AIN International

Use of business aviation is a hallmark of well-managed, admired and profitable American enterprises, and these firms outperform those that don’t use business aircraft, a new study of S&P 500 companies by Nexa Advisors finds.

The study, “Business Aviation and Top Performing Companies, 2017,” covers the years 2012 to 2016 inclusive and builds on five previous Nexa studies, sponsored by NBAA and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), that have consistently found bizav-boosted S&P 500s create more shareholder value than their counterparts. Growth in enterprise value “is over 70 percent greater for users over that five-year period,” lead author Michael Dyment said.

Serving as an unintended rejoinder to news of GE’s flight operations shuttering, the study also indicates companies that eliminated flight departments subsequently had less financial success than continuing bizav users. The report also notes that business aviation is used by 98 percent of the top 50 among Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies,” 100 percent of the companies in Forbes magazine’s listing of “100 Most Trustworthy Companies in America,” and 92 percent of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens, according to the CRO 2017 rankings.