Mazzei Flying Service - NATA

The American Recession
May Be Over, but the
Struggles Continue for Aviation
By Eric R. Byer
By the time you read this
magazine, the government’s
announcement
that our economic
recession officially
ended last June will
be a couple of months old. While
the U.S. economy does appear
to be slowly improving, aviation
continues to struggle to exit from
the downturn. According to some
economics and industry experts,
it takes the aviation industry two
or three years to recover once a
recession has officially ended. If
that is indeed the case, and history
does bear this trend out, we could
be in for more rough sledding in
2011.
The economy is only one of the
many challenges we will face in
2011. The first challenge, which
could end up proving to be an
economic boost, would be Congress
finally passing a long-term
FAA reauthorization bill. While
current bills being considered by
Congress are far from perfect, the
investment in aviation infrastructure
and new technologies they
contain would clearly provide
an economic lift to the aviation
industry. The question remains:
Will the dicey political issues that
include DCA flight outside of the
perimeter rule and the FedEx
mess ever clear up?
The second challenge is the
release of the TSA’s revised proposed
rule for the Large Aircraft
Security Program. Although the
Aviation Business Journal | 4 th Quarter 2010
revised rule has not been released
in 2010 as anticipated, I think
there is a growing chance it will
be introduced in 2011. The revised
proposed rule has been mired in
the bureaucratic process for some
time now, worrying many industry
types. Whenever it is released
and whatever its makeup, a new
security regime is coming that
will certainly pose challenges, as
most new rulemakings do, for the
general aviation industry.
The third challenge is the
increasing incidence of states assessing
new taxes on operators.
Whether it is a new unitary tax,
property tax, or one of a handful
of creative fees that the state taxation
agencies dream up, the general
aviation community, apparently
one of the states’ top targets,
is now under a full-scale assault
by states strapped with growing
deficits and in desperate need of
generating new revenue. This issue
will be one of NATA’s greatest
challenges in 2011 and beyond.
There are certainly a number
of other issues confronting our
industry that also carry enormous
impacts. Whether it is the FAA’s
insistence on shoving a Part 121
flight and rest proposal down the
Part 135 community’s throat, air-
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ports continuing to look into offering
ground handling services and
restructuring lease agreements, or
the California legislature attempting
to burden the flight-training
community with unnecessary new
regulations, 2011 will surely be
another of the aviation industry’s
most challenging years.
Needless to say, NATA remains
ready to protect its members from
unnecessary new legislative and
regulatory burdens as our industry
digs out of the Great American
Recession.
Raise Your Voice, Get Involved
As the Voice of Aviation Business, NATA’s focus is to protect the
interests of aviation businesses through aggressive and professional
representation. To get involved, call
(800) 808-6282 or visit www.nata.aero.
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