Which Team Are You On?

Years ago, my wife and I had a financial advisor who came with glowing reviews. He knew his investments, and also was passionate about politics. Unfortunately, his investment strategy for our portfolio was driven by his politics, which only benefited us about 50% of the time. Needless to say, he’s no longer our advisor. We needed a full-time advisor, not a part-time political pundit/activist.

I was reminded of him last week when talking with a friend from the industry about an upcoming conference. This businessman is not going to attend because he “doesn’t like the direction we are going.” Did this person mean that his company didn’t have orders coming in? No, business is good. Does he see air travel rebounding, with some airports even beating their 2019 numbers? Yes. In fact, he remarked about how ticket prices are high and planes are full. So what was his disconnect?

In a word: politics. He doesn’t agree with the politics of our current White House administration and therefore assumes we’re headed for a period of despair. As a result, he is going to sit out this dance for the time being.

Sadly, it seems there’s no “we” anymore. It’s either “us” or “them.” At least that’s how it feels too many days.

The truth of the matter is that airports specifically, and aviation in general, have done well over the years. We’re in a market that seems largely agnostic to political parties. Airports have benefited from Washington’s support. Period. To feel that we’ll only do well if one particular party is in office is ludicrous.

We need to work with whoever is writing the checks. While each of us has our own valid opinions and votes accordingly, we’re all in aviation first. In this industry, it’s hard to succeed if you’re on the bench because your political team didn’t win.

Cheers to all,