NBAA Fact Checks Misleading Report on Business Aviation Sustainability

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has challenged a report for selectively using data, making statements based on faulty analysis and ignoring facts to produce a one-sided set of conclusions about sustainability and business aviation – an industry that is on pace to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

In a letter submitted to news outlets that have covered the report, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said the study, published Nov. 7 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, relies “on a cherry-picked data set, flawed analysis and omission of key facts.”

Specifically, the report focuses only on aircraft hours flown during a selective window, largely focused on the global COVID moment. “That moment included an uptick in business aviation activity, as the airlines dramatically reduced or halted flights, making business aviation the best – and often, the only – option for essential travel,” Bolen said.

“Predictably, the report’s narrow look at flight activity misses the fact that in the years following the pandemic, business aviation activity has largely returned to pre-pandemic norms,” Bolen added.

The report also makes an oversimplified assumption that flights taken in the summer are inherently for non-business reasons, ignoring the fact that business aviation is often necessary for critical, face-to-face meetings with clients or customers, regardless of the season or flight destination.

Bolen said the report also omits crucial facts about the sector’s progress on carbon reduction.

“The business aviation sector has slashed emissions by 40% in just four decades, with breakthroughs including lightweight composites, winglets, satellite-based avionics and a host of other carbon-cutting technologies,” Bolen noted. “Looking to the future, our mission to achieve net zero is focused on innovation, including through investment in sustainable aviation fuel – which can cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by 80% – and development of highly efficient aircraft, engines, and new, electric, hybrid and even hydrogen-powered propulsion systems.”

Equally important, while business aviation continues to make strides in reducing emissions and advancing sustainability, the report overlooks several independent studies that highlight business aviation’s essential role in the world’s economic and transportation systems. The sector is a major employer and economic generator, connects communities with little or no airline service, helps companies be more efficient, productive and successful, and supports humanitarian missions.

“How is it possible that a purportedly rigorous study would fail to disclose so much important information about business aviation’s societal benefits, including its record on emissions reduction and its leadership on a commitment to a net-zero future?” Bolen asked. “Perhaps its authors were working from a preordained conclusion. If so, we would encourage an analysis that considers all relevant data about a world-leading industry’s pursuit of sustainability, on the ground and in the air.” 

Read the Communications Earth & the Environment report, and NBAA’s full response: Fact Check: Study Ignores Business Aviation’s Real-World Sustainability Record.