(July 6, 2011) Jet Linx – Last week President Obama repeatedly disparaged corporate jet owners and operators, apparently to make a case that current aircraft tax depreciation schedules for corporate jet aircraft and general aviation airplanes are too short. Numerous aviation organizations, including the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which Jet Linx is a participating member of, have mounted forceful responses to denounce the president’s plan as bad policy by putting the facts about business aviation in front of the news agencies.

Included among the news agencies contacted by the NBAA on behalf of the corporate jet aviation community are the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, CNBC, CNN, Congressional Quarterly, FOX News, MarketWatch Dow Jones, National Public Radio, National Journal, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The national media outlets have been receptive to the message about the importance of business aviation and how the president’s misrepresentations of the corporate jet industry are completely unfounded.

News stories contradicting the president:

• CNN aired a “truth check” about the president’s remarks, in which I noted that business aircraft are “products that are manufactured in the United States, maintained in the United States, and, as any small town mayor will tell you, are critical to the future of a lot of our small towns and rural communities without good airline service.”
• National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” interviewed NBAA’s Senior Vice President, Communications Dan Hubbard, who reminded listeners that the president’s remarks “smacked of cynical politics.”
• In an interview aired on CNBC, Hubbard of NBAA said, “This is a president who either doesn’t know or simply doesn’t care what all is involved in business aviation, which is the manufacture and use of these airplanes all across the United States. This is an industry that employs about 1.2 million people. It generates about $150 billion a year in economic activity for the country.”

Jet Linx, a private jet card membership and aircraft management company, joined the fight against President Obama’s aircraft tax policy by participating in the NBAA letter campaign to stand up against the president’s position. You too can join the Jet Linx corporate jet aircraft tax policy fight by using the NBAA’s online Contact Congress resource (click here). This easy-to-use online advocacy tool has been effectively utilized to inform lawmakers of business aviation issues in previous legal battles and we encourage you to use it to help us oppose the president’s corporate jet aircraft tax policy for business aviation.