1 March 2007
When Jack Pelton – president, chairman and CEO of Cessna – made a speech to the University of Northern Colorado recently, he didn’t hold many punches.
The question of user fees – which the FAA wishes to impose on general aviation in order to fund a radical restructure of the US air traffic system – was uppermost on his mind (although there are other ways in which FAA is proposing to garner extra income from GA). It is this, more than anything else, which will harm GA in the USA in the coming years. “General aviation will decline due to higher operating costs,” says Pelton.
He cites Europe as an example of where this type of has been tried, to the detriment of GA. The user fees policy is driven by the airlines: “the airlines will exert more control over the use of airspace as they have in Europe, and GA will be relegated to only the super-rich owners or companies.”
“Instead of growing to meet global demand andetaining our national leadership in general aviation, we will retreat and ultimately lose out to Japan, to Brazil, to Canada,” he added. He gave some very good examples of why user fees were unnecessary and would not work as planned.
Elsewhere, Pelton noted that Cessna’s exports were already rising: whereas traditionally the company had sold 70 percent into the home market and 30 percent abroad, the balance was now closer to 50:50.
“Businesses in all parts of the globe – but primarily in Europe, in Central and South America – are slowing recognizing the economic benefits of business aircraft and making decisions to join the trend, although Europe would grow much faster were it not for the oppressive user fees, landing fees and overflight fees levied on all aircraft, regardless of how they are used.”
He went on to add a note of doubt about growth in China – although Cessna have sold a <a href=”newsfeed.php?artnum=446″>large batch of aircraft to China recently</a>, almost half the Chinese bizjet (which numbers 43) are Cessna Citations. It will take some time, he believes, for China to reach the sort of business level which is commonly expected of it.
Other topics touched on by Pelton include improved technology – which should be used to increase safety, not for technology’s sake. HUD technology is available, but “Essentially, technology can take us to airplanes with no windows that will fly just as safely as today’s aircraft. But what fun would that be? No – I’ll take the new technology for what it adds in safety of flight.”
He also spent some time talking about VLJs, and the contribution they will make to air travel in the coming years.
You can read the full speech <a href=”support_files/jack_pelton_colorado.pdf” target=”_blank”>here</a>.
