Demonstrating environmental responsibility while remaining operationally viable is the biggest challenge facing business aviation, according to the British Business and General Aviation Association (BBGA). But along with its European colleagues, the UK industry also faces potential difficulties with new security requirements covering border controls and the prospect of wider powers for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
“The British economy is threatened by restrictions on business aviation and foreign business visitors must not be made to feel like second-class citizens,” declared BBGA’s new patron, HRH Prince Michael of Kent, in a keynote address to the association’s annual conference in March. Addressing the mounting environmental issue, Prince Michael added, “Business aviation is the ultimate minority interest, and it is easy to portray it as a wasteful use of resources despite the fact that [British business aviation produces] one five-thousandth of annual [British carbon] emissions–equivalent to just one London rush hour. Nonetheless, we must be seen to be acting responsibly by voluntarily offsetting emissions. We have to win our right to continue flying.”
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