Association Announces New No Plane No Gain Advocacy Tools Available For Industry

The Voting Membership of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) re-elected three directors during its 63rd Annual Meeting on October 20 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA. They are:

• Paul Anderson, vice president, UTFlight
• Jeffrey W. Lee, director, flight operations, IBM Corporation
• Douglas Schwartz, manager, global aviation services, Conoco Phillips

Paul Anderson is the vice president of UTFlight. Previously, he held several positions in a customer service role with UTC company Sikorsky Aircraft. Anderson graduated from West Point in 1981, and served for five years in the U.S. Army as a helicopter maintenance officer and pilot. He holds a private pilot's license for fixed-wing aircraft, as well as a helicopter ATP.

Past NBAA Chairman Jeff Lee is the director of flight operations for IBM Corporation, which he joined in 1980 as a copilot. He earned a B.S. in engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and was a USAF flight instructor from 1974 to 1980. Prior to joining the NBAA Board in 2001, he served first as vice chairman and then chairman of NBAA's Corporate Aviation Management Committee.

Doug Schwartz is manager of global aviation services at ConocoPhillips, where he is responsible for the oversight of aircraft scheduling, staffing and supervision, maintenance, and facilities management. Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Schwartz worked as vice president of flight operations & standards at TAG Aviation and as aviation director at AT&T. Before that, he worked for 25 years for FlightSafety International, the world's largest commercial aviation training company. Schwartz holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Vanderbilt University, and attended the University of Houston Graduate School of Business.

These directors' terms will conclude at the NBAA 66th Annual Meeting & Convention in 2013.

The association also unveiled new print and video advocacy tools to help those in the business aviation community explain the value of business    aviation to citizens, companies and communities across the country. The resources have been produced in conjunction with the No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, which is focused on educating policymakers and opinion leaders about the industry's many benefits.

"We want to keep the No Plane No Gain campaign's message relevant and fresh, and as part of that effort, we continue to develop resources to help people in the industry put forward the true face of business aviation with facts, well-grounded data and illustrative profiles to highlight its many benefits," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.

Bolen first pointed to a new study showing that small and mid-sized companies using business aviation achieved greater success in important measures of performance than comparable companies that do not use business aircraft. The study, conducted by NEXA Advisors, LLC, demonstrates that the enterprise value business aviation confers on Standard & Poor's 500 index companies also applies to S&P 600 small-cap companies. Bolen referenced a second new advocacy resource, NBAA's newly updated Business Aviation Fact Book, a comprehensive profile of the industry that provides real-world information and data about the industry from respected sources, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Commerce, General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and surveys of companies in the industry.

Additionally, Bolen noted, four new advocacy videos detail the rich history of business aviation, its role in supporting the nation's economy and transportation systems today, and its essential role in promoting job creation, helping companies succeed, providing transport to towns with little or no airline service, and supporting flights to help people and communities in times of crisis. The four new videos, available in DVD and online formats, include:

• Business Aviation: The Story of NBAA and the Industry, a video that chronicles the history of the business aviation community and details NBAA's work to support companies using business aircraft.
• Business Aviation Works, a presentation that shows how business aircraft benefit companies of all sizes, and help them achieve their business objectives.
• No Plane No Gain: An Industry Makes Its Voice Heard, a video detailing the progress of the industry's advocacy campaign, and explaining the actions individuals can take to contribute to the success of the program.
• Business Aviation's Airlift to Haiti, a documentary of the industry's work to support disaster-relief missions coordinated by people across the business aviation community to help victims of the earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti on January 12, 2010.

FMI: www.nbaa.org, www.noplanenogain.org