Intl Business Aviation Council Celebrates 40 Years

The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC, Booth 3966) is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a busy agenda that includes building on its work with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), sustainability efforts, and other safety initiatives such as IS-BAO and IS-BAH.

The organization was formed in September 1981 when six associations—the Canadian Business Aviation Association, NBAA, British Business and General Aviation Association, European Business Aviation Association, German Business Aviation Association, and African Business Aviation Association—signed a charter during the annual NBAA convention in Anaheim, California, to advocate for the industry globally. As the industry grew, so too has the number of business aviation associations, and IBAC now counts among its members 15 regional and national organizations around the globe.

“Much has been accomplished in 40 years for the business aviation community, including the establishment of IBAC’s presence at ICAO in Montreal as an official observer; developing two recognized global codes of best safety practice, IS-BAO and IS-BAH; revising Annex 6 Part II of the Chicago Convention; offering aircrew IDs; and leading industry sustainability efforts, including the new carbon credit exchange voluntary offset platform, among others,” said IBAC director-general Kurt Edwards.

Edwards noted that IBAC passed through its first couple of decades as a quiet one-person shop, and by the late 1990s, the organization, which had moved to Texas, “almost disappeared” as the then-director-general, Dennis Wright, had hoped to retire.

But Bill Stine, the long-time director of international operations for NBAA who retired in 2014, had stepped in to also serve as director-general pro tem, and Edwards credited him with keeping it going, moving the office temporarily to Washington, D.C., and helping to establish a liaison position with the International Civil Aviation Organization. “It really kind of saved the organization in the late 1990s and it's only grown since then,” he said.

By 1999, IBAC once again had a full-time director-general, Don Spruston, who moved the organization back to Montreal, and then, by the early 2000s, IBAC had an observer’s seat at ICAO and was launching IS-BAO.

IS-BAO, Edwards said, “helped truly catapult IBAC into a broader sphere of awareness within the business aviation industry. All of a sudden, here is an industry association putting forward this voluntary code of best safety practices, which was clearly in the best interest of the industry.”

IBAC, working with industry partners, grew that program over time, incorporating the safety management system. At the same time, the organization reached out to governments, as well as to ICAO, to raise awareness about the needs and benefits of the industry.  

“That's really what this association is about,” Edwards said. “So many people think about aviation as being the airlines. They don’t think beyond that. They don't think of the roles that we play and how we contribute to economics, societal development, and humanitarian matters.”

IBAC marked a major accomplishment in the late 2000s when it became the first industry organization to successfully facilitate a major revision to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (also known as the Chicago Convention). That revision—which modernized the standards of Annex 6 Part 2 governing general aviation aircraft operations and brought them more in line with the commercial air transport industry—was adopted with few changes. This is an accomplishment, Edwards said, that government leaders still remark upon today.

The IBAC board recognized these strides and began hiring full-time professional staff. IBAC now has 11 full-time people serving the organization around the world. “That still sounds small, but I think it is actually quite impressive," Edwards said. "And I do think we punch above our weight.”

The array of issues that IBAC addresses has expanded over the years to include safety, security, access, airports, and ground handling, particularly with the launch of the IS-BAO companion program IS-BAH. IBAC has recognized some 260 locations as Stage 1 since the program launched in 2014, and it recently completed the first Stage 3 renewal, SRC Aviation in New Delhi. “We’re on all six inhabited continents,” Edwards said.

He added that sustainability is a major issue and credited the business aviation community for taking part in those discussions from the “get-go.” He noted that more than a decade ago, IBAC, working with other organizations, was able to help pave the way for short-, medium-, and long-term sustainability goals. “That was a huge accomplishment and motivating for many governments to see that,” he said, recalling that discussions were more contentious at the broader cross-industry level internationally at the time.

“Since then we've been working on promoting sustainable aviation fuels,” Edwards said, pointing to the recent partnership with Carbon Trade eXchange (CTX) to offer a carbon-offset program.

Edwards believes IBAC needs to continue to grow its membership, particularly by getting more national members. (Its most recently added member is the Irish Business and General Aviation Association.) This is key to expanding its international influence and reach, particularly before ICAO, Edwards said.

While believing that IBAC continues to have a say and noting that “we’ve had some terrific accomplishments,” Edwards added that “we have counterparts there representing other sectors of the industry that are much better resourced than we are. One of the ways that we can help to build out our ability to take advantage of opportunities there is growing the membership.”

He also believes that because of its narrow focus, IBAC can provide more effective representation for business aircraft manufacturers than some of the larger overarching organizations. Edwards pointed to IBAC’s work that helped lead to a 2018 ICAO Council decision to raise the weight threshold requirement for aircraft with hardened cockpit doors from 45.5 tonnes maximum certificated takeoff weight (MCTOW) to 54.5 tonnes MCTOW for aircraft that seat 19 or fewer passengers. This was a key decision that eased the certification path for the new breed of ultra-long-range aircraft, including the Global 7500 and Gulfstream G650ER.

ICAO has begun to turn more to IBAC, recently asking the organizations to reach out to underserved regions where “safety needs more focus,” he said. In addition, ICAO has asked IBAC to put together workshops to help regions understand how to develop public health corridors. ICAO made this request, viewing IBAC as an “honest broker,” Edwards noted.

As for the next frontier, IBAC is looking at possibilities for expanding IS-BAO to other operations, including ones using remotely piloted aircraft. He noted that IBAC members have their own members that operate drones—in fact, IBAC’s member in Africa has three organizations that operate only remotely-piloted vehicles. The organization has flushed out the parameters of this but plans to test it out to ensure the standards are appropriate before fully unveiling such a program.

Noting these types of operations and others, such as eVTOLs, Edwards said, “We have a lot of work to do in that area but it’s quite exciting.”