Just as North American business jet manufacturers are cutting production and laying off staff, the European Parliament has published a study recommending that the European Union should take its entire general aviation industry seriously for the first time.
To say this far-sighted proposal is a surprise is an understatement. Europeans are not accustomed to seeing Strasbourg being friendly to any section of the aviation industry. The converse is normally true.
By contrast, in the USA - following the perceived gaffe made by the chiefs of Ford and General Motors when they chose to fly in company business jets to Washington to plead for billions of dollars in taxpayer support for their beleaguered businesses - corporate and business aviation is having to keep its head down. It will probably have to do that until the storm of public outrage over the behaviour and excessive remuneration of financial industry senior executives finally dies.
In this column in the 20-26 January issue we observed that this mood in the USA "rapidly turned into a witch-hunt against all operators of business aircraft". So, at a time like this, it is particularly heartening to see clear-headedness at EU government level about how important general aviation as a whole is to Europe's businesses and its society.
What Strasbourg has done is to recognise how politically and infrastructurally neglected GA in Europe has always been and how, if action is not taken, it faces being totally stifled by a combination of excessive regulation that was designed for the mass public transport sector, and lack of access to increasingly busy and restricted small airports.
This is not only about business aviation, however important it is. It is about air ambulances, police helicopters and agricultural aircraft. It is about the entire pilot training industry, without which all sectors of aviation would be grounded for lack of drivers. It is about oil support helicopter operators and ad hoc charter companies that meet unforeseen requirements for instant air transport. It includes search and rescue - increasingly performed by contractors rather than the military. Finally, GA is about leisure flying, an experience that should be available to anyone with the imagination to aspire to it.
This industry develops high-level skills, supports business and society, and creates skilled manufacturing jobs. Well done Strasbourg. Now the European Commission and EU member states have to deliver.
Source: Flight International
