On Tuesday 14 September, Air Charter Expo (ACE21) took place at London Biggin Hill airport in the UK. It was the first time the European business aviation community had gathered face-to-face since March 2020, and the excitement at the comeback was palpable; more than 1,100 attendees turned up on the day, full of enthusiasm. Sponsored by Air BP, Dassault Aviation and Collins Aerospace, the event included 75 exhibitors, 16 aircraft on static display and an engaging programme of conferences and seminars organised by The Air Charter Association.

“It was a pleasure being there,” says Piaggio’s Luciano Lufarelli.

“The number of participants was incredible, and we had many promising meetings. I am already looking forward to next year’s edition.” Flight Consulting Group’s Vladislav Paulinsh participated for the first time and says the show was ‘amazing’.

“What a truly fantastic day was had by all at the first corporate aviation exhibition since early last year,” comments Chris Beer of XLR Jet Centres. “It was great to see our clients, operators and brokers, and embrace our aviation family and friends once again. A big thank you to Mark Ranger and his brilliant colleagues for everything they do to make this successful and very safe for us to attend, and of course to Biggin Hill.”

William Finden of Oaklands Global adds: “If over a thousand industry experts isn’t a sign of optimism for the business aviation industry, then I don’t know what is.”

Among the aircraft on display was Pilatus’ PC-12, the Bombardier Global 6000, Dassault Falcon 2000s and many more. In addition, the exhibition featured more experimental aircraft such as as the VoltAero hybrid turboprop.

“ACE21 was a great success with an all time attendance record; the venue at London Biggin Hill airport was crowded with people like never before,” remarks Robert Plhak of Austria’s VOO. “It was a pleasure to meet everyone again in person. I very much enjoyed the good personal talks, presentations, podium discus-sions and the static display with great aircraft to visit inside and outside on a typical British September day.”

The San Marino Aircraft Registry adds: “Thank you kindly for accommodating us last minute, great support and service. The expo was excellent and happy to see everyone enjoying it. We look forward to participating again in 2022.”

After a welcome from Kevin Ducksbury, chairman of The ACA, the conference sessions started with a panel session covering the pandemic and the latest state of the industry. Richard Koe from WINGX moderated the session and shared data detailing an overview of the most recent flying trends. Positively, the industry has seen an increase in demand and is operating at levels above those seen in 2019. This is for a multitude of reasons, impacting different areas of the industry, from continuing cargo demand due to backlogs and generally increased urgent freight requirements linked to the pandemic, to lack of scheduled service operations driving more customers to use private air charter.

Following this, The ACA gave an update on its broker qualification training course, due to restart with an in-person session in November, and an insight into the work the Association’s NextGen Group has been involved in over the last 12 months.

The next session reviewed the UK’s exit from the EU and ongoing operations, moderated by The ACA’s chief executive Glenn Hogben. The UK Department for Transport’s chief air services negotiator Mark Bosly provided an overview of progress in the ongoing negotiations with the EU Member States. Bosly confirmed that the DfT is hopeful that all the initial bilateral negotiations will be completed by Christmas.

Sponsor Dassault Aviation led the next presentation, providing an exciting showcase of its new Falcon 6X and Falcon 10X aircraft.

The final session of the morning returned to the topic of illegal air charters, something The ACA has championed against for many years. David Kendrick, head of airline licensing for the UK Civil Aviation Authority gave an overview of the importance that the CAA places on stopping these dangerous flights. Nigel Harris, CEO of Air Montserrat, moderated the session after highlighting the risks and summarising the recent huge financial penalties the US’ FAA has imposed on operators in the US. The Air Charter Safety Alliance, co-founded by The ACA in 2020, has been continuing its work educating and raising awareness of this issue internationally and used the forum to ask all delegates to support the authorities worldwide by reporting all suspected illegal charters, to help stop future tragic accidents.

Green Charter Conference

On the afternoon’s agenda was the Green Charter Conference, addressing the most urgent issues facing the business aviation industry today. Laura Bowden from Air BP outlined the steps the company is taking towards sustainability, including carbon neutral operations and moving towards net zero through SAF usage and carbon offsetting. James Hardie from Collins Aerospace said that aviation always meets the challenges that are put towards it, and called the embracing of green operations ‘inspiring’. Nicolas Kroll from Luxaviation spoke of the company’s partnership with eVTOL developer Lilium, highlighting the steps being taken throughout the company to be more sustainable. 4Air’s Kennedy Ricci then explained the four-tier system his company employs for going green, as it works closely with operators. He stated that acting now is a priority, and that we must look beyond aviation to truly reduce carbon.

ACE will return with a second Green Charter Conference on Tuesday 13 September 2022, at London Biggin Hill airport once more.