IAM President Tom Buffenbarger highlighted the importance of the nation’s business aviation industry in an address to the 62nd Annual Convention of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA).
“Few industries are as critical to the nation’s economic well-being as the business aviation industry,” said Buffenbarger. “Each successive generation of aircraft is driven by technologies and innovations that directly and indirectly support millions of jobs and the kind of high value economic activity which we simply cannot afford to lose.”
Buffenbarger urged attendees at the convention to work with labor to get the highest levels of our government to understand a basic fact: that business aviation is vital to America’s economic recovery. “Not only does business aviation support 1.2 million jobs in the U.S. with a combined payroll of $53 billion dollars per year, it also generates more than $150 billion in economic output each year, adding $5.9 billion to America’s export revenue last year,” said Buffenbarger, who also cited the vast amounts of pride that are built into every airplane assembled by IAM members in more than a dozen states around the country.
