A Decade of Accomplishment:
Top 10 Milestones in European Business Aviation in the Past 10 Years

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Business aviation has come to be recognized in Europe and elsewhere as a vital tool for conducting business in today’s competitive marketplace. Furthermore, the many jobs and the robust economic activity spurred by business aviation also provide an unquestionable benefit to communities across the European region. These and other benefits explain the increasing prominence of the annual European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE).  

EBACE - jointly hosted by European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) and the U.S. National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) – was launched in 2001 as the premier event and annual meeting place for the European business aviation community.  EBACE has proved a catalyst for the industry, helping foster its growth and success in the European region. Key milestones in past decade since the inaugural EBACE in 2001 include the following:

1. EBACE launches in 2001 with a specific business aviation focus.

As the first event in Europe dedicated solely to business aviation, EBACE showcased for the first time to policymakers and the public the industry’s value in supporting jobs, boosting productivity, efficiency and competitiveness for businesses, and enhancing transportation access for communities across the European region.

2. Business aviation enjoys steady growth across Europe.

In the first decade of the new millennium, companies of all sizes have turned increasingly to business aviation to meet their transportation challenges, making the industry one of the fastest-growing aviation sectors in Europe after the low cost airlines. Today, business aviation represents some 7% of IFR traffic in Europe, and the fleet is cleaner, quieter and more fuel-efficient than at any time in its history.

3. EBAA publishes studies quantifying business aviation’s powerful benefits.

To measure the role of business aviation in promoting jobs, investment and economic activity, EBAA has commissioned studies from respected firms, including PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to document the relationship between business aviation and economic growth. PWC’s powerful and well-received 2009 report highlights that business aviation contributed:

•  €19.7billion in annual gross value added to the European economy in 2007;
• 0.2% of combined GDP (of the EU, Norway and Switzerland);
• 164,000 jobs, and;
• Combined annual wages and salaries of €5.7 billion

4. The growing voice of the European business aviation community becomes unified.

Since the first EBACE, EBAA and other national business aviation associations in Europe have uniformly enlarged their representative bases. As a result, the Associations have been increasingly able effectively to represent the industry as a whole, and associations’ members in turn have become better able to communicate the value, diversity and priorities of the region’s business aviation community.

5. Key European policy leaders recognize business aviation value.

The high visibility of EBACE and parallel work by EBAA has helped inform senior figures from European governmental institutions about the value of business aviation to citizens, companies and communities in the region. For example, since the first EBACE:

• Eurocontrol officials have focused on the industry in a series of studies, including:
  • Getting to the Point – Business Aviation in Europe (2006);
  • More to the Point – Business Aviation in Europe (2008), and;
  • Year Book 2009: the Business of Flying (2009).
• European Commission officials published a 2008 communication entitled An agenda for Sustainable future in General and Business Aviation, recognizing the sector’s important role in providing “…Tailored, flexible, door to door transportation for individuals, enterprises and local communities, increasing the mobility of people, productivity of business and regional cohesion.”
• The European Parliament and Council of the EU have increasingly factored business aviation into their policy planning. As just one example, both institutions now consider the industry’s unique operating needs in airport and airspace capacity planning, which will ensure that aviation infrastructure investments will reflect the needs of all aviation system users.

6. European officials incorporate business aviation into modernization planning.

EBACE has always been a key venue for industry and government to share perspectives about modernizing the region’s aviation system to meet future air travel demands. Since the launch of the event, EBACE has featured major policy addresses by the President of the European Civil Aviation Conference, the EU’s Director of Air Transport, top officials from Eurocontrol, and a host of other figures involved in aviation modernization policy. EBAA is actively participating in the definition and implementation of the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) project – the region’s Master Plan for air traffic modernization.

7. Industry mobilizes to preserve access to small airports.

Given the steady growth of all aviation segments, including business aviation, since the first EBACE in 2001, EBAA has advocated forcefully for policies that ensure business aircraft operators have the same fair and equitable access to airports as the airlines. At EBACE, airports that welcome business aviation have been honoured – as the most recent example, the Association in 2009 awarded officials at the Lyon-Bron Business Airport for recognizing the economic value business aviation brings to the community surrounding the airport.

8. EBAA takes a lead role in advocating effective safety policies.

Safety is the European business aviation community’s highest priority, and its safety record is comparable to that of the best commercial airlines. Since the launch of EBACE in 2001, EBAA has continually increased the industry’s safety focus. EBAA representatives contribute to working groups for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is soon to be the only authority for safety regulation in the EU. To support industry, EBAA works with the International Business Aviation Council to develop Safety Management Systems and other industry standards of best practice. EBAA also co-sponsors an annual European Safety Standdown with NBAA that is tied directly to EBACE, and brings operators together for safety education.

9. Industry unifies around sensible security policies.

At EBACE and throughout the year, EBAA has played an active role in explaining to policymakers that, in business aviation, security begins at the cabin door, not the cockpit door. The industry’s work to underscore the ways business aviation security needs differ from those for the airlines paved the way for the adoption of a security framework tailored to our sector.

10. Business aviation charts a course for continued emissions reductions.

The continually improving environmental record for business aircraft has always been in focus at EBACE, where event discussions also focus on ways to continue mitigating the industry’s environmental footprint. In the years since the first EBACE, business aviation leaders have coalesced around emission’s targets that include carbon-neutral growth by 2020, improved fuel efficiency by an average of 2 percent per year until 2020, and reduced carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050 relative to 2005.

Over the past decade, EBACE has played a key role in supporting the European business aviation marketplace and advancing the industry’s agenda in the region. The next ten years hold as much opportunity for business aviation as the first ten, and EBACE will continue to champion the industry and support its success.