A Word From Our Director General
Kurt Edwards
It was a real pleasure to meet in person at NBAA BACE in Las Vegas in October and to catch up with so many colleagues and friends face to face, with no screens in between! A central discussion point at the show was business aviation’s commitment to sustainability. NBAA and GAMA shared the good news on which the Governing Board had already been briefed: the business aviation sector has met its goal of two percent annual fuel-efficiency improvement since 2010.
An emphasis on the role of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) took center stage at the opening day lunch and a follow-on series of panels. SAF will contribute to meeting our current goal of carbon-neutral growth (CNG) from 2020. Offsetting is another measure that will contribute to CNG. IBAC has teamed with CTX to establish a carbon credit exchange, IBAC EX, tailored to business aviation, and we encourage organizations to include it in their overall emissions reductions plans.
And the momentous sustainability announcement on opening day was business aviation’s commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This represents an even more ambitious aspirational goal than that adopted in 2009, and it will be possible with the focused support and collaboration of our stakeholders, including governments, manufacturers, fuel producers and suppliers, FBOs, and airports. See the IBAC declaration agreed by the Governing Board in September 2021, which has been adopted by the broad business aviation sector, including our partners at GAMA.
Several important personnel announcements: Andrew Karas has joined IBAC as the new IS-BAO Programme Director. Larry “Fletch” Fletcher, IS-BAH Audit Manager, has retired from full-time service with IBAC but will help on a part-time basis with the transition to his successor, Steven Abreu-Hill. Please join me in welcoming Andrew and Steven and thanking Fletch for his contributions. We were pleased to have a celebration dinner in Fletch’s honor during NBAA BACE in Las Vegas.
ICAO
Andreas Meyer, IBAC Director, ICAO Liaison
- The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) engaged with representatives from numerous states and other international aviation associations during the two weeks for the ICAO High-Level Conference on Covid-19 (HLCC) to support a harmonized restart of the air transport system. The central theme of “one vision for aviation recovery, resilience, and sustainability beyond the global pandemic” brought together states and industry. Global industry associations issued a joint statement supporting the commitment by ministers of transport and health to address the worldwide aviation crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- On 25 October 2021 the ICAO Council and Air Navigation Commission resumed their session, with discussions focusing on RPAS, Environment, Innovation and Cybersecurity.
IS-BAH
Terry Yeomans, Programme Director
- Steven Abreu-Hill was welcomed as the new IS-BAH Audit Manager this month. He will be working with Lawrence ‘Fletch’ Fletcher through the end of the year to transition into his new role as Fletch retires from IBAC after 10 years of service in both IS-BAO and IS-BAH programmes. See press release HERE.
- The final IS-BAH virtual workshop of the year, 16-19 November is available for reservations.
IS-BAO
Andrew Karas, IS-BAO Programme Director
- The IS-BAO Standards Board convened on October 19th and welcomed newly elected members Chris Tran, ABAA and Tariq Alsaeed, MEBAA. The Board confirmed the issue of a new revision to the Standard after four years since the last update. The revision to be issued in January 2022 will be called the 20th Edition, in reference to the 20th anniversary of the first issue of IS-BAO in 2002. During the next few months, the IS-BAO team will be focused on issuing the new revision of IS-BAO and all the associated documentation, including the audit protocols and guidance material. Read press release HERE
- Andrew Karas has joined the IS-BAO team as the new Programme Director and can be contacted at akaras@ibac.org
- The next IS-BAO Progressive Stage 3 Roundtable webinar will take place virtually on 17 November at 11:00 EST (New York). Titled “Managing Change – Now More Than Ever”, the panel discussion will be led by several PS3 operators and focus on the rapidly changing dynamics of global operations as we navigate the post-covid surge in activity. Register for the ‘free’ webinar HERE.
SUSTAINABILITY
Bruce Parry, IBAC Environment Director
- The Business Aviation Commitment on Climate Change (BACCC) has recently been updated. This was the second update since the original commitment was published back in 2009, the last update was conducted in in 2015. All areas of the commitment and its goals were evaluated by a wide set of business aviation stakeholders who were led through the overall evaluation process by Bombardier who collected and analysed all the relevant information.
- As Kurt mentioned above, we have achieved both the 2% reduction to 2020 and reached a higher penetration into the fleet with technology improvements higher than originally forecast. “Carbon-neutral Growth from 2020” is now fully activated and we will need to make further progress on the use of SAF to keep the pace. Other key contributions to this goal will be through voluntary carbon offsetting, which are now available through IBAC’s partnership with CTX and their Global Carbon Exchange.
- It is important to note that SAF and offsets help business aviation decarbonise now, while the continued improvements to operations, infrastructure and technology start to influence the overall level of decarbonisation.
- As highlighted previously in Kurt’s message, the Commitment’s third goal has now changed and will be to achieve “Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050”.
If you require any further information, or have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Bruce Parry, IBAC’s Environment Director at bparry@ibac.org
