Membership Benefits

IBAC – A Family of Global Business Aviation Associations

The International Business Aviation Council [IBAC] is a family of business aviation associations.  The organization was established in 1981 to serve as a mechanism to provide an international voice for the business aviation operating community.  The initial five members has now grown to 15 member associations covering essentially all corners of the globe.  The 15 Member Associations in turn represent business aviation operators in their respective areas.  Together, IBAC and Member Associations provide the power that only a coordinated family approach can have in influencing decision making.

IBAC is a representative body providing technical and operational expertise to government policy and rulemaking organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] and other international policy and rulemaking establishments.  IBAC professionals participate actively in the development of safety, security, environmental and air traffic management procedures and regulations with a common goal of well developed and effective rulemaking, responding to needs of both society and the business aviation community.  An important objective for IBAC is international harmonization of rules, a critical design characteristic given that business aviation aircraft routinely criss-cross the globe with little advance notice, making universal procedures and requirements a safety imperative.

IBAC governance is exercised through the Governing Board with representatives from each of the 15 member associations.  A Secretariat managed by the Director General is responsible for the day to day management of the Council’s mandate.  IBAC’s office is located in the ICAO headquarters building in Montreal Canada, but activities are conducted around the world, particularly where business aviation is most active.  The Governing Board meets twice per year to approve policy and guidance.  The Planning and Operations Committee meet twice per year to formulate policy detail and to ensure business aviation is effectively represented at all key policy making forums.  The IBAC Governing Board and Council representatives act as a family of associations representing cultures from around the world, working together for mutual benefit, learning from each other, and working towards a set of common principles and goals.

Strength of Family Membership

1. A critical benefit of being a Member of IBAC’s family of associations is in an inherent spirit of sharing experiences, best practices, and techniques to help each other enhance representation of business aviation interests.
2. Members of the IBAC family help each other through a spirit of mutual cooperation, leading to a strong, harmonized approach to building a healthy industry.
3. A coordinated and universal family approach provides the power to influence positive results in formulating policy and rules, rather than the weakness of a disjointed individualized approach.
4. The IBAC family is represented in the major international policy and rulemaking forums, presenting the joint positions developed through IBAC Committees and approved by the IBAC Governing Board. Those States that are not represented will not have a voice in the development and implementation of new policy and rulemaking.  Given that State policy and rules emanate from International bodies such as ICAO, areas and countries not represented will have an inadequate voice in new State rules.
5. A cooperative global approach to developing programs applicable to safety, security, environment and operational procedures provides for the critical harmonization needed in business aviation operations.  Cooperative development provides for economies of scale and shared costs for development and promotion and shared distribution of benefits.
6. IBAC family Members are aware of new proposed policy and rules through cooperative communication of pending change.

An example of IBAC’s success in formulating global policy is its approach to enhancing aviation safety.  The business aviation safety record is excellent.  The professionalism of the industry that led to the good record was applied to establishing of a set of best practices incorporated into the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO). The aviation community promoted this universal industry standard as the basis for harmonized safety rules around the world.  IS-BAO served as the model for the ICAO Annex 6 Part II modernization that incorporated provisions for corporate aviation. Since ICAO Annexes are intended to be the international standard upon which nations establish their regulations, States are increasingly formulating the performance based business aviation best practices into regulations.  Business aviation has always been a strong proponent and user of Safety Management Systems, the foundation of the IS-BAO safety standard, so business aviation is well placed as SMS requirements are introduced universally by Civil Aviation Authorities.

IBAC has also been active in promoting realistic and effective security rules.  The Council has established a very proactive Statement on Climate Change and has strongly promoted the business aviation position to be taken through ICAO to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  Professional representatives are also very active on procedural committees and work groups governing operations in international airspace.  Business aviation has a seat on many of the ICAO panels and committees that establish the policies and rules for international civil aviation around the world.  The business aviation community is well represented by the IBAC family consisting of the secretariat and associations.  The family is strong and together provides for the business aviation leadership that will make the industry even stronger in the future.