Plane Conversations

The Federal Aviation Administration is more than just a dour old government bureaucracy.  The FAA also collects and publishes very important information.

This chart tells a very important story.  It says that the economy depends on aviation as much (if not more) than aviation depends on the economy.  So when Social Flights talks about private jets, it’s a whole lot more than wealthy people keeping their shoes on. Private aviation is in fact an important conduit for economic growth.  The way that we organize aviation assets such as aircraft, operators, airports, and support services can have a profound impact on a region.

For all economic development professionals:

These statistics should be stark.  If your community has air service, then the products and services that your community can trade will be 69 times higher in value than ground transportation such as trucking routes.   Yet many economic development reports treat these two modes roughly equal.

Furthermore, the market is huge; 1/2 Trillion dollars worth of products are flying over your head and 1/4 Trillion dollars worth of direct expenditure is looking down at you through an impenetrable window – EVERY YEAR.  And, that’s just the tangible value. Ideas, knowledge, wisdom, trust, influence, and experience are all extremely expensive to create on your own or by trial and error.  Yet this value is readily stored and transported in the cabins of aircraft.  This intangible value far out-weighs anything that can be carried in a truck.

What is truly surprising is that it only requires 2 million people to keep 2 trillion dollars worth of value aloft.  As such, every job that an economic development office creates in aviation, can potentially return 500,000 – 1,000,000 dollars in value to a community.  If a community is going to “buy jobs” with their taxes, they should buy aviation jobs.

Likewise, it would NOT be wise to lose control of this valuable resource to the whims of the airlines or outside corporate charter – their bottom line is not the same as yours.

Social Flights now brings a complete aviation solution to your community.  Our CASP (Community Air Service Program) can provide a community with modern aircraft, operational knowledge, and certification authority to operate your own public charter airline.  The connection is clear – airplanes equal money.  Give us a call, let us design your community air service program to integrate with your hotels, restaurants, tourism board, artistic community, and industries.

After all, that is what community is all about.

Economic Development is on everyone’s minds as people realize that their local economy can have a dramatic impact on the their position in the next largest markets.   Now, data is converging so rapidly with the travel experience that opportunities for unique locations to provide unique experiences are truly profound.

From Wikipedia:

Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area. Such actions can involve multiple areas including development of human capital, critical infrastructure, regional competitiveness, environmental sustainability, social inclusion, health, safety, literacy, and other initiatives. Economic development differs from economic growth.

Look at the photo above and the Wikipedia entry below it.  It is literally possible to visualize ALL economic indicators in a single flash of an IPhone.  Human capital cannot readily organize without education, transportation, clean environment, social inclusion, safety, and health services.  A community desirable to its citizens is a community desirable to its markets.

This goes without saying for cities that have grown to a size where major airports have become almost a scourge – many of these cities themselves began as a cross roads for land, water, or train transportation in their respective histories.  Efficient air transportation without the “crossroads”  may hold a distinct economic advantage for communities where the access to economic information is equalized by the Internet.  In other words, all things being equal, travelers will prefer a location that is relevant, pristine, uncrowded, and welcoming.

Social Flights is pioneering the concept of the Community Airline, specifically termed “Public Charter”.  The idea is simple; there is very little that a major airline can do for a small community that a small community cannot do for itself, better, faster, cheaper, and without sacrificing safety – all within the existing regulatory environment.  Social Flights can help communities to acquire, maintain, market, and operate modern aircraft which can be deployed on a schedule that suits the community priorities.

Look at the picture again – this is the mural upon which communities will define themselves in the digital age. Social Flights provides all the economic development benefits of an airline without the burdens of a hub airport

This is déjà vu all over again.  By now I would have thought our Congress would have come up with a long term funding authorization for a very critical part of our nation’s infrastructure.  All of us under the big umbrella of aviation (airlines and GA) don’t agree all of the time but for once we all agree to the necessity of funding the FAA and the development of airports and Next Gen air traffic control systems.  We have even accepted the idea that fuel taxes will go up to help fund these initiatives.

ATW online reports that our Congress just passed the 20^th short term extension for funding the FAA.  That’s right, 20 extensions.  If I ran my business finances like that I would have been fired a long time ago.  Somehow our nation’s lawmakers can’t agree to get anything done about this yet no one seems to hold them accountable.

