Chris Finnoff, president and CEO of Pilatus Business Aircraft, will not mind flying home commercial from Atlanta. "We come here to sell airplanes," he said "and every year, touch wood, we have sold our display aircraft. For us NBAA is a very important place to be. There was a time when our market in North America was 100% corporate, and even with the new commercial operations rules, the business market still takes 70% of our sales here--and North America represents nearly 80% of our worldwide market."

"Today we are handing over the seventh PC-12 to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police," Finnoff said. "With their PC-12s the 'Mounties' have replaced four Twin Otters, two King Airs, a Citation II, a Westwind and a JetRanger.

"No-one else can offer an aircraft like ours, an aircraft that can fly off a rough unprepared strip and then go for 2,000 miles."