Story ID: 044
Pete Bunce: A Reflection of 20 Years
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: Bunce is retiring this month. He handed the helm of GAMA to Jim Viola.
Word Count: 1784
Pete Bunce retired in April after leading the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) as president and CEO for 20 years. His GAMA service capped an illustrious career that included 26 years with the U.S. Air Force, where he flew F-15s and A-10s. His last assignment was as the director of the Air Force Congressional Budget and Appropriations liaison. While at GAMA, the association expanded in reach and scope. He also played instrumental roles in countless pressing industry issues. Bunce talked to AIN about his time with GAMA.
 
Talk about how GAMA has grown over the past couple of decades.
When I came to GAMA, we did have Dassault as a member and of course, Pratt & Whitney Canada, maybe Piaggio and TBM. There weren’t very many [non-U.S. companies]. But we only had a little more than 40 members. I am proud that GAMA tripled in size since then, despite all the consolidation.
 
What were some of the major changes that occurred at GAMA as the industry evolved?
One of the first things I instituted when I came on board was a Capitol Hill day. I had seen the value of that from my Air Force days. It was really successful. It built personal relationships. [GAMA’s] members are employers,  so I knew they’re going to get the meeting with the principal.  Association staff can talk until we’re blue in the face as the technical experts, but when you have the company members, especially at GAMA, the folks on the hill listen to them.
Then, the next major thing that I saw was the fact that the EASA was growing. EASA was relatively new when I came on board. But it was growing in prominence, and in particular, it was growing in international regulatory outreach. I said we have to get more involved in Europe. That was extremely important for us to establish our foothold in Brussels. That turned out to be successful.
How did membership change during this time?
We brought on large MRO companies. Jet Aviation approached me first, wanting to be a member. And then StandardAero and Duncan Aviation—all of the big MRO companies came on board.
Then, I focused on helicopters. Just the technology that we were putting in the cockpit and the capabilities that we’re building into them made it very important to be able to keep growing the association on the rotorcraft side. Bell was the first one. That’s been very rewarding because the helicopter companies have figured out what they were missing by not working together on both sides of the Atlantic.
I think over that period of time, because we’ve grown GAMA and because we’ve been around working in Brussels, Cologne, and Washington, our influence has grown. Especially with the capability of the GAMA staff. They have become the people with the most expertise on so many different areas.
 
Was it difficult to convince your members to expand GAMA’s reach to MROs and helicopters?
No, surprisingly enough. I laid it out for them where I saw the advantages, and they accepted it. They figured out that there was great value in it. When I laid out the case for having a place where these advanced air mobility [AAM] companies could be housed [through its Electric Propulsion and Innovation Committee (EPIC) formed in 2015], that probably was the biggest change.  When I made the case for AAM and how we would bring them in before they were certified, that’s when I kind of got that skeptical eye— “You want to establish a very inexpensive membership so they can all be together?” And I said, “Ultimately, if we’re successful in AAM, these companies are going to provide business for all the traditional manufacturers.” When I laid that all out, they agreed to it. It’s pretty cool to see that in 2015, there were 11 companies, and now it’s our biggest committee. Virtually every GAMA member is in that committee.
Have you seen the industry maintain its sense of community?
That’s something that we have tried to foster. These guys compete very robustly out in the marketplace. But they compete honorably. And when they get into a GAMA meeting, they’re friends, and they recognize each other’s expertise. They joke with one another. I always said I have the best association job in the world because I get to be around these captains of industry, and we have a good time. I think that fosters a lot.
 
Does that kind of collaboration help with safety and innovation?
Unquestionably. At our board meetings, we do tech talks, whether we do a panel or one person talking about things such as automation and fly-by-wire. They share their safety technology expertise. It’s something. I am very proud of that. It’s different than the car companies. We don’t compete with each other on safety. We help each other with safety initiatives. That’s a cool thing to see.
Talk a little about some of the tough battles you’ve faced, such as the financial downfall in the late 2000s.
That was a very concerning time. The economy was roaring, and we had people flipping airplane positions right and left. It was the go-go days. And then it came crashing down.. We had this huge ramp-up in production capability and personnel; then, all of a sudden, we had a couple of years of major painful layoffs. It’s very dramatic.
And then we had the auto execs come to town, and we have all of this craziness up on Capitol Hill wanting to punish the industry. Some of our biggest successes are bad things that didn’t happen. That was one of them, working on the Hill to try to defeat some initiatives that would’ve really penalized our industry.
There have been other things like the small aircraft security program, where you weren’t even going to be able to carry things like golf clubs onboard the aircraft out of fear that somebody could bludgeon somebody with them. I mean, that was a major fight.
Then came the pandemic. We sent everybody home and then the government says now essential personnel need to come back. We had to figure out how we would do that. I remember some of our companies were making ventilators for the first month, and all of a sudden, everybody saw that business aviation was having an uptick. All of a sudden, we have to keep producing aircraft despite our supply chain collapsing at the time. They shared their practices. If one company found a source of semiconductors somewhere, they shared it with other companies. What industry does that?
 
Another issue that seems to be ever-present is user fees/privatization.
Right. And especially in this current period of trying to get the government out of certain functions. But I have been very happy about the rhetoric that’s coming out of the administration There isn’t a whole lot of appetite for privatizing the system. It is getting enough controllers out there and then giving them the technology they need. That’s exactly where we all want to go. And also, no one in industry wants to see a privatization fight because they know it would consume all the air in the room, and we would not get anywhere at tackling the problems. In my 20 years, I have never seen the industry so aligned as it is right now. I hope that the Congress and the administration recognize the power of that.
 
What do you see in the future that might be the challenges? On the flip side, what are you walking away from that you’re proud of and see going well?
I’ll start with that last one first. What I'm most proud of is the fact that I’m leaving Jim Viola with the best staff that you could ever ask for taking over an association. I’m also proud that we have a very supportive board. You couldn’t ask for a better board.
My concerns, starting in Europe, really lie in this anti-business jet mindset that they have. Like the taxes in France, they’re not going back into aviation. It’s not even trying to disguise it as green. Why aren't they taxing all the yachts? It’s discriminatory, and it’s crazy.
And then the lack of the embrace by the European Commission on book-and-claim concerns me. We’ve got to get the European Commission to understand that if you’re going to make sustainable aviation fuel something that’s used, you need to encourage people to use it
. And then, I’m very concerned about the tariffs in the U.S. triggering retaliatory tariffs by the Canadians, the Mexicans, and the Europeans. I just cannot see anything good that’s going to come out of this. It will hurt the industry.
The supply chain’s not getting any better. A lot of it has to do with a lot of the mom and pops have gotten out of the business. It’s easier to supply to other industries than it is to aviation because there is many more rules to it.
I’m concerned about the FAA. The FAA seems to look at things that don’t need to be changed. One example is the FAA promised not to use ADS-B for enforcement. Now they’ve decided to do that. They’ve reneged on a promise, and what’s that causing? People are pulling the circuit breaker on their ADS-B now. That’s counter to safety.
 
What’s ahead for Pete Bunce?
Giving back to [my wife] Patty for everything she’s given me and spending my time with her, but also spending my time with my son, who was injured pretty badly in Iraq. I’m going to fly a lot and instruct—go back to basics there. I’m going to serve on some boards but go back to Wisconsin.
 
This article has been edited and condensed. To read the full interview, please visit ainonline.com.
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