Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak to about 2000 businesswomen at a Women Business Enterprise conference in Las Vegas. I had been assigned the topic of responding quickly to clients’ needs and having a faster speed to market. What more perfect application for the benefits of private aviation could there be?
I knew that many people in my audience had never thought about the benefits of flying privately before, but I was surprised at the incredibly positive response to my speech. A number of business owners had flown in a private plane for a special event or as a guest of someone else but had never thought about the return on investment for time spent more wisely than in the security line at the nearest major airport.
The data I used to support my claims is from a 2009 survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the co-sponsors of the No Plane No Gain campaign. I told them business aviation serves 10 times the number of U.S. airports served by the commercial airlines and that, on average, 92 percent of the most innovative companies, most admired brands and best places to work use business aircraft.
[ulp id=’xkA7bnsbSMSAnwAm’]
I also let them know that 59 percent of companies using business aviation as a competitive differentiator had fewer than 500 employees and almost all companies putting their plane to work as a business asset enjoy far greater profitability than companies that don’t use one or more aircraft in their normal course of business.
Within the industry, we know how much easier and productive life can be with a private aircraft at our businesses’ disposal. We understand the benefits to the economies of developed countries all over the world. We have seen firsthand the life-saving applications of small, nimble aircraft in natural disasters. Like thousands of other people, we earn a great living in general aviation. Why aren’t more of us out there evangelizing the heart of our industry to those business people who don’t already know the benefits? Don’t we owe it to ourselves and each other?