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

NBAA called a New York Times (NYT) editorial video misleading that encourages Congress to change the FAA’s funding structure. Posted yesterday from the NYT editorial board, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000010331153/private-planes-faa.html?partner=slack&amp;smid=sl-share">the video</a>, entitled “If You Fly Economy, You’re Paying for Someone Else to Fly Private,” notes that on the same route that passengers on a typical airliner would pay $2,300, private jet passengers would pay $60.
The editorial likened that to a parking garage where a driver of a typical car would pay $20, but only $0.25 for a luxury vehicle. It further noted that private jets cost the system $1 billion, account for 7% of the traffic, and only contribute 0.6% to the system.
Most of the major aviation organizations—including Airlines for America—have been pushing Congress for additional funding for the air traffic control system but also have been in rare agreement that they have no appetite for another major funding debate.
In response to the video, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen wrote NYT editors that the editorial “puts forward a false narrative about what general aviation, including business aviation, pays within our national airspace system.”
Bolen pointed out that the system was built around airlines, and the major cost driver is the airline hub-and-spoke system that concentrates traffic. “Contrary to the video’s unfounded allegation, the burden each aircraft places on the system varies greatly,” he maintained.
Rather than using the parking garage example, Bolen likened the NYT’s argument to the scenario in which five people go to a restaurant together and the one who orders the most expensive meal insists on everyone splitting the check evenly.
“Managing a large commercial airliner in the complex, often congested airspace around major commercial hubs such as New York, Chicago, or Atlanta requires far more resources than managing a small aircraft at an outlying community airport,” he said, noting that the Government Accountability Office has concluded that general aviation flights cost to the system “are quite small.”&nbsp;
Further, Bolen argued that the costs did not go down when business aviation was barred from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after 9/11.
“Perhaps most importantly, your video looked past the role of business aviation as a critical part of our transportation system, connecting communities of all sizes, supporting more than a million American jobs, and contributing $340 billion annually to the U.S. economy,” Bolen said. “Misleading and oversimplified portrayals like the one in your video do a disservice to the public and the policymakers tasked with making informed decisions about our aviation system.”

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