Obitts Takes the Helm at NATA

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) announced last month that Timothy Obitts, the organization’s chief operating officer (COO) has taken on the role of president. He succeeds Gary Dempsey, who held the position for more than a year and served for six years on the association’s board of directors, including a term as chairman.

“This transition follows a succession plan set up by the board to provide continuity that best supports and benefits the membership, and we are fortunate to have worked alongside someone as devoted, connected, and knowledgeable as Gary,” said current NATA board chairman Curt Castagna.

“It is a great honor to be at the helm of an association with such a rich history and bright future,” said Obitts. “I join the board, the staff and the members in expressing gratitude to Gary Dempsey for leveraging his extensive experience, both at the board level and as president, to help elevate the association and industry. I look forward to continuing to work with the board and our talented staff to further his legacy.”

Obitts joined NATA in November 2014 as senior vice president for business and general counsel, but as the former managing partner of northern Virginia-based Gammon & Grange, a law firm specializing in nonprofit, trade associations, and communications law, he had been doing work on the organization’s behalf since 2006. He was named COO in 2018 and oversaw the day-to-day operations of the organization, playing an instrumental part in establishing the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Industry Coalition, which exists to promote the use of the fuels, spur production, and educate end-users. He has since become the association’s face of these efforts, hosting and moderating several high profile industry launch events over the past year.  

NATA Outreach Efforts

Obitts also spearheaded the formation of NATA’s Illegal Charter Task Force to address what has become a serious threat to the industry. “These unauthorized fractional programs; and then, obviously, these gray charter or sham dry leases—that is a huge issue I talk about with our members on the Part 135 and 91K side,” Obitts told AIN, adding their other major concern is workforce development and the ability to retain highly qualified talent.

On the FBO side, he noted the organization will continue its efforts to improve safety and professionalism. “The heart of NATA, and our mission as a non-profit, is safety, and to help our members, the aviation businesses, be better at what they do," explained Obitts. The organization recently refreshed its industry-standard Safety 1st training platform and moved from a per-seat billing model for its line services course, to an unlimited subscription model for customers, to account for training in areas of frequent turnover. “We wanted to take the excuse away for why someone wasn’t being trained,” said Obitts, adding NATA is beginning a campaign to increase the program’s use among airport-run FBOs. “If you take a look at the number of FBOs out there now, 48 percent of them are airport-sponsored.” Of that amount, the vast majority are at small airports, where the trend is increasing.

“The idea is, in essence, to make it super-easily available for the municipally-run FBOs to use Safety 1st. Because if we look at misfuellings, whether through actually putting the wrong fuel in the tank or through the use of diesel exhaust fluid, there obviously is concern,” noted Obitts. “Whenever we have a misfuelling incident, it's bad for the reputation of the entire industry, and it hurts businesses no matter where they are. So we want to make sure that we continue to raise the bar on fuel-quality safety.”

NATA is also representing its hangar-keeper members in the pending revision to the hangar fire prevention Standard 409 from the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA), which is expected to be released in 2021. As new hangars grow ever larger to accommodate the growing size of business aircraft, NATA has been lobbying to remove requirements for fire foam suppression systems that protect against hangar fuel fires. NATA says that's a threat that largely no longer exists among jet fuel-powered aircraft. “We want to basically have the standard aligned to reality,” said Obitts. "There is no need for foam systems in this type of hangars.”