The Air Charter Association (ACA) is hosting its annual Air Charter Forum conference as part of this year’s EBACE show. This will run from 1:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21 on the Innovation & Sustainability Stage. Additionally, the industry group will hold its annual networking event for members on May 20 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Geneva.
Across three sessions, speakers will address the state of the charter market and the role of brokers, as well as provide some training through an interactive quiz to test industry knowledge led by ACA training manager Julie Ellis and chief executive Glenn Hogben. Winners of the quiz, which starts at 3:30 p.m., will receive a pair of tickets to attend ACA’s Air Charter Excellence Awards Gala Dinner in November.
The opening session will begin with the latest market data from WingX managing director Richard Koe. A discussion about whether air charter is growing or shrinking will include contributions from industry leaders including MaceAero CEO Chris Mace; FlyingGroup’s director of sales, Matthieu Dardenne; Saxon Air CEO Alex Durand; Andy Jurd, senior v-p for private jets with Air Partner; and Roberto Zapatero, commercial and business development director at Gestair.
What Future Do Brokers Have?
The discussion about the evolving role of charter brokers will be led by Julie Black, head of UK executive charter at Hunt & Palmer. Other panelists will include Yann-Guillaume Jaccard, CEO and co-founder of Simply Jet; Robert Plhak, CEO at VOO Flights; Tomás Camprubí, managing director UK with LunaJets; and James Shotton, co-founder of Skytime.
“ACA is delighted to be able to support the revised EBACE 2025 format by hosting an afternoon of air charter-focused conference sessions,” said the association’s chairman, Kevin Ducksbury. “We always receive fantastic feedback from members who attend our annual ACA Forum events, and we believe it is an excellent platform for discussion that will add additional value to this year’s EBACE show.”
Since it rebranded from the Baltic Air Charter Association during its 70th anniversary in 2019, ACA has seen a near doubling of its membership. This steady growth since the global pandemic is demonstrating the key role that charter is playing in Europe, according to Hogben.
Founded as the Airbrokers’ Association in 1949 by members of the Baltic Mercantile and Shipping Exchange, the organization is picking up members at a rate of between six and seven a month and is poised to reach 500 this year.