An article in the Sunday Eagle about the strong competitive challenge that Brazil’s Embraer poses to Wichita’s planemakers brought to mind one frustration of flying certain routes in and out of Wichita Mid-Continent Airport: The American Airlines flights operated by American Eagle (to Chicago) and Chautauqua & Trans States (to St. Louis) and the Continental Express flights operated by ExpressJet Airlines (to Houston) all use Embraer regional jets. The flights and equipment help support Mid-Continent service, but it always feels wrong to be leaving or returning to the Air Capital of the World on a plane with no local ties. At least, as the article noted, Wichita planemakers also sell planes to buyers in Brazil.
The Air Line Pilots Association has judged the Federal Aviation Administration to have acted prematurely in revoking the licenses of the Northwest Airlines pilots who flew 150 miles past their Twin Cities destination last week because they were riveted by their personal laptops. Union officials want the FAA to “recommit to protect the integrity” of voluntary safety reporting programs, under which pilots are supposed to be able to disclose mistakes without fear of punishment. That process has its place. But these weren’t two store clerks lost in harmless conversation. They zoned out for 91 minutes at 37,000 feet with more than 140 passengers aboard. To many fliers, the FAA’s swift action seemed appropriate.
“We are Velcroed to them.” — Suzie Ahlstrand, vice president of community advancement for the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, in one of the recent national articles about Wichita’s slumping aircraft companies
“If I could do it over, I would wear a Bass Pro Shop cap or dress as a caveman.” — Rep. Bill Otto, R-LeRoy, on the flap created by his anti-Obama YouTube rap video, in which he wore a hat labeled “Opossum, the other dark meat”
“So people who dis you and do not agree/Are just not racist and that includes me.” — Otto again, in a new rap video with a more positive tone
Most passengers don’t realize that a wildly disproportionate amount of taxes they’re paying for airport improvements goes to more than 2,800 fields across the USA that they’ll never use. Since the Airport Improvement Program began in 1982, $15 billion — about a third of the money collected for the program — has gone to the smaller airfields with no scheduled passenger flights. By contrast, the nation’s 30 largest airports, which enplaned more than 500 million passengers last year alone, got about $13 billion. How to explain such a senseless allocation of taxes? It’s the same two words responsible for earmarks and other political distortions: Congress and lobbying. We don’t argue that this network is unnecessary. The Airport Improvement Program, however, wasn’t intended to be a piggy bank for the small-plane lobby. Air passengers shouldn’t have their pockets picked to fund an extravagance that benefits a select few. — USA Today editorial
Kansas has 141 airports serving 7,602 pilots and 6,509 general aviation aircraft. Kansas is also home to 24 charter flight companies, 110 repair stations and five flight schools that provide 115 jobs. The total economic impact of general aviation in Kansas is $7.1 billion. Most Kansas communities are several hours away from an airline hub. General aviation is the primary way goods and services are transported from big cities to small communities, providing the tools that businesses need to function. Not only is the aviation industry a driver of economic growth and vitality in Kansas, small airports are also used by the National Guard, law enforcement, air ambulances, search-and-rescue operators, flight schools, small businesses, charitable organizations, farmers and ranchers, as well as for medical care and organ and blood transplant. The necessity of a vast aviation industry is evident — for rural communities, for the economy and for emergency providers. — Gov. Mark Parkinson, letter to USA Today
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, co-wrote a letter to President Obama with Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., pointing out how the U.S. trade representatives recently won a World Trade Organization ruling against Airbus for illegal subsidies, yet the U.S. Air Force is still considering purchasing refueling tankers from Airbus. “Our federal trade policies and defense procurement policies should work in coordination, not conflict,” the letter said. “We believe that American taxpayers must not be forced to foot the bill for products which benefited from illegal subsidies.”
In ruling that Airbus received illegal government subsidies for its A380 superjumbo jet and other airplanes, the World Trade Organization didn’t settle the long-running dispute between Europe’s Airbus and America’s Boeing. But Boeing and its congressional defenders, including the Kansas delegation, got a global acknowledgment that the “launch aid” that European governments provided for the A380 was illegal and that the rivals haven’t been competing on an even playing field. Though complicated enough that both sides see vindication in it, the ruling certainly should give Pentagon officials more to think about as Boeing and Airbus approach a new round of bidding on an Air Force air-refueling tanker contract. As Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, said in a statement, the report “raises new questions of whether the Department of Defense should bid out national security contracts to a foreign entity entangled in illegal subsidy dealings.”
The shortened Wichita Flight Festival is under the city’s management this year, presenting 1 p.m. air shows Saturday and Sunday at Jabara Airport and an evening air show and concert Saturday night. In a welcome acknowledgment of the community’s economic state, the festival also is free. That should allow more people in this aviation-crazy town to check out the aerial acts, displayed airplanes and exhibits. The festival’s organizers were right to try to keep the tradition going, and even make career assistance available at the event. Wichita’s role in aviation’s past and present are always worthy of celebration.
