The return this year of an in-person NBAA-BACE coincides with the industry's rebound from the pandemic and comes at a time when business aviation is on the cusp of a change, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen told AIN ahead of NBAA-BACE 2021 in Las Vegas.
“There's clearly a lot of excitement for NBAA-BACE…a pent-up desire for people to connect,” he said. “Our industry is doing well in terms of hours flown and with the market. There's a sense that there are a lot of opportunities.”
Despite the complexities of the pandemic, Bolen stressed, “This is an enormously exciting time in terms of innovation, technology, sustainability, and diversity and inclusion. There's just so much going on...and the opportunity to celebrate our industry, who we are, where we are, and most importantly, where we're going.”
Bolen said that with the technological breakthroughs the industry is experiencing, the new entrants, and a core of young people who are “once again excited” about the industry, “all of those things make this kind of a unique moment.”
While BACE this week serves as a platform for this evolution, it also offers a way for people in the industry to reconnect after being separated because of Covid-19-related health and safety concerns and restrictions. "It's particularly important for communities to be connected in challenging and uncertain times to allow us to rely on each other's strength and expertise," Bolen said.
This connection, he added, “helps us find a way forward. We're part of a big community. It's reflective of who we are and where we belong and how we together go forward. Being physically together is enormously helpful. That was not an opportunity that was afforded to us last year.”
NBAA was unable to stage a live BACE event in 2020 due to the pandemic, but Bolen said it was critical that the convention have a presence last year, even if only virtually. “The reality was that we needed to come together and we couldn't come together physically,” he noted. “So, we looked at the alternatives.”
The pandemic heightened the need to share information, he added. “We needed to communicate important information in real-time on key topics. And so, a lot of last year was about trying to bring the community together and have a way for people to share information.”
NBAA believes it was important to bring the community back together in person this year. That has involved extensive time, and cost in some cases, to develop appropriate protocols to do that in a safe manner.
“We are operating in an environment where health and safety protocols are very important in bringing people together." Bolen said, "and we are working closely with outside health advisers, the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the state of Nevada to make sure that we have a safe environment.”
To keep the aviation ecosystem operating, “we needed to share our experiences and our strengths,” Bolen said. And as in the past, “we are constantly moving forward, recognizing that we must evolve, understanding the environment, and responsive to it—but not paralyzed by it.”
Bolen stressed that building on safe protocols comes naturally to this industry. “Safety is a core value of aviation," he said. "We are able to defy gravity and move people vast distances at rapid speeds. And we're able to make this the safest mode of transportation in history.”
