Bolen Touts Safety, New ATC System at SDC

NBAA’s Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference (SDC) officially kicked off this morning in Cleveland with an opening session.

Before a standing room audience at the Huntington Convention Center, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen—who has presided over the organization for the past 21 years—recalled that SDC was the first of the organization’s shows he attended when he assumed leadership.

He looked back on the events a year ago when a spate of aviation accidents, including the midair collision in Washington D.C., an aeromedical flight crash in Philadelphia, another midair collision in Arizona, and others, made nationwide headlines.

“What happened in the aftermath of that was our industry began to question ourselves. The world began to question us,” Bolen said. “For the first time in my life, people were coming up to me saying, ‘Is it safe to fly?’”

Bolen noted that, in response, the industry coalesced to create the Modern Skies Coalition, a group of 60 aviation associations of which NBAA was an executive founder. “For the first time, we are not being divided with parochial interest, we’re united to build this brand new air traffic control system.”

With $12.5 billion in funding and a deadline of three years, NBAA leadership met last week with the FAA administrator to get a progress update on the new system. “You have to make things happen,” Bolen said. “That’s why it’s important that our industry comes together.”

He also noted the effects recent budget stalemates and resulting government shutdowns had on business aviation, with efforts to limit access to what industry critics referred to as “the Champagne Class” to Class B airspace. While those proposals failed, the current TSA difficulties underline the fact that governmental problems may continue to cause unexpected issues for the industry.

During the session, Holly Whitaker, founder of charter broker Exclusive Air, received this year’s Outstanding Achievement and Leadership Award. The highlight of the opening session was a discussion between Bolen and Ohio native and industry icon Kenn Ricci, who discussed his career and the evolution of business aviation over the past four decades.

Closing out the session, SDC co-committee chairs Mitch Papontos and Lisa Borrayo proclaimed this year’s event as the largest in terms of attendance and number of exhibitors in its 38-year history.