A court hearing for very light jet maker Eclipse Aviation, which is facing Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, is set for today.
New Eclipse Acquisition is moving forward with a plan to acquire the company’s assets, provide support for current owners, and restart production. New Eclipse was started by the chief executive of Wichita-based Harlow Aerostructures, Phil Friedman.
Friedman doesn’t live in Wichita, but he’s been head of Harlow Aerostructures for the past 28 years.
Sonya Beckley in Fort Wayne, Ind., heard about the plight of Wichita’s aviation industry on National Public Radio this week. Hearing about Wichita workers losing their jobs by a downturn in the industry prompted her to call me this morning.
Beckley is an account manager for a marketing and communications company, Labov & Beyond. The company employs about 50 people and owns a business jet — a Cessna Citation CJ1. It’s used for traveling to the company’s satellite offices and for calling on clients around the country.
Beckley feels sympathy for Wichita aviation workers losing their jobs.
“They don’t know what’s going to happen next, but literally the President and Congress are trashing their industry,” she said. They’re “turning on the news every night and hearing that their jobs don’t mean anything.”
The bad rap started when the chief executives of the country’s Big Three automakers flew business jets to Washington to ask for a government bailout. It’s mushroomed from there.
“We should stand up for all those people who are using a business jet,” Beckley said. “It’s valuable and it’s important, but people aren’t just talking about it. I feel like it’s a dirty little secret.”
Beckley is right. Companies are hesitant to use their jets or or put one on order, in part because of the image that they’re used — and abused — by “fat cats” living in luxury. That’s worsened what planemakers are feeling from the down economy. Statistics clearly show, however, that business aircraft are used by middle managers, sales people, technicians and others to conduct business. Often, they’re flown to places hard to get to by the commercial airline. Labov & Beyond is a good example.
Last week, Beckley’s company sent four employees on the small Citation to New York,where they held three meetings. They all came back that night in time for dinner with their families.
Without the jet, they would have spent money on hotel rooms, meals and airline tickets.
“It is way more cost effective,” Beckley said.
“We don’t fly it for the heck of it. We don’t put one person on it and go jet off.”
The topic is one Beckley and others in the company feel strongly about.
“We don’t sell jets; we don’t lease jets,” Beckley said. “And I can’t see us getting any business out of it.”
But the stance is an important one to take.