Quoting from the article “FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, Airports Council International-North America and airport directors around the US have been saying for some time that uncertainty over FAA funding, particularly the Airport Improvement Program that helps finance expansion programs, is causing disruptions to airport construction projects (ATW’s Airports Today, Oct. 5, 2010). “For over three-and-a-half years we’ve been operating on extensions,” Babbitt noted during a recent speech. “It’s been very difficult to run an agency on extensions … We need to restore long-term stability to funding.”

In addition to the disruption of airport construction projects and the stall in developing Next Gen, the FAA has basically shut down the certification of new Airlines and Charter operators. So how do we create any new jobs in our industry if startups can’t start? Those of us already flying are also having trouble getting anything done with an agency that doesn’t know where their next dollar is coming from.

The Democratic controlled Senate and the Republican controlled House can’t seem to figure this out. But this goes back to before the Republicans got control of the house. So it seems that doing nothing about an important issue is the way it goes these days in Washington DC.

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There is an MU-2 outside my window right now and those Garrett engines are so loud that, in the words of my first grade teacher Sister Paula, I can’t hear myself think. 

Airplanes are noisy.  No kidding, right?  That’s hardly news and it’s certainly no surprise.  Since airplanes are noisy, it follows then, that places they frequent – airports – are noisy, as well.  Again, no surprise there.  What continues to be a surprise to me are noise complaints made by people who live near airports.

What would you say if I told you that I bought a terrific little house next to a railroad track and that I got it at a steal?  You’d probably question my sanity since there are sure to be really noisy trains barreling along the tracks at all hours, right?  Now what would you say if I told you that I was planning on petitioning or even suing the railroad company to make their trains quieter and to run them only during daylight hours?  Does that even make sense?  I bought a house next to a pre-existing railroad track, the existence of which I unquestionably knew, and now I demand that the railroad operate according to my preferences?  I would be laughed out of the courtroom.  Or would I?

This situation happens every day with airports all over the United States and Europe.

Developers buy undesirable land near noisy airports, build houses all over the land, and sell the houses at attractive prices.  The new homeowners, forgetting the reason they got such a good deal on the house, then demand that the airport conform to their preferences – and the city councils and courts support the homeowners.

Airports don’t exist in a vacuum - I know that - and we all need to “go along to get along.”  However, there must be some consideration for the airports which were in existence prior to development and the economic contributions of those airports.  For instance, Atlanta’s DeKalb-Peachtree airport started it’s life in 1941, operated as a Naval Air Station as well as a general aviation airport and is currently the second busiest airport in the state of Georgia with 246,002 operations recorded in 2009.  Housing development in the area saw massive increases in the 1950s, after the airport was established.  At this time, the airport has a “voluntary” curfew between the hours of 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM.  I emphasize voluntary because it is clear from the airport’s own literature that the county would make the curfew mandatory if only the FAA would let them.  Exemptions are made for medical flights but, any other flight operating at the airport during curfew hours will receive a letter inviting the operator “without compromising safety.. [to] review its operating practices and perhaps modify its procedures to keep this from happening again.”  Basically, they invite the operator not to come back during curfew, reserving the right to invite the the operator not to come back at all.

Perhaps the most aggressive noise abatement policies are in Santa Monica, California, and in Naples, Florida, which were among the first (if not the first) to prohibit certain types of aircraft from operating into their fields at any time of day.  Naples, which is a public airport operated by the City of Naples Airport Authority, has its hands full these days dealing with an anti-airport group.  The situation has become emotionally charged and really contentious there.  The airport receives federal funding, yet the neighbors want to dictate how and when the facilities may be used.   Try doing that with an interstate or railroad. 

The Mu-2 is gone, but my ears are still buzzing; so, I sympathize with people who live with the noise.  However, because I know that airplanes are  noisy, I didn’t buy a house right next to an airport.  And I don’t have sympathy for the people who did, then proceeded to complain about a situation they entered into voluntarily.

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As I write this I am returning from a two day trip to the Caribbean.

Our company works with small airlines leasing aircraft, providing maintenance support services, parts support and training. We do much of our business outside of the US.  

I had the opportunity to catch a ride on one of our leased aircraft going to Tortola, BVI to swap out for another aircraft coming back to Tennessee for scheduled maintenance.

The aircraft we flew down and back were Jetstream 32 – 19 passenger turboprops, one type in a group of regional airline aircraft that will continue to work for small airlines around the world for years to come.  

