Fighting Back - The Leadership Campaign Keep flying
It goes without saying these are challenging times for our industry. We've seen flight departments shuttered, aircraft placed up for sale, jobs lost. Here at Cessna, we have adjusted production rates and our own employee numbers to accommodate current conditions. But we feel strongly we must do more. Not just for Cessna, but for our customers and, for our industry.
We've all read the articles and seen the pundits portraying business aviation as needless excess, and those that use it as being out of touch with the realities of the day. We think it's time the other side of the story be told, and that support be given to those with the courage to stare down the beast, and use business aviation to not only help their businesses survive the current financial crisis, but more quickly forge a path toward an economic upturn. We think it's time to rise.
We have begun replacing our normal product-focused advertising with a new series of messages we call the Leadership Campaign. At this most challenging of times, it is vital a clear voice of reason be heard. This campaign is intended to provide that voice and, in so doing, salute those with the courage to rise above adversity and lead the world to a fiscal turnaround.
These new ads have been purposefully created to contrast the seemingly endless stream of misinformation surrounding business aviation with what we know instead to be true: That no one has ever saved their way into prosperity, and that there are few better tools for productivity and efficiency, than a well-deployed business aircraft.
We want this campaign to serve as a rallying point for business aviation customers world-wide, carrying the message that it is, indeed, okay to fly - and highlighting the fact that the use of business aviation will play a vital role in the global economic recovery.
Regardless of the aircraft, of the manner of aviation program one chooses, we believe the most important thing is to keep flying - making the absolute most out of the multitude of advantages business aviation provides. Because, in so doing, customers will emerge from today's conditions even stronger than before, replacing the uncertainty that surrounds many, with the confidence and courage to light the way for all.
Let’s remember that it isn’t simply about shuttling executives. (In fact, 86% of those aboard business aircraft aren’t at the executive level.) Among other things, business aircraft transport parts that keep assembly lines running. They efficiently move specialists to solve problems that might put thousands out of work. Not to mention, corporations donate thousands of hours to securely transport government officials—some of whom are the very ones who seem to have business aviation in their crosshairs of late.
Business aviation provides access to almost ten times the number of airports served by the airlines. That translates to multiple daily site visits with confidential business conducted en route, instead of hours of downtime flying commercially. Factor in ever-shrinking commercial airline routes—nearly 100 of which were cut last year alone—and you have an even more compelling case.
In the face of empty rhetoric, business aviation speaks for itself. So pull your aircraft out of its hangar and put it to work. The companies that do, will be the very ones who lead the world back to prosperity.
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