Press Release
Issued by Luxaviation Belgium.
October 7, 2014
As the newly formed European Parliament takes shape, the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) is calling for members of the EP (MEPs) to get up close and personal with business aviation to gain a better understanding of its operations before work resumes on the portfolios that affect aviation.
In the first of a series of familiarisation events and initiatives planned for Q4 2014, today the EBAA, along with Abelag Premier Jet Services and MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu, member of the Transport Committee, hosted a tour of Abelag, the Brussels-based business aviation facility. The tour brought MEPs and their assistants to the Abelag facility during the lunch-break of their busy workday, allowing for a close-up view of the operations of a full ground handling unit operating business jets and enabling commercial and economic development throughout Europe from Brussels Airport.
The MEPs experienced first-hand the models and procedures on which their activities can have a direct impact, seeing for themselves how business aviation often does not fit the regular mould of aviation legislation. It requires, rather, a more tailored approach to regulation – specifically, when it comes to access to infrastructure. In times of a looming capacity crunch and a worrying lack of will to expand the number of existing runways in Europe, business aviation will be impacted in a significant way.
“I felt it was important that our new colleagues, those who just joined the Transport Committee, get a concrete sense of the different elements composing the air transport mosaic. On-demand business aviation is a world per se; and as needs and business evolve, legislation must evolve too, especially when we are talking about aviation,” said MEP Marinescu.
“The election of new MEPs, paralleled with the reconsideration of EASA's basic regulation and the launch of SESAR large-scale demonstrations made it even more crucial that business aviation is understood for what it really is. When it comes to regulating air transport, it may be tempting to assume that what will work for the majority, i.e. airlines, will work for all, but this is simply not the case. So we are aiming to better educate when it comes to our distinctive segment,” said Fabio Gamba, EBAA ceo.
“Abelag stands amongst the longest established business aviation companies in Europe, is a founding member of the EBAA, and is located right here in Brussels, so it made perfect sense to invite newly appointed MEPs to our facility to explain to them the operational challenges that smaller on-demand operators are routinely confronted with,” concluded Hervé Laitat, ceo of Abelag.
