In October—the month when NBAA-BACE would have been held if not for the pandemic—AIN is producing in-depth coverage of business aviation that celebrates the industry’s resilience, value, and innovation. Along with these weekly dedicated newsletters sent to you every Thursday this month, we will be holding a series of business aviation-themed webinars and publishing content on a dedicated landing page, culminating in a special-edition print issue of NBAA Convention News.
Coleal: Sustainability is Good for Business
Bombardier Aviation president and GAMA environmental committee chairman David Coleal stresses that exhibiting a commitment to sustainability makes good long-term business sense. Speaking to AIN, he highlighted the fact that younger people—those who comprise what one day will become business aviation’s customer base—generally show more concern for the environment than previous generations.
“We clearly have to make sure that our industry is not seen as a contributor, but as a leader in sustainability,” said Coleal. “So, from a social perspective, bizav, with flight shaming and all these things, we’ve become an easy target. We have to continually be out front demonstrating leadership. And we all have to make sure that we’re not doing anything that is a detriment to our future customers. We want them to fly private so that they can see the benefit in safety and sustainability and advanced technology and job creation—all the great things this industry does.”
Much of today’s effort from the business aviation perspective focuses on sustainable alternative fuels, but airframe, avionics, and engine technology have long contributed to fuel burn reduction and noise cuts vital to the industry’s environmental sustainability drive.
Technological innovation today stands as one of the four pillars of sustainability. While wing design advances allow for more speed and better performance overall, the industry can now point to the resulting environmental benefits from improved fuel burn.
Attending every NBAA-BACE since 1995 has provided me with a quarter-century of cherished memories. The convention is always an amazing showcase of breathtaking new products and services. But my most profound memories are of the remarkable people who annually gather to celebrate all things business aviation.
Among my favorite NBAA moments was in 2015 when we were in Las Vegas and Dierks Bentley was to be our keynote speaker. The night before the show opened, I saw Dierks at a reception. He told me that he had been working hard on his speech but was nervous because he had never stood at a podium and talked to a crowd. He was used to singing, not speaking. I tried not to act surprised, but it was a little concerning to learn that our keynote speaker had zero public speaking experience.
Of course, when the curtain rose, Dierks was absolutely brilliant—one of the best we’ve had. Turns out, he made a last-minute decision in the green room not to read the speech he had spent weeks writing. Instead, he just walked out and spoke from the heart about what being a pilot meant to him. His passion and emotion reverberated throughout the crowd. He was a smash hit.
—Ed Bolen, president and CEO of NBAA
In the absence of this year’s NBAA-BACE, AIN has reached out to industry leaders to share their favorite memories and thoughts about past shows. The responses are highlighting how the annual event resonates throughout the industry. These memories are being accumulated here.
Women from a cross-section of business aviation gathered for a recent NBAA News Hour online discussion to stress the importance of taking risks, having a willingness to “be the first,” and mentoring to pave the way for a more diverse workforce. Moderated by JetLaw partner Kali Hague, the News Hour, “Women in Bizav—Being Bold,” featured women who hold varied roles from operators to airport and maintenance fields.
Julia Harrington, lead captain and Chicago base manager for Axis Jet, discussed how “being bold” is “really about being unafraid to take a seat at the table and go after your goals with tenacity—and not letting being the first stop you from wanting to move forward with those goals.”
GrandView Aviation COO Jessie Naor stressed the importance of being an advocate for oneself. “[We] have to be first for a moment here so we can help others,” Naor said. Erin Croop, marketing coordinator for Lee County Port Authority–Page Field, meanwhile, added that women must have the courage to take on new things, and Lee Brewster—director of communications, public relations, and industry engagement for ATP—further noted that women should “embrace who you are. It’s okay to be feminine and a mechanic,” she said.
As schools around the world see mixed results in their efforts to balance education needs with health imperatives during the pandemic, FlightSafety characterizes its remote LiveLearning program as broadly successful, delivering 1,750 pilot courses and 1,095 mechanics courses since its introduction in March.
LiveLearning differs from the company’s well-established eLearning offerings in that it replicates the classroom environment with a live instructor. Most recently, the company has expanded its LiveLearning offerings to include EASA-approved courses taught from its facilities in Paris and Farnborough.
