Jan. 27, 2021
NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen, during a recent podcast with aviation valuation firm Asset Insight, noted the business aviation community’s resilience during 2020, and its innovative work to position the industry for growth once pandemic travel restrictions are repealed.
“There is a lot of hope that the vaccines will be widely available, widely distributed and widely adopted and that within the foreseeable future we’ll be able to put the pandemic behind us,” Bolen told Asset Insight President Tony Kioussis in the latest edition of the podcast. “The hope is that this will help unleash an economic recovery that, I think, will be very positive for business aviation.
“A number of people over the course of the last year experienced business aviation for the first time…and that gives us an opportunity to grow our marketplace,” he added. “I also think that as restrictions end up being lifted, both domestically and internationally, business aviation may for the first time in history have an opportunity to be a leading indicator of a recovery, rather than a trailing indicator of recovery.”
The pandemic brought NBAA’s strong advocacy role to the forefront in 2020, noted Bolen, with successful advocacy efforts that resulted in legislative relief for business aviation and general aviation airports in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, along with emergency regulations recognizing the importance of business aviation in the global pandemic effort.
Now, as the world starts a new year and prepares for a reset, Bolen said NBAA will remain just as committed to championing the major issues facing the business aviation community, including privacy, sustainability, safety and attracting a future generation of industry leaders.
“At NBAA, we want to foster an environment that allows business aviation to thrive, and that means the people in business aviation need to be able to thrive,” said Bolen. “NBAA provides our community the resources to help them succeed as individuals, and as professionals. That’s why we offer professional development, that’s why we provide access to the best and brightest, that’s why we encourage people to get involved at a state and local level with their regional groups, to make sure people are aware of how government regulations and laws can impact them.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.