2015 NATA Aviation Business Roundtable Continued from page 47 State of the Industry Richard Aboulafia Vice President, Analysis Teal Group Corporation Air Traffic Control Reform: A Labor Perspective Paul Rinaldi, President National Air Traffic Controllers Association Captain Joe DePete, First Vice President Air Line Pilots Association, International NATCA President Paul Rinaldi and ALPA First Vice President Joe DePete also offered their insights and perspectives on the upcoming FAA reauthorization bill, including a discus- sion of corporatizing air traffic control. Rinaldi and DePete acknowledged the need for a more stable and predictable funding stream that allows for a system that is able to adapt to new technology in a rapidly changing environment. Rinaldi, however, acknowledged the challenges of user-fees noting that a system that “shrinks rural America is the last thing we want.” He further noted that stable funding doesn’t nec- essarily mean user-fees or that people pay more. DePete looked at the NAV CANADA model and saw no evidence of its scalability. Panelists also talked about their concerns with controller hiring and the future commercial pilot workforce. Richard Aboulafia, Vice President, Analysis at the Teal Group, discussed aircraft markets, business jet market performance trends, pre-owned business jet sale transactions, used jet availability, business aircraft deliveries and corporate prof- its, GDP year/year growth rates, U.S. business jet opera- tions per year, and business jet activity in world regions. Mr. Aboulafia told Roundtable participants “the market is recovering...as long as you stay in the U.S. and as long as you curb your enthusiasm, and don’t mind moving sideways for a while.” He pointed out that as in 2008, when large cabin jets in emerging markets were relatively promising, today’s “hope lies with a small/mid-sized cabin recovery, in North America.” He touched on a number of issues tied to the condition of the general aviation market, including the volatile fuel market, stagnant demand, and activity in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (commonly referred to as BRICS). Continued on page 51 “The market is recovering...as long as you stay in the U.S. and as long as you curb your enthusiasm, and don’t mind moving sideways for a while.” Richard Aboulafia, Teal Group Corporation Aviation Business Journal | 4th Quarter 2015 49
