NBTA Urges Senate to Include FAC NextGen's Funding in Stimulus Package

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. January 30, 2009

ALEXANDRIA, VA, January 30, 2009 - The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Executive Director & COO Bill Connors today sent a letter to Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Vice Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) of the Senate Committee on Appropriations encouraging the inclusion of funding for the Federal Aviation Committee's Next Generation Air Transportation System or NextGen in the Senate's economic stimulus package.

Connors commented in the letter:

"The implementation of NextGen is vital to the future of the airline industry and the business travel community. The business community and business travel is dependent on a transportation network that is efficient and safe. NextGen promises to deliver that with trajectory based operations, collaborative air traffic management, and reduced travel delays resulting from weather.

Without NextGen there will be gridlock in the skies. By 2022, it is estimated that this failure would cost the U.S. economy $22 billion annually in lost economic activity. That number grows to over $40 billion by 2033 if action is not taken. The FAA reports that without some of the initial elements of NextGen simulations show that as early as 2015 delays will be far greater than what we are seeing today.

The purpose of this stimulus package should be to stimulate our economy and get business moving. Adding funding for NextGen projects does just that."

NBTA and 11 other organizations from the commercial and general aviation community submitted a letter to Congress earlier this month requesting stimulus funding to jumpstart NextGen by equipping aircraft with necessary technologies. See letter.

Legislation passed in the House this week contains significant funding to several transportation priorities of critical importance to NBTA and its membership. Inclusion of NextGen funding would compliment the package, increasing mobility and the ease of commerce, as well as creating 77,000 jobs for the American public.

NBTA urges the Senate to pass the stimulus bill including funds designed to speed the implementation of next generation airspace redesign and hopes that final legislation can be signed by President Obama in the coming weeks.

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world's premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates - NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada, NBTA Mexico and NBTA USA - serve a network of more than 15,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 4,000 in 30 nations, are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. They collectively manage and direct more than US$200 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 10 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit www.nbta.org.