BACA - The Air Charter Association is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2019. To mark this historic occasion, CEO Dave Edwards and the BACA Council have been carefully co-ordinating a series of events and activities.

In addition to its spring and autumn lunches, a third 70th anniversary event is in the planning stages. It will be for BACA members and will be held in London during the summer.

BACA's training programme has already got off to a flying start with a full house for the Best Practice training day held at the end of January. Future days are being planned with the possibility, subject to suitable venue, of a training session or conference session prior to the anniversary event.

Similarly, BACA will once again be hosting ACE19 together with Business Air News and London Biggin Hill airport. ACE has grown significantly in the last couple of years to become a must-attend event for air charter brokers, operators and support companies involved in air charter and operations. This year the event takes place on 17 September and is already set to be the largest of its kind so far.

EBACE will be a major part of BACA's plans for 2019 with an exhibition booth and the very popular BACA networking reception at Mr Pickwick's pub in Geneva. This evening event has proved to be very popular with EBACE attendees and has become a regular fixture.

The Chairman's Charity this year will once again be fly2help. The relationship between the charity and BACA worked so well during last year that the two organisations will be working together again for 2019. BACA will be raising money for fly2help at all of its functions.

If this is not enough for 2019, BACA will continue to represent the interests of its members through a full programme of lobbying to governing bodies and authorities. With Brexit due on 29 March, the association will be particularly vigilant in ensuring members are informed of developments on all issues of significance during the run up to and aftermath of the deadline.

Chairman Richard Mumford advises: “During its 70th year BACA will continue its work to become the global voice of brokers worldwide. These are busy but exciting times, and the BACA Council will be working hard to deliver an outstanding 70th anniversary year for its members.”