NBAA President Addresses State of Business Aviation at Regional Forum

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) held its first regional forum on Wednesday in Opa Locka, Florida. It was his first such event since February 2020, before the pandemic disrupted event businesses of all kinds.

Indeed, this is clearly a unique time in the industry, as global trends have driven travelers to turn to business travel, either by purchasing aircraft or tapping into the airline market. charter for trips.

“This is an exciting time for business aviation,” NBAA President Ed Bolen said. “Sales are strong; used inventory is less than 3%. An unimaginable number of new people are coming into this industry in huge numbers.

However, he stressed that this accelerated growth would require sharp execution.

“Make no mistake about it,” Bolen said, “we have challenges there.”

The industry is clearly feeling the pressure of trying to keep up with demand while dealing with other forces at play. It seems there were five priorities on most people’s minds, and Bolen addressed them. during its opening session, and later in an interview with FLYING.

A view of the #NBAAForum aircraft show! Looks good at Miami-Opa locka executive airport! pic.twitter.com/VHZWIodqIg

— NBAA (@NBAA) February 2, 2022

Switch to sustainable aviation fuel

The adoption of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) has been a dominant theme for the association. In October 2021, business aviation leaders committed to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

Bolen focused on improving availability, which would come through working with Congress through the Build Back Better bill, which contains a provision that provides assistance for increased SAF production.

“It’s jet-A, it’s jet-A,” Bolen reminded council leaders, to assuage any hesitation some operators might have had about fuel. “So in terms of ‘is this a proven fuel? Is it a safe fuel? Is it something we embrace enthusiastically? ” The answer is yes.”

Emerging Technology

After a series of advanced air mobility companies became publicly traded entities in 2021 and garnered billions of dollars in investments, NBAA put a lot of thought into adapting this new platform.

Bolen pointed to the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act introduced in Congress last fall. It will promote planning and construction initiatives to build air mobility infrastructure capabilities, from workforce development to infrastructure in terms of suitable ports.

Workforce recruitment and retention

Much has been made of how “the big shakeup” has affected the workforce across industries, and it was evident on Wednesday as many new and independent businesses aimed to capitalize on the increased activity in the aeronautical industry.

However, this made it difficult for well-established players to attract or retain talent. Many companies have been forced to go back to the drawing board and reassess their strategies.

Bolen encouraged business leaders to get creative with improving their offerings so the talent pool can stay strong.

“It will be key to whether or not we seize this opportunity to turn new entrants into lifelong supporters of business aviation and truly seize the opportunity to pass on to future generations a growing, exciting and thriving industry. boom,” Bolen said.

An inspiring event of the opening ceremony was a graduation event attended by 30 students from the Flying Classroom Bombardier Academy, a partnership between the Flying Classroom at Barrington Irving and Bombardier. The program aims to teach a range of students about careers in business aviation.

Students who complete the course now have the opportunity to work at Bombardier, which is opening a 300,000 square foot MRO facility at Opa-Locka Airport (KOPF) in 2022.

One of the jets featured on the static display was the Learjet 40XR that Bombardier provided to Irving to support its outreach efforts.

Irving congratulated the graduates and said, “You’re going to have a career here and be able to do amazing things in this industry.

New infrastructure and tax incentives

The NBAA played a key role in the infrastructure bills that were passed in 2021, which provided for the updating of airports and facilities used by business aviation, as well as the development of the workforce. work.

Also, customers were eager to hear updates on some of the favorable tax incentives that were increasingly allowing companies to buy jets, namely premium depreciation.

The depreciation allowance is a tax incentive that allows a business to immediately deduct a significant percentage of the purchase price of qualifying assets, such as machinery, rather than depreciating them over the “useful life” of that asset. active.