Nov. 15, 2024
NBAA is challenging 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.”
Read the full NBAA letter below:
Fact Check: Academics’ Study Ignores Business Aviation’s Real-World Sustainability Record
A recent report mistakenly relies on a cherry-picked data set, flawed analysis and omission of key facts to produce a one-sided set of conclusions about sustainability and business aviation – which is in fact an industry on pace to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
For starters, the report offers generalizations about business aviation emissions by considering only 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. 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.
Faulty research is also the culprit for the report’s inference that the purpose for a flight made to a certain location, or during a given season can be painted with a broad-brush oversimplification. Why else would the authors infer that business aircraft travel “in summer” is inherently for non-business purposes? That kind of rudimentary review dismisses the reality that business aviation is often required for critical travel to meet whenever face-to-face interaction is required with clients or customers – regardless of location or season.
Perhaps as troubling as the questionable findings the study sets forth are the facts it omits, and the facts are these: 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. 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.
But most importantly, the report overlooks the clear conclusion from several independent studies highlighting business aviation’s essential role in the world’s economic and transportation systems. Across the globe, the sector is a major employer and economic generator; it connects locations with little or no airline service; it helps companies be more efficient, productive and successful; and it supports flights for all manner of humanitarian concerns.
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? 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.
This post was originally published on here
