NBAA Salutes NATA President and CEO James Coyne for Aviation Leadership

National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO Ed Bolen saluted National Air Transportation Association (NATA) President and CEO James K. Coyne for his long and distinguished leadership in the aviation community. On March 5, Coyne announced plans to retire at the end of 2012, after almost two decades leading NATA.

Bolen's statement said:

"Jim Coyne's leadership of NATA has strengthened general aviation in many ways. To his work at NATA, he has brought his experience as a teacher, CEO of a family-owned business, Congressman, special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and other roles in business and government. Equally important, he brought his first-hand familiarity with aviation businesses, given his use of general aviation airplanes to help build his family business in the 1970s, and for constituent visits in his Pennsylvania congressional district. NBAA and NATA have a long history of working well together. I've considered it a privilege to work with Jim over the years; he is not only a professional colleague, but he and his wife Holly are dear friends. We wish Jim and Holly all the best as they begin this new chapter in their lives."

Coyne announced his retirement plans in a March 5 letter to NATA Members. In the letter, which is posted to the association's web site, Coyne states, in part: "The NATA Board of Directors and I have decided that 2012 will be my last year as president of NATA. Since 1994, it has been my honor to represent you here in Washington and in various public forums across the country." Read Coyne's letter in its entirety.

As president and CEO of NATA, Coyne visited close to 1,000 FBOs and other aviation-related businesses across the country. He was the founder and first president of the NATA Air Charter Safety Foundation, and he is a frequent speaker on aviation issues. He will serve as NATA president and CEO until January 1, 2013.