Webinar 1 kicked off on 3 September 3, with a session lead by the EBAA’s charter broker’s committee co-chairs, Mike Ryan and Adam Twidell, who both agreed that brokers need to be transparent with customers about the terms and conditions for flights. They also stressed the importance of standardisation across operator contracts, arguing that this would lead to a more seamless and predictable experience for end users.

In the following session, Janine Iannarelli, chair of the AMAC Sales and Acquisitions committee noted that Covid-19 restrictions had motivated aircraft brokers to become very creative in the aircraft sales process. “There’s a lot of reliance on third-parties, which ultimately means that there has to be a lot of trust.” She added that she has also arranged for Zoom walkaround inspections and said that it’s “important not just to show the aircraft’s good sides, so that the customer gets the whole picture.”

Marie-Laure Gassier Chair of EBAA’s finance committee picked up the theme of standardisation by arguing that within Europe, while there are common standards for maintenance and safety, these don’t exist when it comes to moving aircraft from one country to another. “Each European country has its own aircraft registry and its own aircraft mortgage registry, and its own procedures to register and de-register an aircraft. This is time consuming and complex and creates discrepancies between countries.” She added that it would be good to create a register at European level for aircraft and aircraft mortgage, it would really help to create a single market for aircraft in Europe.

The second edition of the series took place on September 10th, focusing on rethinking regulations. Here Giulia Mauri co-chair of the EBAA’s lawyers committee argued that an increasingly intricate regulatory environment is not unique to Business aviation, and an that growing complexity was something that operators would have to adapt to. Meanwhile, Frederique Jos, also co-chair of the EBAA’s lawyers committee said that the upcoming cybersecurity directive could have significant repercussions for Business aviation.

In a session entitled rethinking Business aviation maintenance, David van den Langenbergh Head of Aviation Services for Luxaviation said that while EASA provides a common framework for maintenance regulation in Europe, many discrepancies still exist in the way that regulations  are applied. He added that Luxaviation was piloting a programme on an EASA AOC, which may contribute to greater standardisation in Europe.

The second edition concluded with a session on rethinking Business aviation ground-handling, where Marc Pieters of Ra-Consulting highlighted that the best way to prepare for the upcoming ground-handling regulation was to adopt the requirements of the IS-BAH directive.

In the webinar’s third edition Reece Vowles, Amine Ratl, and Zoe Layden of EBAA’s risk management committee looked beyond current challenges in the insurance industry to the opportunities created by telemedicine, Evtol, and private space travel.

Following this, Paolo Sommariva and Charlotte Rendle co—chairs of EBAA’s tech committee discuss a change of mindset within Business aviation that is slowly creating more automated and streamlined operations.