Business Aviation Magazine Issue 18 - Summer 2021 - now online!

Flipbook: https://issuu.com/bizavmedia/docs/bam018_summer_2021?fr=sNTJmMTI3NzQ1NDc

High res PDF: https://bizavltd.com/pdfs/BAM018_Summer_2021_high.pdf

Medium res PDF: https://bizavltd.com/pdfs/BAM018_Summer_2021_med.pdf

Letter from the Editor - Blue skies ahead?

Well, it looks like Summer is going to see the COVID threat continuing to diminish while business activity ramps up to new heights. The UK has already bounced back to beyond 2019 levels, buoyed by consumer spending, and the US is also surging ahead.

All this is, of course, great news for business aviation, which, as everyone in the industry now knows, has benefitted greatly through the later stages of the pandemic. It seems like all those who could afford it, and there are many, have decided to fly private to avoid all the risky touch-points associated with flying on commercial airlines.

This trend has been accelerated by the fact that many commercial airlines cut back drastically on the number of routes they were prepared to fly during the pandemic.

According to WingX, by the third week in June, business aviation traffic globally was trending 12 percent up on pre-COVID levels, which is tremendous news. This is particularly so when one realises that in April 2020, just a year and two months ago, business jet flight levels had stabilised some 80 percent below pre-pandemic levels.

However that was then, back at the start of the pandemic crisis, and this is now, with much of the developed world having more than half their populations vaccinated. The vaccine roleout in the US has been tremendous in most states, and as a result, NBAA looks certain to take place as planned from 12 to 14 October.

That is far enough ahead for us to expect to see the improvements in the fight against COVID make further positive strides before October comes along. Of course, some countries are still experiencing surges in infection rates, so we’re not out the woods yet. However, the signs are very positive.

One thing is for sure, it is going to be tremendous for the industry to be able to get together once again at NBAA. The organisers are almost certainly correct when they claim that this is going to be the greatest NBAA Conference and Exhibition ever. We at BAM, like everyone else, can’t wait to see all our friends again!

Anthony Harrington