BVI Airways  started a few months ago providing point to point service between Tortola  and St. Maarten and Antigua. They also do charter flights to the other islands. The airline was started by three US pilots who have worked in the regional airline and air charter industry for most of their aviation careers. They saw an opportunity to fill an unmet demand for travel between Islands and took the leap of faith to start a small airline far from home. If you are going to start an airline it may as well be in a nice place like Tortola.

BVI Airways has an excellent business plan that allows them to be flexible with their routes as travel needs change with seasonality and times of the year when the islands have special events like carnival and homecomings.

After a short 14 hour visit to Tortola we flew up to San Juan PR and met with a startup airline, Lebar Air, that will be providing both scheduled and on demand charter service out of San Juan to the Dominican Republic and other islands within a 250 mile radius of San Juan. They share a similar business plan as BVI Airways but serve a different niche market of travelers.  

As I think about these two operations and other operators we have gotten to know in the Caribbean, including operators in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, I see a group of small airlines that are meeting demand for point to point intra-island and inter- island travel which the major airlines and their commuter feeders don’t meet.These airlines are a cross between a scheduled airline and on demand charter operator with a nimble flexibility the big airlines cannot match. When you ride on these small airlines, the feel is much more like a charter flight where the pilots are talking to you and helping you with your luggage before you board. Islanders are used to this type of service and take small aircraft flights as a routine way of life.   

 From the perspective of the operators we work with, the economic outlook for Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands is good. Like the US, they have waded through the recession, but the allure of the islands continues to spur development of new hotels and resorts and all the support businesses that go with it. With new resort development and tourism growth come jobs and economic growth for the entire region. As more travelers come to the Caribbean from Europe, North America and South America the demand for inter-island air travel will grow.

These small airlines that meet the market demand are poised to prosper as they provide a very critical transportation component to the regions economic development.

I am a little jealous of these operators because they have a captive audience of travelers. You can’t just get in your car and drive from Tortola to Antigua like you could from Nashville to Atlanta.

The only complaint about the trip south was the lack of time to enjoy the white beaches and blue water. I think I could easily get used to the speed of island living.

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There has been a lot in the press lately about China opening up to General Aviation over the next few years. It will happen, but how fast it will happen is yet to be determined.

As General Aviation expands in China opportunities will abound for US based aviation companies to provide both services and products to a market hungry for what General Aviation has to offer.

Mike Vaughn works with our company with government sales and has also provided consulting to us on sales of aviation services and products in China.

Mike has traveled to China over 60 times since 1996, providing trade related services for business and governments. He currently serves as an advisor to China’s leading aviation and aeronautical university law school and administers business exchange programs between US and China represents a leading China airplane maintenance company, and a China state owned general aviation company.

Mike sent me an update on an event that will happen in China in November and I thought I would pass it along to any of the Plane Conversations readers who are looking to expand your market. The following are excerpts from his letter to me.

Today the US Commercial Service announced it will host a US Aerospace Supplier Development Mission to China November 7-17, 2010 to give US aviation/aerospace companies the opportunity to present to Chinese Joint Venture companies, meet key China government officials, meet potential partners in one-on-one meetings, travel around China, then finish with participation in the China Air show in the southern city of Zhuhai. If you are a SME (less than 500 employees) the cost is $5100 and $6000 for larger companies. This does not include lodging and travel expenses.

The US commercial service does a good job vetting opportunities and potential partners all over the world, and in China, it is good to have the US Commercial service on board as a business ally, but if you are depending on them for business development, to hammer out deals, or solve problems (and there will be problems!), you are misguided. They set the table, but you have to bring the groceries, cook the food and serve the meal!

If you lack real time business experience in China, the US Commercial Service is a good first stop to get the basics – setting up conferences to make introductions such as the supplier mission announced today.

However, it is my experience that so many times, companies are intrigued by China and the opportunities, get excited after attending a trade mission, then will often rely upon a Chinese connection,  because of language and cultural difference, to lead a company into China-(I know of one company who used the local Chinese restaurant owner to translate/interpret for the company because he spoke English and Chinese!!!).

To illustrate my point, view China as a crab pot…when you pick up the crab on top of the pot, all the other crabs will hold on to the biggest crab on the top. Likewise, the Chinese person (crab) connected to your company is connected to other Chinese crabs in China, who are connected to bigger crabs. Point is, if your company is interested in doing business in China; rely upon an American with American interests at heart, first and foremost, to guide your business development into China. It will save your company money and time in the long run and increase your change of success.