FlightSafety senior v-p of operations Brian Moore told AIN that, particularly for recurrent training, the program has “boomed” since its launch in March, both among pilots and mechanics. V-p of sales and marketing Steve Gross explained that the company did something similar for ancillary courses such as RVSM and MMEL training for three or four years before the pandemic.
Gross added that the demand for the training has come from across the fleet. “It’s a really interesting mix, the take-up of it,” he said. “The quality of the instruction has not suffered. We still use our technology from the classroom and present it online. You can ask a question in general so the whole class can hear, or what they’ve done is set up a private chat for the attendees.”
Other than the two NBAA Conventions that were cancelled/postponed—September 2001 due to 9/11, and the Katrina postponement of 2005—a few NBAA Conventions immediately come to mind.
Clearly the most relevant and important to me was the 2003 NBAA Convention in Orlando, Florida. It was when NBAA held its awards dinner on the third night of the convention, and the guest of honor was Ray Siegfried, founder of Nordam. Ray had been diagnosed with ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease in early 2000, and even though he was clearly affected by this debilitating disease, he ran Nordam right up to his death on Oct. 6, 2005.
As the guest speaker at the 2003 convention—effectively fully paralyzed and bound to a wheelchair—Ray spoke eloquently for 30 minutes using the then-new technology called Eyegaze, where he could speak through a computerized system using eye commands. Ray gave such an articulate, direct, heartfelt, poignant, unbelievable talk to everyone in the audience that it is impossible to put into words.
Included at our table were Russ Meyer, Ed Bolen, and several others. Every one of us was completely spellbound by the remarkable strength and character Ray displayed that evening. At the end of Ray’s talk—of course, to a standing, applauding ovation—there was not one dry eye in the house. No one at our table could say a word—Ray left us all speechless.
—Wilson Leach, managing director at AIN
In the absence of this year’s NBAA-BACE, AIN has reached out to industry leaders to share their favorite memories and thoughts about past shows. The responses are highlighting how the annual event resonates throughout the industry. These memories are being accumulated here.
Covid-19 has upended the business aviation industry, slowing aircraft manufacturing, maintenance, and transactions. But these systemic shocks have been of relatively little consequence to private jet travelers—so far, at least.
Most have been resigned to staying sheltered or were required to do so. Yet, while governments shut borders, airlines slashed service, and your office became off-limits, private aviation remained open for business. If you needed to charter, use hours on your jet card, or summon your fractional-share aircraft, your provider could accommodate you. For aircraft owners, meanwhile, access to the National Airspace System remained uninterrupted.
Meanwhile, the industry quickly implemented effective safety protocols. It also secured financial and regulatory assistance from Congress and the FAA to keep business aviation and the airways open. Indeed, business aviation demonstrated once again, perhaps more emphatically than ever before, that its people, equipment, and culture can be counted on in times of crisis.
But make no mistake: Covid-19 is dramatically altering this industry, and you need to understand what’s changing, how those changes will affect your flights, and what you can do to be ready.
CAN’s Fund an Angel Online Auction Closes Next Week
Corporate Angel Network's (CAN) Fund an Angel auction, which is being held online thanks to the cancellation of this year’s NBAA-BACE due to the pandemic, closes next week. The online auction will end at 8 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, October 7. CAN has added items to the auction list as they have come in, and bids can be placed at any time.
The organization typically holds the auction in tandem with the annual Fund an Angel event on the second night of the NBAA convention and exhibition. Last year's event and auction raised some $510,000 for CAN’s mission of arranging transportation aboard business jets for cancer patients seeking treatment.
“While the CAN team wishes we could be in person for this event as we’ve done for the past 10 years…we still have a platform to generate funds for our operation while promoting the positive impact business aviation has on cancer patients throughout the country,” said CAN executive director Gina Russo.
The fundraiser is particularly important this year, Russo added. “The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted CAN financial resources as well as the availability of aircraft,” she said. “When flight departments decreased flight activity in mid-March, it presented a unique challenge for the CAN model. Fortunately, through the support of the business aviation community, we have remained a critical part of our patients’ treatment plans.”
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