July 14, 2021
NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen congratulated business aviation professionals during a recent Central Florida Business Aviation Association (CFBAA) webinar on the industry’s coordination and communication throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and encouraged CFBAA members to take advantage of future opportunities created by the pandemic.
Bolen credited the industry’s constant communication and sharing of information about destinations, disinfecting aircraft, maintaining currency, ensuring continued airworthiness and other topics during the pandemic for business aviation’s ability to pull through the crisis successfully.
“Business aviation was not paralyzed by the circumstances,” Bolen said. “We relied on each other. We effectively have gone through a crisis period. There are clearly challenges and ripple effects that will go on, but now we must position ourselves to thrive.”
Industry professionals are urged to be aggressive in their ambassadorship of the industry, sharing the safety case for flying in business aircraft and the industry’s contributions through humanitarian flights.
Bolen said business aviation is now a leader in economic recovery rather than a tail-end result, but it’s important the industry retains new entrants to the marketplace. During the pandemic, Bolen said more people learned you can go more places in less time and turn travel time into work time when using business aircraft.
Looking Toward NBAA-BACE
Turning to the future, Bolen talked about the upcoming 2021 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Las Vegas in October, saying the show will be a celebration of aviation, innovation and the industry’s commitment to sustainability, as well as a chance to talk as an industry about workforce challenges, diversity and inclusion, professionalism and more.
And it’s important that Industry representatives encourage young people to look at the industry for future career options.
“Business aviation wants to attract, develop and retain the best and the brightest from all backgrounds,” said Bolen, adding that new technologies from electric aircraft to advanced air mobility are igniting passions and “fueling the soul.”
Finally, Bolen highlighted the importance of industry engagement in legislation on infrastructure and workforce development, as well as engagement with your community to be a proponent of business aviation.
“This is not a spectator sport,” he concluded.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.