Patrick Margetson-Rushmore, chief executive of LEA, one of Europe’s largest business jet charter operators, says: “At LEA, we would love to see more cross-border integration between operators. As an industry, our customers want to travel with all the time-saving convenience and efficiency that only business aviation can offer. Why should they care about the geographic or fleet limitations of a particular operator? We must not let parochial concerns reduce business aviation’s overall performance, or hold back our collective growth. By collaborating more internationally, we could write the next chapter of business aviation in Europe and beyond. Globalisation is a trend in which we should all participate, rather than allowing one or two major operators to expand until they control and dominate the market.”

Margetson-Rushmore wonders whether business jet operators should be studying the way in which scheduled airline alliances have changed commercial aviation. “Formal alliances, or indeed long-term sub-chartering arrangements, might not necessarily be the way forward for business jet operators, but we should be making the most of our industry’s international network. EBACE is the ideal opportunity to meet your counterparts from across Europe, chat informally and discuss future prospects and common goals. We need to build those relationships to create a better service for all our customers.”