Aviation Business Journal 3rd Quarter 2012 - 17

James K. Coyne
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I really think that it has helped to save lives. There have been a lot of other accomplishments, big and small. I’m proud of our reaction after 9-11. I very quickly called the aviation leaders in government and Congress. With agreement from the Secretary of Transportation we got all the charter planes flying as soon as we possibly could after the airspace shutdown ended. In fact, the very first planes to get back in the air were from Part 135 charter operators. I think that showed a lot of people the importance of our industry as a component of the air transportation system in times of crisis. I was very proud of that, and I’m also very proud of the way the general aviation community has been increasingly recognized in Congress. We played a role in the creation of the Congressional General Aviation Caucus, and we now have hundreds of members of Congress who know how important general aviation is to the economy of our country.

You haven’t exactly been known for shying away from political positions or from wielding the power of the pen in strongly-worded letters to political leaders at all levels of government.
You’re right about that! And that reminds me of another thing I’m quite proud of: In 2009 I had a very special opportunity to compose a letter to President Obama, trying to get him turned around on his criticisms of corporate aviation and private aviation. The letter went viral on the Internet. I think it really had an impact in showing people that we can’t just sit here and let the President

of the United States, in his State of the Union address, condemn every corporate user of an airplane, while, ironically, he has come to be the biggest user of Air Force One in history. The simple act of writing that letter and watching the ensuing response was probably the most fun I’ve had in 18 years on the job. There have been a lot of other great moments, and I think we’ve really raised the perception of general aviation in Washington over the years. During the previous administration, we took our NATA leadership over to a private meeting at the home of Vice President Cheney, a long-time friend, and that was a wonderful experience for our members. We’ve had visits to everything from the White House to the Supreme Court and other special places around Washington. It’s been great fun to take our members to Congress and help them become an instrumental part of our advocacy team. I think that the whole reason aviation has been so successful, and especially general aviation, is that we as an industry value making face-toface connections, and we have the resources, the ability to hop in a plane

and get important people together, to make those connections happen. We’ve played a really important part in building these connections, and it’s a fitting function because connecting people is what our whole industry does every day.

Relatively early on you helped establish the annual NATA Day on the Hill event, sending NATA members and others from the general aviation community directly to visit with their Members of Congress and arming them with talking points. Are there any results you can point to that have directly come out of those activities?
Absolutely! We’ve had scores of legislative successes where tax policy has been changed or regulations have been directly written or amended because of those interactions. One of the biggest ones has been the success that we have had in preventing user fees from being imposed on our industry. We have successfully argued for 18 steady years that the way to tax general aviation users is through the fuel tax: It’s efficient, it’s easy to collect, and it does not create an inyour-face disincentive for people to
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Aviation Business Journal | 3rd Quarter 2012

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Aviation Business Journal 3rd Quarter 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aviation Business Journal 3rd Quarter 2012
