Piper Aircraft president and CEO James Bass said that “much of the world is out to ground those of us who fly personal and private aircraft. He termed the current situation a “culture war” and said Washington is vilifying people in aviation and not looking at the facts, says an April 24 Aviation International News online report.
While he believes the recession will end soon, the effect of the U.S. government’s “assault” on general aviation will linger much longer, Bass said. He dubbed this “general aviation’s demonic age.”
Bass’s remarks, made April 21 at the Sun ‘n’ Fun Fly-In in Lakeland, Fla., were a biting criticism of government officials and media outlets that are spreading the off-base message that “private aircraft equal corporate excess…that’s the new equation, and Washington has made it a sound bite that no politician seems able to resist,” the report said.
According to Bass, businesses that rely on GA aircraft would “come to a halt” if their executives tried to use the airlines to conduct multiple trips on one day. He is urging everyone in the industry to fight back by writing letters to their representatives in Washington.
“We need to be as passionate in our resolve to save our industry as we are in our passion for aviation,” Bass concluded.
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