National Air Transportation Association Continued from page 23 NATA’s Presidents William A. Ong Leslie H. Bowman Frank Kingston Smith Thomas S. Miles Lawrence L. Burian James K. Coyne Thomas L. Hendricks training and testing program, es- tablished in 2000 for FBOs, ground service firms, and corporate flight departments, is considered the indus- try standard. Starting with a series of training videos purchased from the Aviation Training Institute, Safety 1st training transitioned to an on-line, self-paced interactive format in 2008. NATA Legislative & Regulatory Advocate For NATA, the second decade of the 21st century presented even more change. With Jim Coyne’s retire- ment in 2012, Tom Hendricks was named the association’s seventh president and regulatory and legis- lative priorities continued to pres- ent challenges and opportunities. For example, NATA and other aviation stakeholders, continue to work with the House Transportation and Senate Commerce Committees to incorporate ideas in upcoming FAA reauthorization legislation that will support the mission of aviation busi- nesses. In that regard, the association continues to oppose efforts by the airlines to create a user-fee-based Air Traffic Control (ATC) corpora- tion, citing operational risks, po- tential loss of access to airports and airways, and the economic burdens it will impose on general aviation. In March 2012, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued an opinion that it could apply the 7.5 percent federal excise tax imposed on air carrier passengers to aircraft management services, particularly when the aircraft is also used in Part 135 on-demand operations. To com- bat that, NATA established a direct dialog with the IRS and the Treasury 24 Department to educate them about how the aircraft management busi- ness model works. As a result, in June 2013, the IRS suspended assessments on the management services, putting on hold any actions to levy fees or fines. The IRS, however, continues to consider the facts and circumstances surrounding the issue, and NATA continues to participate in efforts to resolve the issue administratively. At the same time, the association is pur- suing a second track toward a perma- nent solution, developing bi-partisan legislation in Congress that would prohibit imposition of the excise tax on aircraft owner services provided by aircraft management companies. NATA also actively participates on important FAA-initiated avia- tion rulemaking committees (ARCs). NATA and many members actively participated on these commit- tees, often serving in key leader- ship roles. The ARCs—Air Carrier Training, Consistency of Regulatory Interpretation, Flightcrew Member Training Hours Requirement Review, and Pilot Records Database—all heav- ily focused on charter operations. Briefly, the Air Carrier Training ARC is evaluating pilot training and the interaction between carriers and simulator training facilities for all commercial carriers with the goal of streamlining the training approval process and improving standardiza- tion in training procedures. The Pilot Records Database ARC examined the steps necessary to create a central pilot records database to be main- tained by the FAA. By establishing a single repository for pilot back- ground data, it is intended to elimi- nate the time-consuming process of Aviation Business Journal | 4th Quarter 2015
