New AsBAA Head Sees Changes on Horizon

Airport access and ensuring a properly trained workforce in Asia are among the issues that the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) intends to address in the coming year as the industry develops steam. Charles Mularski, Universal Weather & Aviation’s regional vice president for Asia-Pacific, took over the reins at the association to begin his two-year tenure as chairman at ABACE, where he sat down with AIN to discuss his views of the industry’s future in the region.

The organization has grown steadily since its launch in March 2011 and now numbers approximately 110 members, heading toward a goal this year of 125; according to Mularski, AsBAA is evolving. “The OEMs traditionally were the leaders in running the association and in the past that was one of the issues. It was really perceived as an OEM association, only looking after the OEMs’ interests,” he told AIN. “We have changed that and I think with maturity the association has grown and has become more operator-centric rather than OEM-centric.”

Among the hurdles AsBAA faces is ensuring that it is truly a pan-Asian organization that can speak with one voice for all its members. “That’s one of the challenges we took last year, really making it more across the region rather than China-centric,” Mularski noted, adding that AsBAA has developed subchapters in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.