The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and NBAA are forming a permanent global industry advisory group to gather input on the development of new communication, navigation and surveillance technologies and new air traffic management concepts.

This topic, which is being referred to as CNS/ATM, is the focus of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Future Air Navigation System committee, which originated in the 1980s. The new CNS/ATM Advisory Group will have members appointed from many of the business aviation associations that compose IBAC. William Boucher, vice president of operations for the Canadian Business Aviation Association (CBAA), will serve as the group’s first chairman.

“The CNS/ATM Advisory Group will be the eyes, ears and voice in international forums planning for the phasing-in of this exciting new technology,” said IBAC chairman Thomas Rui de Aquino of Brazil.

Additionally, IBAC recently released a Safety Strategy to guide members toward improving the industry’s overall safety record, particularly among owner-operated business aircraft. The IBAC guidelines, available on the organization’s Web site at www.ibac.org, have been in development for more than two years with support from the Flight Safety Foundation. The goal is for this document to serve as business aviation’s input to the ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan.

“This strategy serves as a systematic means of coordinating all of the many excellent safety activities and it provides the stimulus to foster creativity in looking for new concepts,” commented NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen.

IBAC and NBAA are recognizing aviation safety analyst Robert E. Breiling for his lifetime contributions to the industry with an award and dinner here in Atlanta this week. Breiling is the founder of Robert E. Breiling Associates, a company dedicated to the statistical analysis of worldwide business aviation accident data.