Safety, Environment, Reauth Focus of NATA Conference

The National Air Transportation Association this month concluded its 2018 Annual Meeting and Aviation Business Conference highlighting key issues before the association, from Part 13 complaints filed against airports over FBO pricing to a focus on looming workforce shortages, advancing NextGen, and continuing the push to get a reauthorization bill through Congress. 

The association also turned over its board with the election of Ross Aviation president and CEO Jeff Ross to take over as the new chairman. Ross, who previously was vice chairman, succeeds Pentastar Aviation president and CEO Greg Schmidt in the new role. Stepping in as the new vice chairman is Curt Castagna, president and CEO of Aeroplex/Aerolease Group.

FAA associate administrator for aviation safety Ali Bahrami keynoted the first session of the three-day event, praising the industry for its collaborative efforts that have helped more than surpass goals set nine years ago to drive down the fatal accident rate by 10 percent. In fact, the accident rate has declined from 1.2 fatal accidents per 100,000 hours at the time the goal was set to 0.84 per 100,000 hours in Fiscal Year 2017, a 27 percent drop.

“This all because of the work you and the rest of our colleagues in aviation are doing together,” he said. “We are deeply committed to innovation and cooperative approaches to address general aviation safety."

But he stressed that the community must not become complacent and continue to work to improve, using a data-driven approach. He also noted the agency’s successes in improving safety with the Compliance Philosophy and said it would continue.

Other efforts have included a more agile, reorganized Flight Standards group, he said. This reorganization will help with the agency’s efforts to become more consistent, he added, but encouraged attendees at the NATA event to continue to provide feedback in that area.

He also touched upon the agency’s hiring woes, saying it, like the rest of the industry, is facing workforce recruitment issues. “We are having a very, very difficult job hiring qualified people because the industry is doing well and [private companies] are paying much more than we are,” he said.  Bahrami further noted the agency is in the midst of developing a five-year strategic plan, and he plans to communicate it both to the FAA workforce and aviation community, believing that the way forward is to be in step with industry.

Industry Cohesion

Leaders from five other aviation associations joined NATA president Marty Hiller in providing perspectives on reauthorization and other industry issues. The leaders discussed the importance of stable, long-term funding for FAA and adequate funding for areas such as airports. But of first concern was making sure the FAA reauthorization legislation got through Congress in a timely fashion.

Also on that panel, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and CEO Mark Baker discussed the reasoning behind his association’s Part 13 complaints at airports over FBO pricing, saying AOPA is focused on ensuring access and encouraging use of affected airports. Hiller, meanwhile, outlined the complexities of the issue with the many factors playing into pricing.

Despite the differences over the pricing issue, Joel Bacon, executive vice president, government and public affairs for the American Association of Airport Executives, praised the general aviation community’s overall cohesiveness on issues such as reauthorization, saying it was “absolutely remarkable.” The industry was able to pick off Republicans on the ATC issue when a committee chairman had made the issue an important part of his life’s work on Capitol Hill and had the backing of a president, he noted.

Industry leaders followed this session with visits on Capitol Hill with their local leaders to discuss key issues, such as forwarding the FAA reauthorization bill.

Ethics was another area addressed during the NATA conference, with discussions focused on a number of the efforts various associations have been making to elevate the issue. Mente Group president and CEO and National Aircraft Resale Association chairman Brian Proctor outlined the difficulties of tackling ethics in a highly fragmented broker profession where about 1,100 brokers have facilitated sales of 4,500 aircraft in a given year, meaning many are one-airplane sales for the vast majority of brokers. NARA recently rolled out a multi-faceted strategy that includes concepts such as certification and is discussing developing training programs with third-party vendors.

NATA, meanwhile, recently re-emphasized its ethics code and has a task force focused solely on illegal air charter. The association has been working with the FAA over the past year on actions that could be taken but first must better frame what constitutes illegal charter.

TSA Administrator David Pekoske addressed attendees in a closed-door session, and while conceding he has more to learn yet about the industry, pledged to work with the general aviation community, NATA reported.

Another significant area highlighted included commitment on the aviation services side to environmental responsibility. Keith Sawyer manager of alternative fuels for Avfuel, outlined the importance of transitioning to sustainable alternative jet fuels, noting it is the key path for industry to meet its goals of reducing carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050. At the same time, he discussed the complexities of integration into the fuel supply chain with a need for more availability of the alternative fuels.

Larry Jorash senior v-p operations for Signature Flight Support, discussed a need for further testing on older engines. Jonathan Lee, Air BP business development manager, meanwhile, outlined his company’s multi-pronged approach to becoming carbon neutral throughout its network, including creating carbon offsets through investing in various sustainable projects worldwide and introducing carbon efficiencies and technologies where possible.

The NATA conference also served as a venue to dig deeper into many issues confronting aviation services business, such as how to attract qualified FBO leaders, and the lack of clarity surrounding the recent exemption Congress provided for aircraft management services from the commercial air transport federal excise taxes.

In addition to the FBO leadership workforce concerns, workforce and training issues in general were discussed in separate sessions. The need for expanded use of organizational delegation authorization was addressed in a session dedicated to maintenance hot topics, while FBO and airport managers were given guidance on how to approach airport lease agreements in a manner that both parties walk away satisfied and with full understanding the contracts. Another topic touched upon was the prevention of ground handling damage, or so-called hangar rash.

NATA also honored a number of individuals during the presentation of its annual Industry Excellence Awards program.  These included former Gulfstream president Larry Flynn with the Willam A “Bill" Ong Memorial Award and Randall Berg, former director of aviation for King County International Airport/Boeing Field, with the NATA Distinguished Service Award. The Distinguished Public Service Award went to Gerald Dillingham, former U.S. Government Accountability Office director of civil aviation issues. 

Other honorees included the ATP/NATA General Aviation Service Technician Award to George Terry, vice president and director of maintenance operations at Corporate Eagle in Michigan; Airport Executive Partnership Award to Juan Rivera, airport director at Manassas Regional Airport; Excellence in Pilot Training Award to Janine Schwahn, chief instructor at Summit Aviation in Montana; and, Safety 1st Certified Line Service Professional Award to Henry Graves, line technician and shift leader at APP Jet Center Manassas in Virginia.