Barely a week passes without a weather-related event being blamed by environmental activists and their erstwhile political cheerleaders on human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, compounding the narrative that urgent action is needed to negate the impact.

Business aviation has been caught in the crosshairs of these strident environmentalists with their opprobrium manifested in disruptive and increasingly destructive protests, sometimes attacking and defacing business aircraft.

This includes an incident in May at EBACE in Geneva where demonstrators knocked down fences around the show’s static park and chained themselves to private jets, causing costly damage.

Vilification of business aviation is nothing new, of course. For decades its proponents have tirelessly defended business aircraft against pernicious labels such as "rich men's toys" and "admirals’ barges."

For Robert Baltus, COO of the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), these negative tropes are being promulgated by opponents today to curtail—or at the extreme fringes, halt—private jet movements.

“Business aircraft are portrayed as big polluters despite being responsible for less than 0.04 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” Baltus noted. Opponents ignore, often wilfully, the industry’s pledge to reach net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions—relative to 2005 levels—by 2050.

These negative perceptions of business aviation are a growing cause for concern among advocates. Many fear that policymakers will exclude or overlook business aviation as they shape regulations to meet global climate and energy targets. This could in turn adversely impact the industry’s efforts to achieve its net-zero ambitions.

Business aviation's concerns were heightened last month with the formal adoption of the European Parliament’s first-ever sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate. This calls for the scaling up of the use of SAF at EU airports, reaching 70 percent by 2050.

Baltus points to a “noticeable lack” of a book-and-claim measure despite a “very hard push” from EBAA and other industry trade associations.

Under book-and-claim, operators that do not have access to SAF at their airport can purchase it, paying the additional surcharge for use by operators elsewhere. The operator paying the premium for the SAF gets the environmental credit for it.

Recognition of book-and-claim is necessary, Baltus stressed, to ensure a level playing field between airspace users and to help overcome logistical and geographical constraints. “This is particularly relevant given the limited development of SAF infrastructure,” he added.

Book-and-claim can also attract further financing into the SAF system and help support demand, the EBAA COO added.

“It's regrettable that the final agreement doesn't include such a system,” Baltus said. Furthermore, the mandate, which has still to be endorsed by the 27 EU member states, sets a threshold of 800,000 passengers a year, which Baltus describes as a “major hurdle” for the industry.

“Given the limited availability of SAF at small airports, this will make the ability to meet decarbonization objectives all the more challenging and the industry less appealing to investors,” he said. 

Added to this setback, the European Commission has omitted business aviation from its EU Taxonomy initiative. Part of the European Green Deal program, Taxonomy is a common classification system for sustainable economic activities. It directs investments toward sustainable projects and activities, the Commission explained, to enable the EU to meet its climate and energy targets for 2030.

“We have been surprised that business aviation, which serves as an incubator for new technologies and has a robust CO2 reduction plan, is not part of the initiative, despite commercial aviation being added to the list,” said Baltus. “EBAA is actively engaged in ongoing discussions with stakeholders to advocate for a change."

Bizav Is a 'Tech Incubator'

Pete Bunce, president and CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), calls the omission “short-sighted and incredibly frustrating. They clearly don’t understand what a great technology incubator business aviation is."

Research and innovation are at the core of this sector, he added, from airframes and avionics to powerplants and fuel. “Inflicting harm on the industry by discouraging investment because of this crazy perception that the business jets out there aren't contributing to the net-zero solution is counterproductive,” Bunce said.

He attributed the policy to “politically motivated class warfare” designed to punish the industry. It shows a “total disregard” for the vital role business aviation plays in local and national economies.

“If major companies like [France-headquartered] Dassault Aviation and Daher cannot secure investment revenue from the banks to continue innovating and introducing new products, they could move outside the EU," said Bunce, "perhaps to China, who are very bullish on aerospace technology and willing to invest, and/or to the U.S. where they already have established bases. This would be a huge loss [to Europe].”

In the U.S., business aviation is largely acknowledged for delivering vast economic and practical benefits to the country. The dissenting voices of environmentalists and their political proponents are being drowned out—for now.

“We are certainly not complacent and acknowledge there is a groundswell of opposition here to business aviation,” Bunce admitted. He stressed the industry takes its environmental, social, and governmental (ESG) commitments very seriously and is “an incredible steward of the environment.

“I don’t ever want to see a time when future investment in our industry from banks and other financial intuitions is curtailed,” Bunce said.

Such directives are unlikely to impact the business aircraft sales and acquisitions market, according to Steve Varsano, founder of international brokerage, The Jet Business. “Cash is used in the vast majority of transactions, and those business aircraft that are financed are viewed by financiers as high-quality assets used by companies and individuals with a great credit rating.”

Varsano’s views are supported by Global Jet Capital chief marketing officer Andrew Farrant. He suggests business aircraft have the added appeal to financiers of being used across industries and global regions, “which creates a highly diversified and economically resilient base of users."

Farrant acknowledges the rise of anti-business aviation sentiment but he does not envision financing becoming “explicitly conditional on sustainability criteria."

That said, business aviation will continue to attract undue attention from activists, he said, due to its high-profile nature. It is therefore incumbent on the industry “to do a better job of educating the public and policymakers on the significant strides we have made to reduce our environmental impact. We must also promote the economic benefits the industry derives in terms of technological advancements and job creation."

GAMA’s Bunce believes the industry’s best advocates are its growing young and diverse talent pool. “We are proud that we continually attract young people into the industry, many from traditionally under-represented communities,” he said.

“They need to persuade their peers that business aviation is part of the solution to net-zero, rather than chaining yourself to the gear of an aircraft or throwing orange paint,” Bunce added. “We have a great story to tell.”

That sentiment is echoed by Ford Von Weise, global head, aircraft finance, at Citi Private Bank. “The default position of the industry is ‘keep your head down and don't be noticed’ but that is not the right approach any longer,” he said.

He describes business aviation as a huge success story. A positive narrative of how an industry contributing a tiny percentage of global CO2 emissions is doing so much to lower aviation’s environmental impact must take front and center before it is hijacked by activists. "Perception is everything,” Von Weise concluded.