Local Companies Flock to Private Aviation Conference

This year’s National Business Aviation Association convention had a fall off in attendance and exhibitors but was no less valuable for those who came to Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., last week. Convention organizers anticipated an attendance in the 20,000 range with 91 percent of the exhibitors from 2008 returning to take part this year. But on the first day alone there were 22 percent fewer people out on the convention floor when compared to 2008, according to BCA ShowNews. From the greater Valley area came about two dozen companies, some of which have been attending the show for years. Fixed-base operators were joined by charter and aircraft management firms, and aviation parts and services suppliers. One Valley exhibitor, however, pointed out that more vendors than attendees were stopping by his booth. The British Petroleum exhibit put Maguire Aviation and Castle & Cooke Aviation Services in close proximity to each other at a time when the two are engaged in a lawsuit. Long-time Van Nuys Airport charter firm Clay Lacy Aviation used the show to announce its selection as a dealer for Rockwell Collins, developer and manufacturer of aviation electronics and communications products, and the completion of a new hangar facility in Seattle. Avjet Corp., based at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, meanwhile, inked a deal with Bank of America on more favorable financing terms on purchases and leases of large-cabin business jets. Antenna manufacturer Sensor Systems Inc. has been in attendance at the convention for 34 years and the one year it missed (2005) was due to Hurricane Katrina having destroyed that year’s host city, New Orleans. The Chatsworth company serves the commercial, military and business aviation industries. When one industry has been down the other two have often been able to pick up the slack. But the current recession was different, said marketing head Dave Brooks. In the midst of the economic slump came the change in presidential administrations that slowed down military spending as budgets went under review. Sensor Systems makes antennas for Cessna, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, and Boeing – the company for which it made an all-metal antenna in 1961. The aircraft giant’s 787 Dreamliner will have a dozen Sensor Systems antennas. One new product is a solid aluminum antenna that can take 1 million volts delivered in a lightning strike. On board Wi-fi has opened up a new market as well because aircraft had not needed antennas operating in the 2.4 megahertz to 2.8 megahertz range before, Brooks said. “The things we do that are innovative would have more to do with keeping up with radios and what they are capable of,” Brooks said. “If they don’t change, we don’t need to change.” In another area of the convention, representatives with HRD Aero Systems were busy with a steady stream of attendees, helped out by the booth’s location near HondaJet and Bombardier. Valencia-based HRD sells, repairs and overhauls vital safety equipment and has branched out into crew training. “We have the things you have to have because it’s the law but we hope you never have to use them,” said Jeannie Sweeny, the company’s director of sales for the northeast United States. Attending the convention for the first time was FuelerLinx, a Van Nuys-based start-up that developed software for aircraft owners to compare fuel prices based on location or supplier. The NBAA recommends that owners compare prices from at least six suppliers and its research has found price differences of up to 40 cents at the same fixed-base operator. Users of the FuelerLinx software can do better than that price. “We’re finding more than that,” said Suzanne Moller, the vice president of business development. “We’re finding a $1 (difference).” FuelerLinx used the convention to announce its partnership with Computing Technologies for Aviation that allows its fuel pricing software to be used with CTA’s flight scheduling software. Sessions Still bruised from the beating the business aviation industry’s image took earlier this year, the NBAA put an emphasis at this year’s convention on the value of corporate jets and flight departments. Education sessions included “Introduction to Documenting and Demonstrating the Value of Business Aviation to Your Company” and “Putting Business Aviation to Work for Your Travel Needs.” On the opening day of the three-day convention, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and General Aviation Manufacturers Association President and CEO Peter Bunce recounted the strides made for the industry since launching the “No Plane, No Gain” campaign in February and what new programs are coming. “For opinion leaders and policy makers to (criticize) our industry to then stand up and say put my name next to general aviation, that’s a long way from where we were,” Bolen said. The woes for the business aviation industry began late last year when the heads of the Big Three flew by private jet for an appearance before lawmakers on Capitol Hill to lobby for federal bailout funds. The bad image then snowballed from there with corporate aircraft portrayed as an unnecessary expense at a time when employers were shedding jobs by the thousands. Lost in this populist backlash was the benefits of private aviation to business – the access to areas without commercial air service; the ability of executives to visit multiple locations in a single day; the efficient use of travel time to get work done, Bunce said. NBAA and GAMA then joined together for the “No Plane, No Gain” campaign that began making their case to lawmakers, and taking out print and media ads. In the eight months since, the General Aviation Caucus in the House has attracted 70 members, while the caucus for the Senate has 15 members. Seventy mayors from 15 states wrote a letter to President Barack Obama stressing the importance of the jobs created by business aviation. At the convention, Nexa Advisors released a report on how use of corporate jets help shareholder value; and NBAA announced an online tool at the “No Plane, No Gain” website to determine value of private jets for business, and a series of print and TV ads featuring golfing great Arnold Palmer touting the benefits of owning a private jet. Dealing with the media An afternoon session on Oct. 20 titled “Getting You Into the News, Keeping You Out of the News” was just too intriguing to pass up. Scott Sobel, a former print and television reporter who now works in media relations and crisis management, never asked if there were any reporters in the full room but I still made sure to take notes discretely and cover my convention badge identifying me as press with my tie. Dealing with the media, Sobel said, was all about control and while total control was not possible there were ways for aviation companies to give themselves some control when the press comes calling. Companies need to have a message and stick to it, Sobel said, and the more different ways to get out the story – print, electronic, photos, online – the more control a company will have over how it’s told. It’s also a wise policy to make the time investment to get to know reporters covering aviation on a regular basis and to build up credibility that can pay off when less than desirable news happens. As the media loves a good “David vs. Goliath” storyline and will always side with David, aviation companies – or any company for that matter – can be vulnerable when put into the Goliath position. To illustrate this, Sobel used a clip on the use of private jets by the chiefs of the Big Three when they appeared in Washington last year. The lesson from that fiasco: their silence on why the used the jets was the worst mistake they could make. “If you are going to put yourself into that position, you should have a way to mitigate it,” Sobel said. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]