Business Aviation Pays its Fair Share: NBAA Fact-Checks New York Times Video’s False Narrative

Contact: Dan Hubbard, 202-431-5970, [email protected]

Washington, DC, Aug. 10, 2025 - The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is setting the record straight in response to a New York Times editorial video's misstatements and mischaracterizations about how general aviation, including business aviation, contributes to the funding of the nation's aviation system.

In a letter to the news organization, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen points out a simple reality: Just like the airlines, business aviation pays proportionately for its use of the system. The unfounded argument being made by the Times fails the credibility test because the costs for our aviation system aren't driven by a small airplane flying to an outlying community airport. Instead, as independent studies have shown, the system's costs are driven by the airlines' complex, costly hub-and-spoke network, which pushes hundreds of flights through big airports at peak travel times every day of the year.

Bolen's letter to the Times highlights three key facts:

1. Business aviation pays its fair share for aviation system use. The New York Times video fails to note that general aviation pays seven different taxes and fees for use of the nation's aviation system. Chief among these is the simple, efficient, pay-at-the pump fuel tax. Compliance with the tax is high, a large bureaucracy is not needed to collect the taxes, the taxes are easy to understand and pay, and their existence discourages congestion and provides an incentive for purchasing cleaner, quieter, more fuel-efficient aircraft.

• Business aviation is an incremental user of the nation's aviation system. The independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) has studied aviation system use by various stakeholders - the airlines, general aviation and the military - and found that general aviation accounts for about 7% of system use, which a GAO study termed "actually, quite small." Specifically, general aviation amounts to a small percentage of traffic at the major airports dominated by the airlines. These airports, and the airline traffic they manage, require complex infrastructure, a large controller workforce and other assets, all of which drive operational costs. This reality was demonstrated in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks, when general aviation traffic was removed from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) without any appreciable change in the cost of that airport's operation.

• Different kinds of flights impose different costs on the aviation system. When considering proportionate payment for aviation system use, economists and other experts typically consider cost drivers. A typical general aviation flight involves a small airplane, utilizing a small, often un-towered airport, removed from the waves of airline traffic moving through the system nearly every hour of every day. To suggest that all users of the aviation system impose the same cost is like telling a party of five at a restaurant that all diners should pay proportionately for the customer who ordered the most expensive meal.

Bolen's full letter to the New York Times editorial board is below.

August 10, 2025

The New York Times

20 Eighth Avenue

New York, NY 10018

[email protected]

Dear Editors,

Your recent editorial board video, If You Fly Economy, You're Paying for Someone Else to Fly Private (Aug. 10), puts forward a false narrative about what general aviation, including business aviation, pays within our national airspace system.

The reality is that just like the airlines, business aviation pays its fair share for use of the aviation system primarily through pay-at-the-pump fuel taxes. Furthermore, contrary to the video's unfounded allegation, the burden each aircraft places on the system varies greatly.

In fact, the major cost driver for the ATC system is the airlines' hub-and-spoke networks, which require large concentrations of resources and infrastructure to handle flights at peak congestion times. A better analogy than the "parking garage" example cited in your video would be a restaurant table for five diners, where one diner orders the most expensive items on the menu, then expects everyone to split the check equally.

Managing a large commercial airliner in the complex, often congested airspace around major commercial hubs such as New York, Chicago, or Atlanta requires far more resources than managing a small aircraft at an outlying community airport. This kind of marginal use of the air traffic control (ATC) system by general aviation does not impose the same cost on its operation as that driven by the airlines. The independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) has concluded as much, noting that "general aviation flights often use minimal ATC services, so their costs to the system are actually quite small."

Consider the real-world example illustrating this widely recognized fact: in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks, general aviation traffic was removed from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) without any appreciable change in the airfield's operational cost.

Perhaps most importantly, your video looked past the role of business aviation as a critical part of our transportation system, connecting communities of all sizes, supporting more than a million American jobs, and contributing $340 billion annually to the U.S. economy. Misleading and oversimplified portrayals like the one in your video do a disservice to the public and the policymakers tasked with making informed decisions about our aviation system.

Sincerely,

Ed Bolen

President and CEO

National Business Aviation Association

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Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The association represents more than 10,000 company and professional members and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), the world's largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at nbaa.org.

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