Unity remains key in the ‘new normal’ By George Galanopoulos, CEO, Luxaviation UK.

Despite the long-term changes caused by coronavirus, the ‘new normal’ in the business aviation industry will not be completely different from life before COVID-19. Cooperation and unity remain critical within companies and across the industry.

Let’s take a closer look at some important current examples:

• Working together as an industry we must ensure UK-based owners can keep flying commercially within post-Brexit Europe. Operators, national aviation authorities and the British Business and General Aviation Association (BBGA) must keep channels of communication open and productive. For straightforward, permanent solutions to post-Brexit challenges we need bilateral agreements between EU member states and the UK.

And, at the time of writing, we can all be positive. Negotiations have successfully concluded with some countries and are progressing with other nations. All EU countries now allow block permits (covering multiple flights) for up to and including Fifth Freedom flights (where an operator from one country flies between two other countries on a flight originating or ending in the operator’s own country). Several nations, including Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands, now allow block permits for up to and including Seventh Freedom flights (where an operator from one country flies between two other countries on a flight that does not involve the operator’s own country).

Business aviation’s clients rightly value speed and flexibility highly. No one wins when excessive paperwork delays flight arrangements and raises costs.

• The benefits of unity in the ‘new normal’ and seamless travel - without, for example, the complications of lengthy paperwork on a flight-by-flight basis - explain why we are so committed to progress in areas such as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) European Air Operator Certificate (AOC). Unnecessary boundaries and barriers help no one in business aviation. In October 2020, despite the challenges of the pandemic, we were able to reveal our Portuguese entity had become the first business aviation operation under the safety oversight of an EASA European AOC and we are eager to obtain EASA regulatory supervision for all our European group businesses.

• The pandemic has also shown how cooperation creates strength, not just across our industry, but within large organisations. Let’s be clear - small operators globally have performed superbly to survive the economic impacts of COVID-19 so far but there’s no doubt large companies have found benefits and resilience in their size in the past 18 months.

As the focus of the pandemic has shifted - not only geographically, from China across the world, but also in mission terms, from initial evacuation and repatriation flights (from China in late January 2020) to the eventual return of tourism - large international operators have been able to mobilise, deploy and reposition their diverse fleets to meet the quickly changing nature of this demand. Grounded aircraft types in one part of the world, for example, could be at least partially compensated for by activity in another region, bringing a degree of economic stability to the business.

And, let’s be honest, deep financial resources always bring confidence and resilience to a company during times of crisis or dramatic change, such as COVID-19 or Brexit. At Luxaviation Group, for example, we were certainly delighted to exploit our resources and launch the FLYER service in February this year - a fleet of brand-new turboprop aircraft strategically placed across Europe to offer business and leisure clients a new option for safe, convenient air travel.

Luxaviation's FLYER service, launched in February, features the King Air 250.

• Has the rapid sharing of international aviation data - between industry partners and company colleagues - ever been more important than in the past 18 months? At the height of the travel chaos caused by COVID-19, restrictions placed on aviation seemed to be changing every hour somewhere in the world. We all needed to know and communicate breaking news immediately.

• The final point is by far the most important point for our industry - sustainability. Whatever initiatives we embrace as individual companies, from carbon offset programmes to electric ramp vehicles, we must be committed together to the common goal of protecting our planet. We must consider the environment in every decision we make, actively tackling ‘green’ concerns as we seek to improve our ways of operating. And, critically, we must not allow COVID-19, Brexit or anything else to distract us from these long-term goals. Sustainable aviation is the only way forward.

www.luxaviation.com

BlueSky Business Aviation News | 11th November 2021 | Issue #629