President’s Perspective: Taking a Global View of Business Aviation

April 24, 2019

President’s Perspective: Taking a Global View of Business Aviation

NBAA’s advocacy on major industry issues such as ATC privatization is well known. Less visible, perhaps, are the association’s daily interactions with international government officials and regulators. Because business aviation is truly global, NBAA engages with international stakeholders to preserve and protect the rights of operators.

For example, NBAA has been work-ing for over a decade to help inter-national operators comply with the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA’s) Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) ramp check program. NBAA recently commented on pro-posed changes in SAFA inspections, making EASA aware of operators’ concerns and explaining how business aircraft flying differs from airline operations. As a result of its work with EASA, NBAA has been able to provide members with specific, practical guidance on SAFA checks.

Since 1981 NBAA has been work-ing with the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC), a federation of national groups. As business aviation’s official observer to the proceedings of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a U.N. agency that develops global civil aviation standards, IBAC’s mandate is to ensure those standards reflect business aviation’s needs.

NBAA is helping IBAC prepare for the next major meeting of ICAO, which will deal with a variety of important topics that effect business aircraft operators, including:

• Using data-driven risk assessment to enhance safety
• Developing new ways to increase airport capacity
• Improving the delivery of satellite weather data
• Examining the cost/benefit of new equipage requirements
• Facilitating worldwide adoption of innovative air-traffic management initiatives such as collaborative decision-making
• Dealing with new issues, such as flight above FL600, unmanned aircraft and cyber security

Another example of NBAA’s inter-national advocacy is our continuing work to achieve reasonable compliance limits and procedures for ICAO’s global aviation emissions plan known as CORSIA.

As business aviation continues to grow globally, NBAA will reflect the industry’s needs, engaging government officials around the world to protect and promote its members’ interests.