On the 20th July 2004, at a reception hosted by Gerald Howarth MP, at the House of Commons, the chairman of the General Aviation Manufacturers and Traders Association (GAMTA), David Antrobus, announced the merger of GAMTA and the Business Aircraft Users Association (BAUA) to form the British Business and General Aviation Association (BBGA).

BBGA celebrated its launch at the Business Aircraft Park at Farnborough International. But with the celebrations now over, it is time for BBGA to set out its future plans.

BAUA and GAMTA have long worked together and over the last few months, Mark Wilson, the GAMTA chief executive, and I have worked in “ever closer union”.

It became apparent that our goals were so similar that we were almost working as one anyway. In such a specific sector it didn’t make sense to have two organisations with such similar agendas, so Mark and I, together with our respective councils drew up a plan to merge. We are all delighted the merger has happened so smoothly; now we are focused on the real rational for joining together: doing more for our membership.

What we do will form part of our strategy, which we will evolve from those of GAMTA and BAUA for publication during the autumn, but in several areas our focus is already clear. Increasingly, governments and regulators wish to involve stake holders in their decisions and this is to be welcomed: what it does do, though, is increase the demands on trade associations.

The new organisation will be better able to meet these demands and represent our industry on all fronts, from the development of EASA to security within the UK, from access rights to environmental issues.

While the new name clearly shows we are a UK-based organisation we have strong international ties, within the European Forum we are part of both the European Business Aviation Association and the European Council for General Aviation Support, then internationally we are also members of the International Business Aviation Council. This enables us to really influence the direction of policy at all levels.

One area we hope our combined resources will be able to focus on is increasing public and general media appreciation of the value of business aviation. Gradually this message is being taken on board as is witnessed by the increase in business aviation traffic.

BBGA deals with every facet of general aviation, from flight training to operators of inter-continental business aircraft.

The advantage of such breadth is that we can be seen to be speaking for the entire industry, not any particular sector.

With the different backgrounds of Mark and myself, together with the various consultants we use, we believe we have expertise in every area of general and business aviation.

This is important because we want all our members to benefit equally from the association.

The merger has been welcomed by both our memberships, by regulators and governments. We are sure that this will, in turn, enable BBGA to help business and general aviation within the UK to grow – which of course is the whole point of a trade association.

John Batty, Head of business aviation, BBGA