If you have any questions about China and the developing General Aviation market feel free to contact Mike by email at mypacus@gmail.com

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We wing toward the Turks and Caicos for a brief respite from the flight to California. The Phenom 100 is such a great flying machine that my new owner/pilot wants to keep going, but he has promised his wife a little time-out on the way home. He mockingly suggests that he put her birthday on the tail number so that she would let him have the new Phenom.  He confesses that to keep his two other airplanes, a Beechcraft Premier I and a Cirrus, he incorporated his wife’s birthday into the N number.

Our flight level 400 optic of the multi-hued water of the Caribbean is soon replaced by a much closer connection to the sea.  Greater Ambergris Cay appears ahead through the lazy afternoon clouds which dot the horizon. The tiny islands of the Turks and Caicos fill the southeastern area of the Caicos Bank with Greater (or Big) Ambergris Cay (at four miles long) as one of the larger of the Ambergris Cays. The entire island is a neatly organized community being constructed by DPS Development, the same folks who built the hugely successful Greenbrier Sporting Club in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.  We are absolutely awed by the airport facility they have completed.  At 5,790 feet, MBAC is the longest private airport in the Caribbean.  This illuminated strip with firefighting and state of the art construction is long and smooth, welcoming us from lofty perch over the sparkling Caribbean.

We taxi up to the door of the reception building where we are welcomed with  tropical island drinks made with Bambarra Rum, The Spirit of Turks and Caicos.  Quickly we learn that our complete enjoyment is the staff’s unrelenting goal.  With no cars, and consequently no paved roads, on the island, we are each assigned our own golf cart to whiz around the community and we delight in the freedom of our new personal transportation.  We all agree to freshen up and meet at Calico Jack’s for dinner.

The thatched hut of Calico Jack’s tropical bar, on the leeward side Ambergris Cay, is the perfect spot to watch the Caribbean sunset.  Calico Jack’s has an open air, covered dining area adjoining the climate controlled dining room. Although with nearly always perfect weather, it’s hard to imagine wanting to eat inside. With only 22 guests in residence, we are guaranteed a table at any time during the evening, (twenty homes have been completed with more under construction).  Walking to our table I’m greeted by Peter Pollock, the “P” in DPS Development.  Peter is an affable New Yorker who once worked as the General Manager of the Boston Celtics.  With an eye for appreciation, Peter has always picked real estate winners. No where is this more evident than at The Turks and Caicos Sporting Club.  After dinner, it is off to bed with thoughts of tomorrow’s bone fishing on the flats.

The sun peeks brightly into the single-room cabana where I awaken to the sound of the surf which lulled me to sleep. I enjoy my morning coffee in solitude from a deck that is eight feet above the azure Caribbean below. Designed to impart relaxation, island style, my 400 square foot cabana, is unique, not so much for what it provides, but more for what is missing.  Here there is no telephone, no internet, no television and no roof over the bathroom; yet, I have travertine marble floors and Ferette sheets. The bamboo furnishings evoke strong memories of my time spent in the Philippines when I flew  A-7 Corsairs from the deck of the USS Midway. I’m sure they hold up in the tropical humidity, but I much prefer the teak furniture on the sun drenched deck.

We are off to Calico Jack’s again in our golf carts.  I doubt any of our carts can exceed the posted 14 mph speed limit, but after some horse trading among the available carts, my pilot friend has found one that will out-run mine and he seems completely delighted. Again I think of my time living in Japan where the Western Pacific WESTPAC junior officers all had motorcycles, and horsepower couldn’t replace skillful driving on the narrow roads. I am treated to island pancakes with coconut syrup while my friends began their morning with a variety of equally appetizing breakfasts.

Famous for the waxy secretion, ambergris, from the North Atlantic Humpback whales that migrate through the islands in the winter, the island is also home to a wide variety of marine life.  Among the land dwelling creatures of Greater Ambergris are the rock iguana. The island teems with these foot-long reptiles who scurry between the areas of vegetation and who sun themselves on nearly every road and outcropping. My owner/pilot friend and I opted out of the manicure/pedicure event that his wife and mother enjoyed, instead we explored the island with Ceci Richard who showed us the original estate of Horatio Stubbs, who acquired the island from John Lightbourne, who purchased the island from the government of the Bahamas in 1811.  Horatio Stubbs planted sisal and reportedly organized a waypoint for livestock destined for the islands. The remnants of limestone and coral rock paddocks can still be found on the southern end of the island. The last private owner of the island, Henry Mensen has teamed with DPS Development to create a private sanctuary which will ultimately be comprised of 425 homes and a members only club.

