Tuesday’s protests at EBACE 2023 weren’t the first time demonstrators have disrupted a business aviation event, and they certainly won’t be the last. As recently as last February, protesters disrupted EBAA’s Air Ops conference in Brussels after reportedly managing to register for the event based on a bogus connection with an industry executive.
Before that—in November—eco-protesters on bikes barged into the business aviation enclave at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, disrupting traffic. And on Tuesday, ahead of a peaceful and officially sanctioned protest outside EBACE venue Palexpo, demonstrators forcefully broke into the show’s static display, handcuffing themselves to aircraft and stopping flights at Geneva Airport for almost an hour, driving up carbon emissions as aircraft had to stay in holding patterns or divert. Reportedly, most of the disruptors were arrested.
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