James May, president of the Air Transport Association (ATA), the U.S. airlines’ trade association, is a veteran Washington lobbyist and the leading advocate for user-fee funding for ATC services. As a keynote speaker for this year’s NATA Convention, to be held in conjunction with Aviation Industry Expo in Las Vegas March 28 to 30, May will defend his controversial call for federal support for the troubled airline industry and his oft-stated stance that general aviation users do not “pay their fair share.”

NATA calls the ATA leader “a lightning rod in the political storm now swirling about future FAA funding.” NATA president James Coyne recognizes that most in the audience will not agree with what May says, but the association’s leadership believes all will leave the session with respect for the ATA’s “tough, savvy lobbyist-in-chief.”