Business Aviation Comes Together In Orlando, FL -- Part 2

With the end of the 2009 NBAA Convention, the BizAv community has had a chance to take stock of the year that has passed and evaluate their future prospects. While attendance and participation were obviously at lower levels than in year's past, the community showed that it is willing to do what it must to survive, and is seeking new opportunities and business venues as aggressive as the current economic climate allows.

This year's NBAA Opening Session featured four primary speakers... each with something to say that had an impact on the BizAv community. This year's roster included FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt; Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard; Tom Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and Golfer and Business Aviation Advocate Arnold Palmer. 

Of course, the issue on everyone's mind was the economy... and who better than the Publisher of Forbes, a pilot himself, to talk about that issue and the hopes of a recovery. Rich Karlgaard, who flies a Cirrus for business purposes, compared the current recession to the one of 1973–1974, he suggested that the recovery from the current economic malaise could be similar to the recovery of the mid-1970s, which was characterized by inflation, stagflation and a jobless recovery.

However, Karlgaard said there could be good news: Recessions tend to weed out weak competitors, and the 1970s were notable for the emergence of entrepreneurial companies such as Microsoft, FedEx and Southwest Airlines. Plus, he thinks that the global growth that continues today in places such as China, Brazil and India is "not going to stop. There is plenty of reason to be hopeful," he concluded.

FMI: www.forbes.com, www.faa.org, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, www.twitter.com/aeronews