“From Low Fare to All’s Fair”
Pratt & Whitney at the 21st Annual ISTAT Conference
The International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) held their 21st annual conference in Hollywood, Florida at the Westin Diplomat Resort from March 28 through March 30, 2004. Over 750 senior executives from airlines, leasing companies, and financial institutions attended this event. Major attendees included: ILFC, Boeing, GECAS, GATX, CIT, Embraer, Bombardier, as well as Pratt & Whitney.
One Pratt attendee at the conference was Jeff Lynn, Vice President of Aircraft Re-Marketing and a member of ISTAT for 10 years, the last four of which he has served on ISTAT’s Board of Directors.
“This conference really explored the current issues facing the commercial aviation industry,” Lynn said. “There appeared to be consensus that the industry has reached the bottom of our economic cycle, however, there was concern and some uncertainty on the path to recovery.”
Lynn went on to explain some of the discussions given by guest speakers. “The issues of concern explored were pilot contracts, pension obligations and infrastructure inefficiencies that contributed to the poor financial health of the legacy carriers (UAL, USAir, Delta, AA) vis a vis the financial strength of the Low Cost Carriers (LCC…. JetBlue, America West, AirTran, ) who were not facing these same obstacles.”
In the years he has been involved with ISTAT, Lynn has seen the conference grow in participation and visibility along with Pratt &Whitney’s presence in the organization. ISTAT is now recognized throughout the industry as the premier organization facilitating the forum for communications involving all companies working in commercial aviation. In addition, ISTAT certification for aircraft appraisers is now seen as essential when attesting to the validity of an aircraft valuation.
Guest speakers included Robert A. Milton, President & CEO of Air Canada, Henry Hubschman, President, GECAS, and Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, Chairman & CEO, ILFC.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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