What is Business Aviation?
Business aviation, as members of the Subcommittee well know, is an FAA-defined term. According to the FAA, business aviation is the use of any general aviation aircraft – piston or turbine – for a business purpose. Eighty-five percent of the companies that utilize business aviation in the United States are small or mid-size. And surveys show that the senior executive is only on board the airplane on about 15 percent of the flights. Business aviation is used by companies to do things like visit multiple destinations in a single day; move teams of employees to locations with little or no commercial airline service; transport products that are too big to fit in an overhead bin and too sensitive to be checked; discuss proprietary information en route without fear of eavesdropping; stay connected with the home office as they manage a difficult situation; or to stay flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances. Let me illustrate this point with two examples: • First, consider MacNeil
