Political Quotes

“SkyTaxi intends to operate through a franchise system, in which individual small businesses would purchase small aircraft and operate local SkyTaxi franchises. But purchasing an aircraft takes a substantial amount of capital, and many potential franchise owners-- such as laid-off commercial pilots who now wish to start their own businesses--find that financing for aviation-related businesses is currently very difficult to obtain. SkyTaxi therefore expects and hopes that potential franchise owners would be able to turn to the SBA and its lending partners for small business loans, in order to get up and running. The problem now arises because, in order to satisfy FAA safety requirements and obtain FAA certification, SkyTaxi needs to retain certain authority over safety matters, including ensuring the competence of flight crew and the quality of aircraft maintenance. It has set up its franchise agreement accordingly. Unfortunately, the SBA has so far taken the position that, due to the authority vested in SkyTaxi in the franchise agreement, the SBA would view each of the individual franchise owners as 'affiliated' with Sky-Tax and each other--and thus ineligible to apply for individual SBA guarantee loans. My staff has been in contact with the SBA about this, and I am hopeful that this eligibility problem can be solved.”