International advocacy is key to ensuring business aviation’s benefits and priorities are understood and appreciated in the face of many common challenges.
European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) Secretary General Holger Krahmer noted his association works with many other international business aviation groups, including NBAA, on issues both across Europe and around the globe.
“This collective approach enhances the effectiveness of our advocacy on the international stage,” Krahmer said, “facilitates the exchange of best practices and insights and allows us to tackle shared challenges and adapt successful strategies across different regions.”
“It's important to get together with all member groups to exchange ideas and experiences on shared issues. ”
KURT EDWARDS, Director General, International Business Aviation Council
Collaboration between these groups is also key when presenting the industry’s voice before the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which determines aviation policy around the globe.
“Whatever ICAO decides will ultimately affect our community, so we want to be in those discussions from the beginning,” said Kurt Edwards, director general of the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC).
“It’s important for us to get together with all our member groups to exchange ideas and experiences on shared issues and challenges and come together with unified ways forward,” said Edwards.
While matters such as industry safety, ensuring open access to airports and airspace and promoting environmental sustainability are common to business aviation around the globe, educating local officials about the industry’s value to communities is particularly important in emerging markets such as Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
“We’ve also found those regions look at sustainability differently,” Edwards said. “We tend to view sustainability as primarily environmental, but there are economic and societal elements as well. The ability to work with government leaders and local authorities to explain business aviation’s benefits takes on greater importance.”
Krahmer also noted leveraging international partnerships helps bring deeper understanding of the varied cultural and regulatory environments across regions to better inform EBAA’s advocacy strategies and initiatives.
“Given the global nature of business aviation, collaboration is essential to influence and shape international standards and regulations that affect our industry,” he said. “Together, we will ensure that these standards adequately reflect the needs and realities of business aviation.”
IGBAA Champions Bizav in Ireland
International aviation has been a rich part of Ireland’s history since the first non-stop flight from the U.S. to Europe landed in a peat bog more than a century ago. The Irish General and Business Aviation Association (IGBAA) draws on this legacy in promoting the importance of GA and business aviation across the country.
“We want to position Ireland as a center of excellence for business aviation,” said Joe Buckley, founding executive director of the IGBAA. “Part of our mission is to educate the Irish government and decision-makers on the value of business aviation for the Irish economy.”
The group also intends to present a development plan for business aviation to the Irish government.
IGBAA is also fully committed to the industry’s “environmental responsibility to mitigate climate change,” Buckley said. “We fully endorse and stand behind the Business Aviation Commitment on Climate Change (BACCC) and will promote Ireland as a leader in this area of sustainability.”
Since Ireland is a leading hub for commercial aircraft leasing and a host for international industries, Buckley said “IBGAA is perfectly positioned to connect the rest of the world to Ireland.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.