News

Private Aviation hits a road bump

The recession has angered public opinion and triggered a political fall-out against a high-end spending. This has hurt numerous industries, and as of late, the private aviation industry has been taking a beating.

Before the recession, the general aviation industry was enjoying a string of profits amidst a growth forecast of $300 billion worth of planes were going to be sold within the next ten years. However, those prospects quickly changed as the economic conditions steadily worsened.

According to a study by J.P. Morgan, the industry experienced a 19.3 percent cutback in business-flight hours from November onwards. This was further bloated by the automakers mishap in Washington.

As described by, Joe Sharkey of the New York Times, “That was when the three chief executives from the major American automakers used big corporate jets to fly from Detroit to Washington in November to beg for a taxpayer bailout. The business aircraft industry promptly went into free fall as the ensuing outcry clobbered it like a tornado.”

Now, the industry is seeking to fix the negative perception that has been saddled on the private jet. They are getting help from Kansas senator Sam Brownback, who spoke in behalf of private jet manufacturers last week. Brownback mentioned, it is time to “cool the overheated rhetoric on the use of business jets.”

Jim Schuster, chief executive at Hawker Beechcraft, was recently asked by Sharkey to describe the industry. Schuster answered, the industry is “Very bad; the worst we’ve seen. Just due to the economic circumstances, we’d laid off tens of thousands of people across the industry already. So the industry was in a very vulnerable position.”

He added, “The optics are one thing, but people don’t understand the effect the backlash is having on the U.S. general aviation industry, a great national asset.”

Schuster said that private jets are one of the country’s strongest exports. He was quick to point out that it is an industry that the US dominates and it produces high-paying jobs for hard-working Americans.

He also said that in some cases commercial flights are the better choice, but that goes both ways. “Some companies bought airplanes that exceed their needs,” mentioned Schuster. “When you’re flying a Gulfstream 550 from Detroit to Chicago, unless it’s packed full, it doesn’t make sense. But if you’re flying a G550 from New York to London to Paris to Trinidad and back, that airplane is absolutely invaluable.”