Right-sized companies with lean management teams increasingly depend on key technology, and the key transportation technology for these firms is business aviation. So said John Olcott, president of NBAA and Ed Bolen, president of GAMA, during Tuesday's joint press breakfast.

"The perception of business aviation has changed," Olcott said. "What was once seen as excess, now is seen as access. Business aviation is the right form of transportation for right sizing."

Business aviation has grown since the early 1990s, with more than 8,700 traditional flight departments operating today, an increase of more than 2,000 since l993, Olcott said. At the same time, use of air charter has expanded and the fractional ownership market has exploded.

Olcott and Bolen, though, are anything but complacent about reaching out to non-operators. "Seventy percent of companies with sales in excess of $50 million have never done an evaluation of business aviation," Olcott said.

"We've barely scratched the surface of this market," said Bolen.

Fractional ownership programs are an increasing concern for NBAA members, according to a recent survey by Hickman-Brown Opinion Research. While the results are still being tallied, Hickman-Brown reports that overall, members believe NBAA is doing a "good job," especially with respect to representing them on regulatory issues.

While 71% of members believe fractional ownership firms should be regulated under FAR Part 135, 87% of those same firms want to retain the non-commercial status privileges of time sharing, interchange and joint ownership agreements specified in FAR Part 91.501.

Olcott pointed out that FAR Part 91 turbine aircraft operations "have the best safety record in aviation"--thus there is no need to push fractionals into FAR Part 135 for safety purposes.
"Fractional ownership is not commercial transportation," added Bolen. "FAA should not use safety regulations to effect an economic outcome." In response to the growth of fractional ownership programs, FAA announced the formation of a Fractional Ownership Aviation Rule-Making Committee on October 6.

While Olcott said NBAA has "no guarantee" of being invited by FAA to join the committee, he favors lobbying for a "surgical removal" of fractionals from 91.501, instead of taking a meat-axe approach that could jeopardize the interchange, time sharing and joint ownership provisions of the regulations that are needed by FAR Part 91 operator members.

Both discussed the need to press for the elimination of ATC user fees. According to Olcott, general aviation operators, as "incremental users," are "paying our share" through existing excise taxes. He added that users aren't part of the free-standing FAA appropriation and reauthorization bills in Congress, but the general aviation fund contribution to FAA has been eliminated.

Bolen believes restoration of the general fund contribution is "top priority" because of the contribution that general aviation makes to the nation, especially regarding access to rural areas.