AsBAA, the Asian region’s not-for-profit representative trade body for business aviation today advised ABACE attendees on preparations for international operations, including those involving high traffic events such as the Olympics and European Football Championships.

Charlie Mularski, AsBAA Chairman, and CEO of Universal Weather Asia Pacific, sat on the panel of experts along with Craig Hanlon of DuPont, Roman Stampoulis of UAS, Mandy Eddington of Medaire, and Xia Shi of Jeppesen. Ty Dubay, AsBAA Board of Governor, and President of Netjets China (Hong Kong), moderated the education panel session.

The session included practical advice for operators that will have customers flying to high traffic events such as the summer Olympics, and the European Football Championships. The panel discussion explored some of the possible pitfalls of trip-planning in such circumstances. These problems will likely go beyond the standard complaints of slots and parking, and extend to hotel availability and healthcare clearance issues.

Charlie Mularski said, “We advise everyone to begin planning early, don’t wait until the last minute, work with your ground handler, be mindful of the must-do local tax issues, and plan the tasks for each location”. He went on to warn, “Don’t try to cheat the system, you cannot. There are massive penalties for lateness and errors. There are a lot of frustrating issues, such as parking, that are still under discussion, and with slow planning on behalf of the authorities, there is an even greater need for early and thorough planning by the operators, which will include full healthcare and vaccination clearance.”

The panel also explored some health and safety guidelines specific to Brazil travel, which include requirements for extensive vaccination certification (hepatitis A & B, yellow fever, typhoid fever, rabies, and malaria). There was also strong advice to check the restrictions for passengers returning from high risk countries such as Brazil, as they will also need to evidence their clean health record and vaccination certification.

The Education Session formed part of a wider programme of AsBAA-organised sessions at ABACE 2016. At its Annual General Meeting held on 11 April, NBAA President, Ed Bolen congratulated AsBAA on helping raise the standard of expertise and access to information at these sessions.

Charlie Mularski also said that AsBAA hopes to replicate the good work that NBAA does in holding its annual International Operators Conference (IOC), and that AsBAA plans to hold an Asian IOC in 2016/17. Speaking of the proposed event, he said, “We can see that the IOC is a very useful event for the business aviation community, there is clearly now a need for such an event with an Asian focus. This would allow us to explore the same issues, in the same format, but with an Asian flavour that looks at local restrictions and issues. We are learning from NBAA how best to set this up, and building the agenda over the next few months.”