Flying The Friendless Skies

On August 3, 1981, more than 12,000 of the 17,500 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization went out on strike and I began my first day working in the aviation industry for Cooper Airmotive, a company based at Love Field to service private and corporate aircraft. The striking air traffic controllers were fired 48 hours later by President Ronald Reagan, but I spent the next 20 years working for Cooper Airmotive, which begat Aviall, which begat Ryder Aviall, which begat Ryder Airline Services, which begat Ryder Aviall (again), which begat Ryder Dedicated Logistics, which begat Ryder Integrated Logistics.

The people I worked with at Cooper Airmotive and Aviall were the finest, most dedicated, and most professional, people I ever worked with. We worked hard, but our hard work was rewarded with recognition and advancement opportunities unheard of in most industries. I treasure many friendships from those early years working in private aviation.

However, President Obama managed to demonize the entire private and corporate aviation industry when the overpaid and under-qualified executives running General Motors and Chrysler flew from Detroit to Washington D.C. to beg for billions of dollars in taxpayer funded bailouts for their mismanagement.

Obama has been willing to consider bailout bucks for some of the supplier industries that depend on the automotive industry for survival, but nary a nickel for the hardworking folks in corporate aviation.

I have to admit that I’m firmly against all of the Obama bailouts, but I’m also incensed when he tries to suggest that all corporate aviation is evil. Maybe he should have shown some of that same indignation when his wife and daughters took their recent Paris vacation and shopping trip. The White House refused to reveal the total cost of the trip, but it has been estimated to have cost taxpayers between $58,000 and $215, 000 for the air travel alone. Let’s not forget that Air Force One was also dispatched to Paris for Obama’s personal use for a portion of that Parisian vacation. Seems to me, the real demons here live in a large White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, not in the hangars of corporate aviation.