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How soon will China open up to General Aviation?

Mike Vaughn works with our company in Government Sales and Business Development. Mike has extensive experience doing business in China, having made over 30 trips to mainland China in the past 12 years. He is presently in China working on an aviation project for a client that our company is involved with. .

Mike sent in the following report from China about an Aviation Law Forum he attended in Beihang a few days ago. His report is below in italics:  

I attended the Beihang Aviation and Aeronautical University Law School and DePaul University Law School 2nd Annual forum on Aviation Law in China May 12, 2010 as an invited guest of Dr. Sun Xinqiang, Vice Dean, Beihang. It was held in a new auditorium on campus with about 200 in attendance. From the US side, were DePaul Law professors and a Deputy Undersecretary for Transportation, and representatives from the US State Department.

In the audience were special guests, including the head of legal/regulatory affairs for FedEx, United Airlines, and Delta Airlines.

Forum speakers from the China side included the top leaders of CAAC and in the audience were officials from CAAC and the PLA Air Force, so the forum was well represented by both sides.

Another speaker from the Australian based Aviation institute gave a presentation on the growth, traffic and capacity of airlines operating in the greater Asia region (Japan, China, Korea, and south east Asia) from a historical and trends perspective.

China has become the second largest market for airlines in the region in a very short time (10 years) and will become the largest market in the next 10 years.

One topic of note was a discussion about routing through Japan and the decision by the Japanese government to locate the Narita airport away from Tokyo to position Japan as an international gateway. In retrospect, Japan made a mistake because travelers still want to have access to pleasure destinations and urban activities. The location of Narita away from Tokyo (2 hours away) has resulted in a decrease of travelers to Tokyo as a destination. Now they are trying to move gateway flights to the new airport near Tokyo but this would cannibalize business from Narita.

The Chinese will raise the Japan gateway routing issue with the US government in the next round of negotiations with the US for new gates and routes to China. Also, Air China can only fly between Japan and they are not allowed to continue on to the US via Japan, so they are positioning an argument based on reciprocity for equal gate access to the US.  

While the round table discussions and forum speakers were addressing airline issues and open sky topics primarily, general aviation was an underlying topic, especially as it pertains to flight ceilings and civilian vs. military uses of airspace.  

Right now, general aviation is limited to a 3000 foot (1000 meter) ceiling and all general aviation flights must have pre-approval of flight plans cleared by the military, then scheduled by the local CAAC tower. It causes unreasonable delays and is a deterrent to the expansion of general aviation.

The China officials and China aviation law experts said they were drafting new airspace rules and aviation policies designed to open up China aviation in the next five years.  

All in all, the forum was a success compared to other “cooperation summits” I have attended over the past 12 years since I have been coming to China.

 The opportunities for general aviation in China will be big if, or hopefully when, the airspace gets opened to general aviation traffic. The demand for general aviation is already there based on the economic development and geography of the country. Thanks to Mike Vaughn for sending in this report.

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Over the years of growing our business I have had the opportunity to meet many airport directors in communities looking for ways to improve air service to their airports. My brother runs an airline in the western US that provides service to many communities through the Essential Air Service (EAS) program funded by the DOT. He has probably been through 100’s of presentations from airports and their support organizations – chambers of commerce, economic development boards and city governments.

All of these airports and the communities they serve want good air service. Why?

They consider air service as a necessary ingredient for business and economic development. When you can connect to the rest of the world by air you can bring business in to your community and create jobs and prosperity. When you are disconnected from the rest of the world you lose out and no one wants to lose out. 

Over the past two years the situation has not gotten better for small airports.

In fact it has gotten worse because airlines have pulled out of many small markets either entirely or they have reduced service to the point that it no longer offers any convenience to the business traveler. Because of the geographic and demographic rules of EAS subsidies, many small airports don’t qualify for the subsidy. They are just a little too close to another airport with airline service but too far away to be convenient. Or they are not quite large enough as a market.  

So far no one has come up with a real solution that fixes the problem of the demand for convenient air travel at a reasonable price in small markets.

