By Fred George, FLYING Magazine
Climbing Fast, a new triple-prong initiative launched by the National Business Aviation Association and more than a dozen other organizations, will publicize business aviation’s benefits to society, career opportunities for young people, and commitment to zero emissions by 2050, says Ed Bolen, NBAA president and CEO.
The campaign is considerably broader in scope than NBAA’s and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA)’s No Plane, No Gain advocacy program, which launched in February 2009 in the wake of the big three automakers being skewered by Congress and the media for using business jets to fly to Washington, D.C., to seek federal bailouts to avoid bankruptcy. Climbing Fast now replaces No Plane, No Gain.
Climbing Fast seeks to educate the public and promote a positive image of business aviation as an ecological means of flying people where they need to go, when they need to go for the benefit of all sectors in the community. It was announced and explained by Bolen, NBAA chairman Monte Koch, GAMA president and CEO Peter Bunce, and GAMA chairman Eric Hinson at a Tuesday morning press breakfast at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas. Bolen said that coalition includes the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Helicopter Association International, the International Aircraft Dealers Association, the International Business Aviation Council, the National Aircraft Finance Association, the National Air Transportation Association, and Women in Corporate Aviation, among advocacy organizations.
