Excerpts from a Letter From Ed Bolen, National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO.

“As you likely know, on October 1, a government-wide shutdown went into effect, leading to work furloughs for hundreds of thousands of federal employees, and impacting services provided by nearly all government agencies.

While the shutdown has not immediately impacted basic aviation safety services, it has had a particularly intense impact on many other aspects of business aviation, because our industry is more regulated than other industries.

NBAA has been highlighting the shutdown’s effect on business aviation with policymakers in Washington, so that they understand its dire and immediate consequences. As just one part of making our case as clear and meaningful as possible, we have repeatedly emphasized that general aviation planes and parts can’t be produced, financed, bought or sold without the written approval of the federal government, which has to register each and every aircraft in the FAA’s Aircraft Registry.

According to the FAA, 10,000 aircraft registrations expire each month. So, by shutting down the registry, the government is effectively grounding much of the America’s general aviation industry, along with the potential operations of thousands of aircraft crucial to the functioning of our economy. In the long term, the shutdown will have additional, grave consequences for workers, the economy and our national infrastructure.

NBAA has created a Government Shutdown resource page on the association’s website (http://www.nbaa.org/ops/government-shutdown).

What the situation boils down to is this: The shutdown of the federal government threatens our industry with the elimination of jobs, closure of companies and the loss of millions in economic activity with every day it continues.

Sincerely,

Ed Bolen
President and CEO
National Business Aviation Association”