In Defense of Corporate Jets

A little love for the much-abused corporate jet in The New York Times:

The Cessna's popularity…centers on another data point: 3,250. That's the number of feet of runway required for the aircraft to accelerate to flying speed and take off or, should something catastrophic occur, slam on the brakes and still have pavement remaining.

That figure—3,250 feet—means business aircraft can alight on any of the 5,000 or so public-use airports scattered throughout the nation's suburbs, small towns and back country, as well as land at small city airports abandoned by airlines decades ago. By contrast, the airlines fly to only about 500 airports, and of those, fewer than 70 get about three-quarters of all traffic.

And the case against congressional scapegoating of these flying minivans:

it's astounding to see members of Congress, the very people doling out hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to failed companies, disparaging and even actively trying to curtail [the corporate jet] industry, which is already reeling from the economic and credit crises. The business jet is merely a tool—one that, employed correctly, could help those same struggling institutions soar again and start paying back the money owed, with interest.