Biz Jet Bashing
I’m a pilot. So I get it. Business jets are convenient for many companies.
But I don’t understand why aviation business leaders and magazine editors are so shocked that the President, and now the media, is bashing struggling companies for using their G5s or Challengers.
The folks who are complaining actually created the image of luxury, splendor, and opulence in the skies. And if they claim otherwise, just show them this…
The July 2007 edition of Flying Magazine proudly displays a very expensive Lexus, paired up perfectly with a very glamorous Gulfstream.
The article inside goes on to compare the two travel machines on a technical level, but also for their elegance, fine lines, and luxury.
Do you think Gulfstream objected to this picture, and instead asked to put a Honda hybrid or Ford Focus next to their plane. Are you kidding? The word “bailout” wasn’t born yet and luxury was king.
Ironically, or not, Gulfstream just laid-off 1200 employees and at least partially blames its problems on the comments “disparaging corporate aviation.” Better rethink that next photo shoot before you blame someone else.
And it doesn’t stop there. Flip through any aviation magazine and you’ll find glossy full page ads depicting perfectly manicured men and women wearing expensive clothes, watches, and sunglasses, proudly standing next to their pricey planes and classic cars.
Watch MTV and you’ll see rap stars decked in diamonds, surrounded by nearly naked ladies, pouring champagne all over themselves, partying in the “G4,” as many lyrics attest to.
Even Cirrus has bragged about modeling its interior after a BMW.
I’m a firm supporter of general aviation because it’s challenging, fun, and useful. But then again, I fly a Cessna 172.
But if you’re going to argue that your business jet is an absolute necessity, you better lose the baggage.
You have never read in Flying Magazine that business jets are not a luxury. They are. Business aircraft make possible trips that cannot be completed in any other way without adding many hours and often days. That in itself is a great luxury, as well as a useful business tool.
I think it’s a mistake to say a business airplane is no more glamorous or luxurious than, say, a drill press. Nobody believes that. And it’s not a problem that the public believes jets are a luxury. The problem is the public hates the idea that a few people who are bailed out by taxpayers after losing billions and helping to wreck the world economy get to fly in jets without paying. Or worse, paying with other people’s money.
As soon as the crooks can be flushed out of the system business jets will go back to being what they have always been–an object of envy that everybody wants.