With airline efforts to privatize air traffic control vanquished for now, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen identified access to airspace and airports “at the top of the list” of challenges now facing business aviation in his remarks this morning at the NBAA regional forum at New York's Westchester County Airport.

“We have an active, engaged passionate membership and showed…we can galvanize our community,” Bolen said of the grassroots opposition that rallied to defeat privatization. “Now the question is: what more can we do?"

Bolen singled out Santa Monica and East Hampton Airports for their ongoing efforts to restrict business aviation access, and in a later conversation with AIN added Love Field in Dallas, where plans call for assessing landing fees on all aircraft.

“The other great challenge we have right here and now,” Bolen continued, “is how do we make sure that we have a growing workforce, the pilots we need, the technicians we need, the new generation we need?” NBAA is “putting enormous focus these days” educating young people on opportunities in business aviation, he said. Part of the effort will include special student editions of NBAA Insider, a mentorship program currently being tested, and internships. “We need to find people and give them the inspiration, pathways, and tools they need to make the decision to be part of our community,” he said.