ISTAT Jetrader - Autumn 2021 - 37

growth in Asia. It's no surprise that
the next ISTAT expansion was to have
annual conferences in Asia. The first
was a seminar in Beijing in 2011 that
attracted 226 participants. In 2017,
748 people were hosted in Hong Kong.
In the spirit of International-STAT, we
began to hold forums in Latin America
(essentially mini conferences), which
started in Panama in 2015 with 158
attendants, followed by Bogota and
Lima, with a record crowd of 249 in
2019 in Buenos Aires.
My Introduction to
ISTAT Events
Personally, my first meeting was in
1992. I was sitting in my office in
Long Beach, California, when I got a
call from Steve Fortune, who was, at
that time, the president of ISTAT. He
told me that he was at a meeting in
San Francisco and had a big problem.
Their lunch speaker canceled at the
last moment that morning. Could I
fly to San Francisco International
Airport, get to the hotel and give a
presentation? I asked about the subject
I was supposed to talk about. He told
me that their no-show speaker was
an astronaut, so basically whatever I
wanted to talk about was fine. I made
the trip and told the audience that I
was one of the astronauts they had
read about in The National Enquirer (a
gossip magazine) who went on a secret
mission into space. I then proceeded
to talk about our economic future. I
enjoyed the crowd, the interaction with
the audience and the atmosphere at
the event. A few years later, I started
attending ISTAT conferences regularly,
though never again pretending I was an
astronaut on a secret mission.
Overall, the meetings are
mainly about exchanging views
and information. And bonding. And
playing golf. These are elements
of the conferences where I have a
comparative disadvantage. Since I do
not play golf, am not great at immediate
bonding and tolerate alcohol though do
not enjoy it too much, I concentrated
my time on attending presentations
and listening to experts and business
leaders. I am positive that every one
of the meetings I attended resulted in
many deals that changed the face and
future of our industry. Since I attended
not as a decision-maker but rather as
a subject expert, I cannot comment
on the deals accomplished at these
meetings. I can, though, mention a few
examples where the future of aviation
was affected by information given to
the audience in presentations.
History in the Making
The most pronounced memory I
have of a presentation affecting
history was one given by Steve
Udvar-Hazy in March 2006. For
those who do not remember, Steve
founded the first successful leasing
company (International Lease Finance
Corporation (ILFC)) in 1973, which grew
tremendously and, for many years, was
the largest in the market. Separately,
managed to sell over 1,000 units before
the first plane even flew.
Airbus desperately needed a counter
and launched a new plane called
the A350 with an authority to offer
in December 2004 and some orders
announced at the Paris Air Show in June
2005. It was basically the same frame
as the A330 but with new engines and
composite materials. At the March
2006 ISTAT meeting, John Leahy, the
legendary head of Airbus' sales and
a man who sold more than a trillion
dollars' worth of planes in his long and
very distinguished career, gave his
superb sales pitch for the A350. John,
who was not only a supreme salesman
but also a great speaker, presented
the new A350 to the audience as a
fantastic new product. It was a very
solid plane but clearly evolutionary, not
revolutionary. As always, John gave a
great presentation. He was followed
by Steve, who was one of the most
important potential customers for new
products. Steve dropped a bombshell. In
The most pronounced memory I have of a
presentation affecting history was one given by Steve
Udvar-Hazy in March 2006.
in 2004, Boeing launched a new small
widebody aircraft called the B787. As it
was launched, it created a huge interest
in the industry. This was a time when it
appeared that Airbus was in the driver's
seat with the launch of the world's
largest aircraft, the A380, which
basically killed the long-term future of
Boeing's cash cow, the B747. The A380
was seen as a potential huge success.
When Boeing launched the B787,
airlines and lessors were immediately
in love with it, and the market saw
the product as a way for Boeing to
reclaim its industry leadership. Boeing
his usual, professional and soft-spoken
way, he told the audience that the
A350, the way it was designed, will be
a decent product but will maybe capture
a quarter of the existing market. Airbus
would need to dramatically improve the
plane. He said at that time, " We're not
interested in a Band-Aid reaction to
the 787. "
One of the attendees, Dominic
Gates, a well-known (and future Pulitzer
Prize winner) aviation correspondent
from the Seattle Times, immediately
published the ILFC reaction to the
new A350. He also interviewed at the
Jetrader * AUTUMN 2021 * 37
ISTAT Jetrader - Autumn 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ISTAT Jetrader - Autumn 2021
