Setting the Record Straight: NBAA Corrects Media’s Misreporting on Bizav and the FAA’s Air Traffic Reductions
/As the FAA’s government shutdown-driven air traffic management program goes into effect, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is responding quickly to set the record straight with a number of news outlets that are publishing the allegation that business aviation is exempt from the program.
The claim is untrue, and a new NBAA “Just the Facts” sheet, sent to dozens of national and local news outlets, highlights the fact that general aviation is fully included in the FAA’s traffic reductions, and in some instances the restrictions for general aviation are more severe.
Equally important, NBAA’s fact-check document details the true facts about business aviation operations, the sector’s value to society and the industry’s continuing pursuit of mandatory and voluntary means to ensure business aviation is part of the solution to the challenges posed in the current environment. Below is NBAA’s “Just the Facts” document in its entirety.
Just the Facts:
Companies Using Business Aviation Are Included in the FAA’s Shutdown-Driven Traffic-Management Changes
Citing air traffic controller shortages, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) this week has begun to implement an aviation system-wide traffic reduction program in locations across the U.S.
As the program gets underway, some sources are alleging that business aviation – a part of the non-airline, general aviation segment – has been exempted from the plan. That claim is untrue, and the facts are these:
General aviation is fully included in the FAA’s traffic reductions, and in some instances the restrictions for general aviation are more severe.
General aviation routinely participates in traffic-flow initiatives that ensure the equitable management of aircraft among all segments in the aviation system.
General aviation typically uses separate airports away from the large airline hubs. These charts illustrate the contrast between the mostly small airports routinely used by general aviation versus the busiest hub airports used by the large airlines.
General aviation accounts for only a single-digit percentage of traffic at the airports in focus under the FAA’s traffic-management initiative. For example, general aviation is only 1-3% of traffic at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Denver International Airport (DEN), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and other large hub airports.
General aviation has the flexibility to utilize airports at various times throughout any given day, providing aviation system traffic planners a means of flexibility in smoothing operational flows.
General aviation is essential to companies in small towns and rural areas that have little or no airline service. Of the 5,000 public-use airports across the country, only a few dozen have daily airline service – general aviation can and typically does utilize the small community airports in America’s aviation system.
The vast majority of companies that use business aircraft are small and mid-size enterprises.
General aviation is an industry that creates 1.3 million American jobs and generates $340 billion in economic activity each year.
NBAA is urging business aircraft operators to continue avoiding the nation’s busiest commercial-service airports and incorporate flexibility – a hallmark of business aviation – into their travel plans. NBAA is also part of an industry coalition calling on Congress to reopen the government.
By contrast, the big airlines rely on hub-and-spoke operations that concentrate hundreds of daily flights into the nation’s top 30 busiest airports.
Simply put, business aviation is a critical transportation link for communities across the country, an incremental user of the nation’s aviation system, and not a primary cause of delays. Equally important, the entrepreneurs and companies relying on business airplanes are a full partner in several voluntary initiatives to minimize the sector’s already small footprint.
“While business aviation is fully included in the FAA’s traffic reductions, we know that our sector will continue to pursue mandatory and voluntary means to ensure we are part of the solution to the challenges posed in the current environment,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.