Kansas Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts voted Tuesday for an amendment to continue production of F-22 fighter planes. That put them at odds not only with the Democratic president but also Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is a Republican. The vote was a perfect demonstration of how, when it comes to defense spending, parochialism trumps partisanship and deficit concerns. The nation already has 187 F-22s, which haven’t been used in any recent wars. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and top Air Force leaders support Gates on the F-22. But the plane’s contracts extend to companies in 46 states. In successfully arguing against building more jets, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., suggested President Eisenhower’s warning of the “military-industrial complex” be updated to “military-industrial-congressional complex.” Still, the Senate position must be reconciled with a House bill with $369 million toward building 12 more F-22s.
In a commentary for Politico.com, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, called for the Air Force’s next and (we can hope) final round of bidding for a new $35 billion fleet of air-refueling tankers to be fair and impartial. But he foresees a problem that again could leave Boeing and its workers, in Wichita and elsewhere, outside the winner’s circle: “Unfortunately, the current acquisition system used by Department of Defense favors foreign competitors over American companies. It does this by not accounting for illegal subsidies, waiving complex and expensive regulations for any European competitor and not taking into consideration legal subsidies such as nationalized health care in Europe. By refusing to acknowledge such factors, our government is stacking the deck against American workers at the expense of our national and economic security.” He concluded: “The KC-767 is the right tanker for the Air Force, the American worker and the American taxpayer. It is my hope the Air Force gets it right this time. We simply cannot afford more costly delays.”
Oprah Winfrey, who already has been credited with rescuing the publishing industry with her book club, recently put in a welcome good word for general aviation. During her speech at Duke University’s commencement, she said this: “It is really fantastic to have your own jet, and anybody who says it isn’t is lying to you. That jet thing is really good,” she said, adding that “you really haven’t completed the circle of success unless you can help somebody move forward. . . . Move to higher ground. That’s the real goal.”
Oprah’s jet reportedly is a $42 million custom Global Express XRS built by Bombardier Aerospace, according to the Wall Street Journal, where a blogger suggested the industry “forget all the boring arguments about jobs and productivity and efficiency and run a picture of Oprah with one simple line: ‘It’s Great to Have a Private Jet.’”
It’s good that city of Wichita and Sedgwick County leaders met Friday to study the threat of bird strikes at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, and that they are trying to come up with a comprehensive plan for land use around the airport. Last year, the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and the Sedgwick County Commission — with notable objections by commissioners Kelly Parks and Gwen Welshimer — dismissed this threat in approving a 31-acre pond just three miles south of the airport. Airport officials warned that the pond not only could increase the hazard for aircraft crews, passengers and people on the ground but also risk revocation or suspension of the airport’s operating certificate and the loss of future federal grant-in-aid funding.
It’s Friday, and it’s time for another report showing rising unemployment. The nation lost 663,000 jobs in March, the fourth straight month in which job losses have topped 600,000. As a result, the unemployment rate jumped from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the highest rate since 1983.
Wichita has had its own bad employment news this week, as Cessna Aircraft and Bombardier Aerospace announced more layoffs.
Good for Cessna Aircraft Co. for going on the offensive to combat the public and political backlash toward business jets. It launches a national advertising campaign today urging executives not to put timidity into their business plans. A newspaper ad states that business jets aren’t about ego or artifice but about “availing yourself of the full range of tools to do your job.”
The local and state economies took another major blow as Cessna Aircraft announced today that it now expects to lay off 4,600 workers, 4,000 of them in Wichita. That’s 2,000 more than the company estimated just two weeks ago.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, and other state leaders are correct to vehemently oppose a provision proposed in the second phase of the financial industry bailout requiring companies that get government aid to divest their corporate aircraft fleet or jet leases. Tiahrt, who filed an amendment that would strip that requirement from the bill, said the provision would kill jobs and called it “a symbolic slap in the face” of general aviation workers. The heads of the Big Three automakers made a bad public relations move last year in flying to Washington, D.C., on corporate jets to beg for a bailout. But using corporate jets can be a smart business decision that saves money and increases productivity.
Cessna Aircraft’s planned layoffs are twice as big as projected last week. The company is cutting 2,000 positions, vice president Jim Walters said in a memo to employees today. Sixty-day layoff notices will be issued within the next few weeks, with separations to occur in March.
The bad news keeps coming. This time it is that Cessna Aircraft may lay off more than 1,000 workers this year. More job cuts were expected, given the global economic downturn. But the size of these possible cuts – and the layoffs likely at other aircraft companies – will be a hard blow to the local and state economies and for many families already struggling to make ends meet.
The war between Boeing and EADS/Northrop Grumman on Capitol Hill is one of more than words. According to Legal Times, Boeing spent more than $14.8 million in 2008 on lobbying, including $1.55 million to outside lobbyists related to the on-again, off-again Air Force tanker contract. Meanwhile, EADS spent $1.82 million on outside lobbyists and $18.4 million on in-house lobbying efforts. The lobbying star power the companies called on included former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (Boeing) and former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux (Northrop). Meanwhile, the $35 billion bidding process is stalled, though a Northrop lawyer says, “I’m hopeful a decision will be made quickly and we’ll be moving rapidly towards a new procurement.”
