The 65th NBAA convention kicked off this morning, with NBAA president Ed Bolen relaunching the No Plane No Gain campaign to press the benefits of business aviation to the economy.
While the former advertising used celebrities like Arnold Palmer, Warren Buffett and Neil Armstrong - the convention is dedicated to the former astronaut who died earlier this year - the latest campaign features "ordinary" business aviation professionals, whose companies rely on aircraft.
Despite controversy around comments by President Barack Obama about corporate jets in the second presidential debate, Bolen told the opening session the campaign was winning hearts and minds where it mattered, with increasing numbers of state governors and elected officials pledging their support.
However, he stressed: "Our industry is not out of the woods," adding that "some of our most challenging work lies ahead of us".
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The industry has seen several pieces of legislation in its favor, such as finalizing the FAA reauthorization bill with no user fees and approval of export-import financing and a pilot's bill of rights.
However, still on the table are several issues, includng the EU emissions trading system, which is set to be implemented at the start of 2013.
Meanwhile, NBAA played down suggestions that the weather in northeast states - which has shut airports and other transportation systems - would badly affect attendance at this year's show. "We are in touch with convention hotels and they aren't reporting any significant fall-off in their registrations," said spokesman Dan Hubbard.
Source: Flight Daily News
