gulfstream parent General Dynamics had reported last month that the shutdown pushed certification of the company’s ultra-long-range G600 into the second quarter.

 


Burns noted that there were a number of lessons learned that the industry is working out with the FAA. “We need to capture the lessons learned,” agreed Bunce, pointing out one area that was spotlighted was just how much paperwork the FAA is involved in. This is an area that can be examined to see ways to ease that involvement.

 


David Paddock, senior v-p for U.S. regional operations for Jet Aviation, also detailed some realignments that were necessary on the training front in his operations.&nbsp; While Jet Aviation also managed through, he said the problems created from the shutdown would have been far more significant if it lasted for even another few weeks.

GA Praises FAA Coordination, Mulls Lessons from Shutdown

The shutdown spotlighted how extensively involved FAA is with paperwork, Bunce said.

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