ATA-Oriented/One-Sided Story Contains Numerous
Inaccuracies
News/Analysis By James Richard Campbell, ANN
Editor-In-Chief
A Thursday morning USA Today/MSNBC story on funding for GA
airports has ignited a firestorm of reactive indignation from GA
persons, GA business industry leaders, and GA associations.
Factually inaccurate/incomplete, at best, the poorly documented
story seems deliberately aligned with ATA Uber-Boss James May's
continuing attacks on the General Aviation industry... and indeed,
only GA-opposed sources and quotes were used to paint a picture of
a GA industry that has little public value, is populated by persons
of privilege, and seems to suggest that the monies devoted to GA
would be better served by using it on airline interests,
instead.
Statements by AOPA staffers, to ANN, confirm that they did
attempt to reach out to USA Today prior to the publication of this
story, and ultimately conducted a 30 minute interview, though
they were subsequently NOT quoted in the USA Today story and
only minimally quoted in the ATA-heavy NBC piece.
Some see this as the first shot across the bow by ATA in their
aggressive and continual attempts to pillage the GA industry by
suggesting the redirecting of GA funding to airline interests
by painting GA as wasteful, inconsequential, used by a priveleged
few, and not deserving of the public funding it receives. In the
meantime, this myopic position has been put forth by an
industry that continues to display some of the most wasteful
practices in the business community, and whose customer service rep
has degraded to a point where most airline's concept of customer
service is laughed off as, at best, abysmal. ATA has been lobbying
the media heavily with inflammatory statements about their woes,
and the evils of GA, and seems to be targeting media outlets that
depend heavily on airline ad revenue to extend their propaganda
throughout the general media sphere.
Sadly; this continued series of attacks finds little favor among
the pilots, service personnel, and other aviation personnel who
came up the aviation ranks via sport, general and business aviation
and not only understand the value of non-airline aviation, but have
personally been a part of the amazing ways that GA continues to
impact the nation.
"Disgusting," is how one Airline Captain ranks the ATA's stand
against GA in an email to ANN over the ATA statements quoted by USA
Today. Other statements on the topic have used "colorful" language
that we choose not to reproduce in this publication.
This appears to be the first salvo in the wave of attacks
against GA by the ATA, under the direction of President Jim May
(pictured above)... whose documented misdirection,
inaccuracies, and false statements have plagued GA for a number of
years. As the airline industry continues to see its fortunes
subside, and problems mount, GA keeps on being targeted in an
attempt to redirect public anger over bad service, out-of-control
fees, late arrivals and departures and the growing number of
stories that involve systemic incompetence or passengers held
hostage on airliners seeking gate access or departure clearances.
Also, since the airline industry seems no closer to resolving
its many short-comings; industry pundits (including those of us at
ANN) strongly suspect that the most recent attacks on GA are but
the beginning of a renewed "CYA" exercise by ATA.
Stay tuned... we expect more on this topic... and soon.
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