Business aviation is rather new for Eastern Europe when we compare it with the long historical statistics of NBAA. The ancestors of this industry before the nineties are the old nomenclature fleets used by the privileged of those times. We may also consider ourselves as privileged. At the beginning of the last decade of the century, we choose to go to the private business of giving the public use of vip aircraft of the old nomenclature as an airline operator. \rAs opportunities emerged in our area for western businesses to develop, we have witnessed a double-digit development of the traffic of western business aircraft at our airports. The government policies of privatisation of most state assets have also brought the serious buyers on prestigious business jets.\rMany of these people who picked privatisation opportunities, have been and still are now, our clients for our airports and our services.\rBecause of a lack of standards and of history in the service industry for business aviation, western operators are finding very different standards of service at Eastern European airports. \rQuite few airports have specialised staff or companies that may serve business aviation operators at western standards but one may see progressive changes almost everywhere. We have arrived at the stage where we organise seminars for our colleagues working at other airports and we even franchise our business, and therefore one may say that there is a serious local interest. As an Eastern European, I may say that I feel a bit disappointed with the interest and support shown to our markets by western organisations and investors in the domain of aviation. \rLocal business aviation operators have emerged and some have even disappeared from the market in the last years. The main factor of support for this dynamic, is the business enthusiasm brought by the fundamental changes after 1990 and latterly, the positive and afterwards negative evolution of the new economies.\rThe negative economic developments in the last period have brought significant changes to the structure of business aviation's local clients. Few local businessmen are now using executive aircraft and we are witnessing an increased share of utilisation by governments and state organisations. \rMain decision-makers here do not know the concept of fractional ownership although we are trying to promote the idea of partnership between government and private businesses within such a concept, and have already asked for some know-how support from western operators. We think, at this time, fractional ownership is the most efficient way for all parties to enjoy the benefits of business aviation in our area. We only have to convince such decision-makers.\rHowever, we are confident that more local business aviation operators will appear as soon as the national economies show signs of improvement, as many companies are showing interest for the domain.\rThere is good potential for aviation development in Eastern Europe in general, for three main reasons:\r- There are no slot problems at airports. The air traffic system is, for the most part, part of Eurocontrol and serious investments have been directed towards equipment improvement and also to staff training \r- The workforce is cheap and well educated. Unfortunately, some of our specialists have already migrated to the western world. Only Bombardier factories in Canada are now employing several hundred experienced aviation engineers from Romania\r- There is a tradition of aviation development in this area. There are aviation factories in almost every Eastern European country. There are many under-utilised regional airports that would welcome foreign investors.\rCivil Aviation Authorities are making every effort to harmonise rules with the JAA in order to be accepted first. Romania has been a candidate since 1998 and has implemented JAR 145, JAR FCL 1,2 and 3, and JAR OPS 1 and 3 as national rules. I may only add that the CAA here has always been, and is now, even tougher on licensing procedures - even compared with Western standards. The only matter still to be achieved is more freedom of movement for international business aviation operators in our airspace.\rBy now, there are more operators, more service and consultancy companies specialised for civil aviation in general in Eastern Europe, more traffic inbound, and a clear trend towards privatisation that makes us optimistic about the future. Of course, a bit of international support will make us more optimistic but in the end we should not expect somebody else to solve our problems.\rDorin Ivascu, president, Romanian Airport Services.