With an eye on the increasing outbreak of COVID-19, NBAA is closing its Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference (S&D) today, a day early, as well as canceling its upcoming 2020 International Operators Conference (IOC2020) and Business Aircraft Finance, Registration, & Legal Conference. Working with its board, NBAA also is evaluating other events scheduled through July 1, the association added, saying “information will be coming out shortly.”
S&D, which opened on March 10, was set to go through Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina. NBAA has decided to cancel all educational programming on Friday but said it is exploring options for virtually providing some educational content from that programming at some point in the future.
In addition, NBAA is exploring possibilities to facilitate a virtual version of IOC2020 in April. That event had been scheduled for March 16 to 19, also in Charlotte. Details on a virtual version are anticipated shortly. Its now-canceled Business, Aircraft Finance, Registration, & Legal Conference was to have been held March 22 to 24 in Amelia Island, Florida.
“As with all NBAA events, we view our participants as partners whose health, safety, and security is always our foremost concern, and that is the guiding principle behind our decision on these three events,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen, adding the organization continues to monitor guidance from authorities such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as it considers future events.
NBAA has already canceled ABACE, which was to have been held next month in Shanghai. Looming large is EBACE, one of NBAA’s cornerstone events that is held annually in conjunction with the European Business Aviation Association toward the end of May in Geneva. As with ABACE, decisions need to be made earlier for EBACE, given the logistics of setting up such a large-scale exhibition.
EBAA canceled of its 2020 annual meetings event that had been scheduled from March 19 to 20 in Brussels, and similarly, the organizers of Aero Friedrichshafen have postponed that event, which had been scheduled April 1 to 4.
“We will keep members and partners apprised with regard to how this challenging and continually evolving situation impacts upcoming events,” Bolen said.
The move to cancel IOC2020 and the finance conference does not come as a surprise in light of growing travel restrictions, including involving Europe, and as cancelations are widely spreading throughout schools, sporting events, and other activities involving larger-scale gatherings.
