At NATA Event, NBAA Leaders Underscore Business Aviation Value

November 10, 2009

NBAA representatives illustrated the diversity of the business aviation community and highlighted the industry’s value to citizens, companies and the country at a panel forum in Washington, DC this week.

Two members of NBAA’s Board of Directors – Jeff Lee, Director of Flight Operations for IBM, and Scott Moore, Chief Pilot for the Luck Stone Company – spoke on a panel moderated by NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. The panel was conducted as part of the National Air Transportation Association’s annual Aviation Business Roundtable.

Bolen said that, while the two NBAA directors’ companies were very different, “It’s important to see the diversity of our community, and the flight department perspective is not one limited to the size of a company, type of company or geographic region.” Moore’s company, Luck Stone, is a family-owned supplier of stone construction products based in Manakin, VA. Lee’s company, IBM, is the well-known global firm.

Moore and Lee explained the ways their companies’ airplanes support the organizations’ overall business objectives. Moore said the Luck Stone King Air 350 is an “indispensible business tool,” that greatly increases the efficiency of travel for work in regional offices and client visits.

Lee said the high-speed data equipment aboard his company’s airplanes allow employees to be highly productive when traveling, because employees on board the planes can stay in touch with co-workers on the ground. “The people traveling need to communicate while en route, and these aircraft truly become offices in the sky,” he said. “We use financial models to see the best travel option for each mission. Everything we do we have to do efficiently.”

Both Moore and Lee referenced the benefits of a new resource for helping measure and communicate about the value of a business aircraft. The product, known as the Business Aircraft E-valuation Toolkit, identifies five resources every company in business aviation should have for articulating an airplane’s value, including a policy statement for use of the company’s aircraft, metrics to quantify aircraft value, tips to catalog flights and presentations for internal and external audiences.

NATA president and CEO James K. Coyne thanked the NBAA representatives for participating in his Association’s event, and demonstrating the value of business aviation. “I’m really pleased that all of the associations…have been working together for quite some time to ensure that we are speaking with one voice,” Coyne said.

Bolen agreed, and specifically thanked Moore and Lee for their participation in the panel. “I was pleased that Jeff and Scott were able to articulate the value of business aviation to their companies, and share that with others in the aviation community.”