Plane Conversations

The Battle of a Thousand David’s against the one Goliath.

The title could be both looking back in retrospect, looking at the situaiton in the present tense, and looking at the future.  How did we beat back the powerful lobbyists when General Aviation took on the Airline Transport Association that represents the mainline airlines?  Did we really beat them or is it an ongoing battle with a brief respite?

The battle I speak of was over proposals to put in place European style aviation user fees that would eventually cripple general aviation as they have in other parts of the world.  The old style of slugging it out on “the hill” in D.C. would have left General Aviation (GA) in the dust licking it wounds.  ATA had the money and the mainstream media (via advertising dollars) on its side.  GA, with several less powerful organizations fighting the battle itself and the big media perception problem, appeared to be outgunned.  

What these organizations did have was numbers.  1.3 million aircraft owners, pilots, and aviation workers who make their living flying, maintaining and fueling general aviation aircraft every day, as well as small and medium sized businesses who use small aircraft to grow their businesses.  Big media portrayed our industry as one that serves what they called the “fat cats” who ride around in big corporate jets wallowing in corporate excess while asking for government bailouts.

For a while, we let them get away with it. Then the voices started speaking up.   

The fight looked pretty dismal two years ago when we were up on the hill going around to different congressional offices asking for support.  We had some friendly receptions but we also had some chilling ones.  You could tell who had been visited by the ATA lobby and their PACS.  It was not a partisan issue we experienced.  In fact, the most chilling reception we had from the Tennessee congressional delegation came from an East Tennessee Republican congressman who we wrongly assumed to be a supporter of small business (GA).

Most of us thought it to be a losing battle but, still, none of us would go down without a fight.  I can’t speak for the organizations that represent us, but at the time I think they probably saw the battle as an uphill fight.   The organizations that supported our interests seemed to be behind the power curve and lacked the money to work the hill the old fashioned way.  What we did not understand at that time was the power of the grass roots organizations like AOPA (www.gaservesamerica.com) that mobilized their 500,000 plus membership to inundate congress with calls and letters.  Alliance for Aviation Across America formed in 2007 to take on the cause and now has over 4,400 members, including all of the major associations that represent GA.  www.aviationacrossamerica.org  The formation of this alliance was probably the most brilliant strategy of this game.  Politicians can’t ignore the sheer numbers and the broad cross section of this alliance.  They realized they were taking on mainstream America – famers, small business, factory workers, pilots, maintenance technicians….. Not good politics in the middle of a recession!

We also did not understand the power of social media and the technology surrounding it.

All of this tells us that the power should no longer be allowed to rest in the hands of the paid for lobbyists and politicians in DC.  The power rests in the consumer, the individual voice willing to comment on the articles and blogs, the activists who send emails, write letters and make visits to the hill in DC.  Alliances whether informal or formal take on a new power that money can’t silence.  Whether you agree with the Tea Party movement or not, you have to agree that it represents a shift in power that comes from the bottom up and it is only the beginning.  More ground swell movements will follow and emulate.   

 The politicians are scared of this new shift in power. It is not business as usual.  As a good friend says, “it is business as unusual”.

 For the first time in the history of our great country, since its founding 225 years ago, the term “We the People” may have new meaning and significance.

 So looking forward, how do we keep winning the battle?

 First we have to be right.  And if we are right, then we have to win the hearts and minds of the consumers (the people), because the real power moving forward rests in the pocketbooks of the consumers who have gained a voice in the market place.

Do not expect them to relinquish that voice. In fact, expect it to grow louder and stronger as social technology allows the voice to be heard loud and clear.

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