NATA News

In 2008, Aviation Business Strategies Group (ABSG) originally developed the concept and curriculum for the FBO Success Seminar, making it NATA’s longest-running professional development program. Since its initial offering, more than 300 FBO owners, operators, managers and supervisors have attended the seminar with many returning for additional training. This year's FBO Success Seminar (March 26-27) will be held at the Embassy Suites in Savannah's historic district with a special networking dinner cruise scheduled for March 26^th along the Savannah River.

According to ABSG's Principals, John Enticknap and Ron Jackson, the goal of the seminar is to help FBOs learn and adopt winning strategies by focusing on four aspects of improving their operation: maximizing profits, reducing expenses, creating a better customer experience, and improving bottom-line performance. Each year, ABSG updates the curriculum and adds new content to keep pace with current FBO industry trends. Mike France, NATA’s Managing Director, Safety and Training stated, "the FBO Success Seminar offers a professional training program that is well-received by our member companies and other industry attendees who have reported success in their operations after adopting strategies taught in the seminar." Read what previous FBO Success Seminar attendees had to say about their experience and check out ABSG’s latest blog post about hiring and retaining FBO technicians.

Limited seats are still available, register today!

The Air Charter Safety Foundation held its 2019 Safety Symposium on March 15^th at the NTSB Training Center in Ashburn, VA. Over 135 industry leaders attended this year’s event, many first-time attendees. During the symposium, it was announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to soon release a final Advisory Circular (AC) that will allow for a new standardized training curriculum for Part 135 operations. The Part 135 Training AC is the product of the FAA’s Air Carrier & Contract Training Working Group led by NATA’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs John McGraw.

The symposium provided an overview of the modifications for Part 135 training through Part 142 centers. Last fall, the FAA released the draft AC that industry executives believe will enable one of the most significant changes in training approaches for charter operations in years. Under the approach, a collaboration of industry experts and the FAA will jointly develop a standardized curriculum for each type of aircraft for which simulator training is available.

“The draft AC, based on the recommendations of a government/industry aviation rulemaking committee, drew about 200 comments, resulting in a few changes,” said FAA Aviation Safety Inspector, Mark Valette. While progress slowed slightly during the government slowdown, David Underwood, Regional Director of Regulatory Affairs for FlightSafety International, said he expects the final AC to be out shortly.

The two-day symposium, themed "Promoting the Highest Levels of Aviation Safety,” also addressed safety culture, the new charter broker rules, data and analytics, stick and rudder skills, a deeper dive into recent accident case studies, and an update on the ACSF’s Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP). Read more here.

NATA is excited to add two new honors to its Industry Excellence Awards Program in acknowledgement of the contributions of FBO customer service representatives (CSRs) and the next generation of aviation business leaders. We’re calling on our members to help identify individuals whose efforts positively impact the aviation business community and deserve recognition. Read more about the newest distinctions—the FBO CSR Award and Future Leader Award—on the Association’s NATA Now blog and view a full list of awards open for nominations.

 

The Industry Excellence Awards, along with the AMT Employer Awards, will be presented at a luncheon held during NATA's Annual Meeting and Aviation Business Conference in June 2019. 

 

The deadline for nomination submissions is Monday, March 25^th. For more information, please click here. To submit a nomination, click here.