The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC, Booth 687) arrives at NBAA 2018 on the heels of a series of appearances at international events, most recently this month’s 10th Global Sustainable Aviation Summit in Geneva, where it shared the "Business Aviation Guide to Sustainable Fuels" that was released at EBACE in May.

Representing business aviation associations from around the world, IBAC (Booth 687) in September attended an ICAO meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, to help “ensure the Asia-Pacific region’s continued commitment to a flexible, non-exclusionary approach to implementation of coming performance-based communications and surveillance (PBCS) requirements,” said IBAC director general Kurt Edwards. “The key issue here is that while business aviation is largely technically equipped to meet PBCS requirements, we have found that national authorities are themselves not prepared, potentially putting our operators at a disadvantage due to lack of authorizations.”

IBAC is now preparing to bring this issue “to the global community” at ICAO’S 13th Air Navigation Conference in Montreal later this month, which will lay the groundwork for action at the ICAO Assembly next fall. 

“As the global aviation system seeks to apply new technologies to enhance efficiency and safety, we believe that ICAO, as part of its regular standards-making process, should assess the abilities of states to implement new requirements as it also consults with industry,” said Edwards. “Such an assessment does not currently exist and has led to unintended consequences for some business aircraft operators.”