Small airlines like Cape Air are doing a good job of filling some of the holes but there are still a lot of airports looking for solutions. Charter companies like my company are glad to pick you up at a small airport and take you anywhere. Our problem is price. We are still too expensive for the average traveler.

As I have sat in on meetings over the years I usually hear the field of dreams story. “Build it and they will come” or in this case “show up and fly and we will fill up your aircraft with happy paying passengers”. If that was the case then why aren’t the airlines showing up and fighting for those passengers?

One of the major issues I see is that no one can really tell you or I today where people really want to go. At best, over the years, consultants to the airline and airports put together a marketing study based on DOT statistics showing Origin and Destination (O&D) traffic flow between cities based on airlines published data. With some statistical tweaking the consultant shows that a quantity of people in a community are flying to or from some close by hub airport and they would all rather leave from the home field if they just could. Those stats rarely translate into a reality for the airline or the home airport because the stats don’t correctly indentify the traveler’s true intentions.

So the question to ask is how we identify the true intentions of travelers, to really know when and where they want to go, and what it is worth to them for someone to meet their intentions.

If, in a perfect world with perfect knowledge at our fingertips, we could reach that point of knowledge could we then meet those intentions with the fleet of aircraft available in this country?

Change gears with me now and think about what is happening in the world of social media: 400 million and counting on Facebook, people tweeting every minute of the day, geo-location technology that knows where I tweet or text from, linked in profiles, and applications like TripIt that tell everyone where I am going and how I am getting there. In the past few weeks Facebook has gotten slapped for their use of the information they have been collecting on all of us, but at the end of the day I predict that we will not slow down telling everyone else everything about us. Privacy or no privacy we seem more than willing to let the world know just about anything.  

How could communities and small airports use the power of this information from Social Media to match traveler’s intentions to the supply of travel services? Could they build their very own communities online with the purposes of sharing travel intentions between travelers?  If so they could have the real knowledge of who, where, when and how much as opposed to the statistics that don’t seem to mesh with reality?

Something to think about isn’t it!

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I have an interest in the development of aviation bio fuels. After riding through too many volatile price swings in aviation fuel (sometimes for reasons no one can explain),  I think it would be nice to one day wake up with some predictability in one of the majors costs to fly aircraft – fuel. And what if the solution happened to be much more carbon neutral? That would be a nice bonus!

Both General Aviation and the Airlines are subject to world price swings in fuel that can destroy profits overnight with no ability to control it on our end. The airlines who sell many seats far in advance are especially vulnerable to fuel price swings since they can not go back to the consumer and ask for more money when they have sold a seat on next months flight.

I have written a couple posts on our site about the development of bio fuels for aviation. Over the long haul this could provide an answer to the problem of price volatility. I also like the idea of our country becoming energy independent. It seems to make sense to not be reliant on other countries for a commodity that keeps the country running, especially since many of the countries we buy that commodity from are not our friends.

I have been to Brazil twice to visit the Embraer factory and on my trips I noticed that Brazil offers more choices to the consumer when you pull up to the gas station to fill your car up. On my first trip when I asked our driver about it he commented proudly that Brazil it energy independent.  The country has developed a variety of fuels for their cars and trucks including Liquid Natural Gas and Ethanol or Alcohol based fuel. They have cars that will run on multiple fuels so as not to be limited by supply of one fuel or the other.

So it does not surprise me that the country’s airlines, bio fuels producers and agricultural producers of the raw products for bio fuels have come together to form an alliance to develop bio fuels for aviation.

The blog site http://www.biomassintel.com reports on this alliance (Aliança Brasileira para Biocombustíveis de Aviação – ABRABA) in a May 20 post.

Quoting from the post:

According to a statement released by the alliance, ABRABA argues:

“The use of sustainable biofuels produced from biomass is key to maintaining the growth of the aviation industry within a low carbon economy.  The proven ability of Brazil to develop alternative energy sources, combined with its knowledge of aviation technologies, will result in a significant gain for the environment by minimizing the impact on economic development.”

The Bio Mass Intel site has a whole section on Aviation Bio fuels under the heading “Aviation 2.0” (link – . http://www.biomassintel.com/category/transportation/aviation-2-0/)  It is worth checking out.

This is part of the innovation that will be required to keep our industry sustainable into the future – both from an economic standpoint and environmentally.

Maybe our country should consider a national policy that orients development of bio fuels for aviation. I can’t see where anyone could complain about it in light of the mess we have in the Gulf of Mexico?

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