NBAA Will Merge Light Business Airplane Conference Into Annual Convention

The National Business Aviation Association announced Wednesday programming and other elements from the inaugural 2009 Light Business Airplane Conference (LBA2009) will now be incorporated into the Association's 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention in Orlando, FL, scheduled for October 20 to 22, 2009.

The LBA event was originally scheduled to take place in San Diego, CA, on March 13 and 14. However, the state of the economy has caused NBAA to make adjustments that it believes will ensure maximum value for Attendees and Exhibitors.

"NBAA is totally committed to serving those who rely on light business airplanes, as well as those who are considering how to fit these aircraft into their business models," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. "But in this economic climate, it is difficult to launch an event that our Members and Exhibitors expect from NBAA. We all know that our industry is finding it necessary to limit travel and marketing expenses, so we are going to combine all of the excellent elements we'd planned for LBA into the Convention.

"By incorporating the Conference into the Convention, the entrepreneurs and pilots for whom LBA was specifically designed will now be able to participate in the full two days of education sessions -- including the Cessna Single-pilot Safety Standdown -- and still have an additional day to see all of the general aviation products and services on display at the industry's largest purely civil aviation trade show," Bolen continued. "For Exhibitors, this move will reduce total expenditures for NBAA events in 2009 by allowing companies to combine the costs associated with two shows into a single event."

Announced with great fanfare last April, the Light Business Airplane Conference was intended to appeal to pilots operating smaller aircraft for business purposes -- in particular, those flying their own aircraft, single-pilot -- versus the stereotypical corporate "bigwig" flying in the back of a Global Express.

NBAA's sincere intent was to address the concerns of pilots of smaller aircraft, who may have felt overwhelmed during the group's annual conference... which is one of the largest in the world. With the slumping economy, however, the writing for LBA2009 was on the wall; NBAA announced in December it would scale back the San Diego show from its original three-day schedule, to just two.

"Any change in plans has consequences and we regret the inconvenience to all who finalized their itinerary for San Diego," Bolen said. "Still, we believe the step we've taken is the right one for both Attendees and Exhibitors in this very challenging economy."

FMI: www.nbaa.org