Press Release

Issued by Asian Business Aviation Association.

June 30, 2016

AsBAA, the Asian region's non-for-profit representative body for business aviation has hosted its inaugural regional chapter meeting at SkyPark FBO Malaysia to a full-house of around 40 industry representatives, gathered to address local issues as a community under the One Voice, AsBAA umbrella. The first of its kind meeting comes as part of an increased level of support, events, and engagement from AsBAA to meet the needs of its growing membership in southeast Asia.

AsBAA board of governor, Dion Xavier said, “The strong attendance from FBOs, MROs, OEMs, operators and multiple stakeholders of the local industry community is very encouraging. This sets the stage well for more of these type of meetings across southeast Asia. As such we are now setting up the next meeting in Malaysia, where there is an engaged and proactive community at Subang poised to help expand AsBAA and achieve results for the industry in this region.”

The event was hosted by SkyPark FBO Malaysia, and its industry visionary, Tan Sri Ravindran Menon who delivered an engaging keynote address about the need for a cohesive and collaborative strategy to drive the business aviation agenda in southeast Asia, ensure challenges are met, and opportunities maximised. Tan Sri Ravi said, “SkyPark is honoured to support AsBAA and the local business aviation community; we see this as a meeting of minds whereby we can come together for the common good of business aviation in Asia, to ensure its recognition as an important component of the local and global economy. This mind-set is key to our mutual success and we're encouraged by today's energy within the local community under AsBAA.”

SkyPark has also been announced as a lead in the Malaysia AsBAA executive committee formed of selected business aviation entities including: Sapura Aero, YTL and Hawker Pacific. AsBAA has committed to regular local meetings in order to generate an agenda which begins to identify and address the issues faced by the industry in Malaysia and the region, in order to help remove obstacles and to stimulate its continued growth and development. The inaugural meeting covered topics including:

- the state of Malaysian business aviation

- the unique characteristics of the local industry

- the obstacles for business aviation in Malaysia

- the ASEAN perspective and context

- the Malaysian DCA/MoT perspective

- the Malaysian AsBAA focus

AsBAA board of governor and lead for Malaysia, Emil Pope said, “while recognizing AsBAA's work in Malaysia is in its infancy, all participants indicated their support of our initiative and desire to get engaged for the common good of business aviation in Malaysia and beyond. SkyPark's leadership embodied this win-win approach by joining as the first AsBAA local member and by hosting the inaugural meeting of AsBAA in Malaysia was well noted and appreciated by all. The arrangements were flawless and your opening and closing remarks very inspiring and motivating for all participants. The SkyPark team lead by Azman, Shanizar and Tan Bee Wah ensured all organisational aspects of the meeting were perfectly covered. Many thanks to them for taking time out of their busy schedules to help organize and run a very successful meeting! The refreshments and their presentation were impeccable denoting the very high-standards of the SkyPark FBO”.