Business aviation spokesman steers clear of U.S. politics
American counterparts fighting new regulations
ORLANDO, FLA. — Sam Barone has to tread a fine line. The spokesman for Canada’s business aviation industry is just fine with Canada’s rules governing privately owned aircraft, he said during an interview Wednesday — rules more numerous and onerous than those proposed in the U.S., which his sister U.S. organization is fighting with fiery rhetoric.
The two proposed measures by President Barack Obama’s administration would charge mode stlanding fees — a maximum of $100 per flight — for business aircraft, and would reduce the attractiveness of depreciation advantages for private jets.
That has sparked a personal war of words against Obama by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) lobby group at its 65th annual convention here — a continuation of the attack at last year’s Las Vegas meeting and at perhaps the most crucial time in the presidential election campaign, which ends Tuesday.
Barone said that in Canada, private aircraft pay not only those landing fees and receive lesser depreciation allowances, but pay other fees besides.
“We also have user fees for airports and we have navigation (and air-traffic control fees) for Nav Canada, and we pay $20 per passenger (per flight), and by and large, it works for us.”
“But don’t propose that over there,” he quipped, pointing to the NBAA convention booth. “You’ll be punched out tout de suite.”
In the U.S., business aviation pays its way solely through an excise tax on aviation fuel, channelled through appropriation funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Barone stressed that he was not “wading into U.S. politics.”
And he noted on several occasions that he understood and sympathized with the NBAA’s position.
“Like them, we want to maintain an efficient cost structure. We would also love more generous depreciation fees. … And we do have a concern in Canada that we have one of the highest fuel excise taxes in the world. When you add it all up, in the end it comes out of corporate aviation activity.”
Danielle Boudreau of Bombardier Business Aircraft said in a previous interview that “any additional cost in our very tough international business is not good for competitivity.”
That activity is worth about $5 billion a year in Canada, excluding aircraft sales by Bombardier Inc. or engine sales by Pratt & Whitney Canada, Montreal’s two largest aerospace firms.
Pratt & Whitney Canada is one of the top engine suppliers to that industry and Bombardier is the world’s largest private aircraft manufacturer.
AP ratt & Whitney Canada spokeswoman, Maria Mandato, said in an email that business and general aviation — non-airline — engines represent about half of her firm’s sales.
But Barone said that despite the heavier burden, “we haven’t had the same level of animosity with our government. On the contrary.
“We have issues we’ve had to work on with Ottawa, but we haven’t been as heated as here — in the middle of an election. We’ve never had that situation.”
Barone voiced something seldom heard in the U.S.: “We don’t mind paying our fair share of taxes for the aviation business — but we want government to reinvest some of that revenue back into the aviation industry.”
Asked if Canadian regulations and costs were excessive, Barone replied: “No. In Canada, our members speak up — vehemently. But at some point, we acknowledge that that improvement fee or whatever will build a new runway in Calgary, for instance, or make sure that ramps are fixed and maintained and snow is removed.
“So yes, we want to pay our fair share. But there’s a limit. We’re not asking for new taxes.”