The 2016 BACA Excellence Awards took place at London Guildhall on Wednesday 19th October, a capacity audience saw the presentation of a series of six Awards reflecting the best of the air charter industry.

The winners of the Awards are chosen by the membership of BACA, via a vote from a shortlist of finalists, also decided by the members. The winners of the Chairman's Award and the Young Person the Year Award are chosen by BACA Chairman Richard Mumford.

New innovations for this year included the introduction of Awards for the Young Person of the Year and the Aircraft Manufacturer of the Year. The final Award of the day was the Chairman's Award presented to an individual or company for outstanding service, dedication and long term achievement in their field. This time the winner of the Chairman's Award was Robert Fallow, a Paramedic who retired from the Scottish Ambulance Service in April 2016 after 41 years with the service, having joined aged 18 as a Cadet.

Robert served as an Airwing Paramedic for more than twenty years as part of the Scottish Air Ambulance Service based out of Glasgow Airport. Initially working on an Islander aircraft, in 2006 Robert moved on to the King Air 200 spending the last 10 years flying with Gama Aviation. From 2013, Robert worked full time on the Air Ambulance aircraft, prior to that he shared his time between aircraft duties and road ambulance shifts based out of Paisley Ambulance Station. It is impossible to say just how many patients Robert has tended to, it falls into the thousands and ranges from routine medical transfers for patients to the mainland for treatment, to those in time critical, life-threatening conditions. There are truly an inconceivable number of people living in the remote and rural parts of Scotland who owe their lives to the hard work and dedication over the years from Robert and his colleagues.

Photography: Colin Antill, Fotoseeker International

The Chairman's Award was the final presentation of the day however the ceremony started with the Passenger Charter Airline of the Year Award, the complete portfolio of Award winners was as follows;

• Passenger Charter Airline of the Year - Titan Airways - sponsored by Air Charter Service
• Cargo Charter Airline of the Year - Jota Aviation - sponsored by Transvalair
• Handling Agent / FBO of the Year - Weston Aviation - sponsored by London Executive Aviation
• Aircraft Manufacturer of the Year - Embraer - sponsored by London Biggin Hill Airport
• Young Person of the Year - Peter Ogilvie - sponsored by TAG Farnborough Airport
• The BACA Chairman's Award - Robert Fallow - sponsored by Titan Airways.

BACA Chairman Richard Mumford concluded the Award by saying "I am delighted to present these Awards to a worthy set of winners and congratulate on their achievement. BACA introduced some new Award categories this year so that we have a series of recipients that reflect the broad spectrum of the aviation charter industry and these have been received very well."