Say what you will, but these days Cessna CEO and C-195
aficionado, Jack Pelton, is a man with a mission. Sick and tired of
watching an industry he loves victimized by misinformation and
prejudice, Jack has come out swinging... and the man knows how to
take on his foes. At the recently concluded AEA 2009 Convention and
tradeshow, Jack was a featured speaker. He spoke to attendees about
“Weathering the Storm,” and received a very positive
response from an admittedly sympathetic crowd.
But its the Cessna campaign to fight the anti-aviation hysteria
around the nation that has the rest of aviation applauding Pelton.
Regardless of how you feel about corporate America right now, in
this age of federal (taxpayer-funded) bailouts and billions of
dollars allocated for "stimulus" funding... more than a few in the
aviation industry have been disgusted these past few months over
how business aviation has been portrayed by lawmakers, pundits and
the general media as a whole.
A few weeks ago, the company announced a new marketing campaign
to address what it says is "misinformation" on the business use of
general aviation aircraft."
"We think it's time the other side of the story be told, and
that support be given to those businesses with the good judgment
and courage to use business aviation to not only help their
businesses survive the current financial crisis, but more quickly
forge a path toward an economic upturn," said Cessna Chairman,
President and CEO Jack J. Pelton. While one could argue business
jets have never been lovingly embraced by the public at large, the
image of 'corporate fatcats' traveling on lavish private aircraft
became harder to combat last year when CEOs of the Detroit Three
automakers opted to fly to Washington, DC to beg Congress for
bailout funds to save their companies. Lawmakers quickly seized on
the fact each had traveled to DC onboard his own corporate plane --
for the same meeting, and from the same airport -- to ask for a $25
billion loan.
Despite efforts by such entities as the National Business
Aviation Association to downplay that PR misfire, companies
responded to the public backlash against corporate jets by dumping
their planes onto an already-glutted resale market, cancelling
orders for new planes and closing down corporate flight
departments. Lost in the resulting tumult was the fact executives
use those aircraft as traveling offices, on which to conduct
business in time that might otherwise be wasted thumbing through
the SkyMall catalog on a commercial flight. (And never mind the
fact most of the same lawmakers who criticized those CEOs also
travel on private jets... including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who
commutes from her California home to DC on a government-supplied
Boeing 757 -- Ed.)
Perhaps recognizing now isn't the time to attempt to change the
public image of business aviation, Cessna's campaign instead
targets the executives who use corporate aircraft... in essence,
telling them to stand firm against that public outcry.
Pelton added general aviation contributes more than $150 billion
annually to the US economy and is one of the few remaining
industries that maintain a positive balance of trade with nearly 40
percent of the country's total 2007 production of $12 billion worth
of aircraft exported.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.16.24)
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