Dramatic and brilliant – our summary of CJI London 2024. With a new venue and more delegates than ever; Al, Louisa and the CJI team have kick started the aviation year with a boom.

Here are our key takeaways:

A long path to the middle:

Possibly the most eagerly anticipated panel of this year was the finale of day 1 – the environmentalist debate. 3 guests joined the conference to express their views on why business aviation should be banned for its environmental impact and their position that the climate crisis and inequality are inextricably linked. For 60 minutes views were exchanged and questions asked, and it was clear by the end that persuading the guests to find a middle ground may not even be possible.

The reaction from the audience was strong, and at times, disappointing. One guest noted the reaction was because business aviation did not want to hear what they were being told. Indeed, this may be true, however it seemed the guests did not understand their audience – it was akin to coal miners reacting to being told their jobs were over and to find something else to do.

Whatever anyone’s personal view, the debate stoked much needed conversation and debate amongst the audience; they had been presented with an idealistic viewpoint and business aviation did not feature in that reality. While it was clear these views will not be changed, these views were extreme and are not shared by the majority. Business aviation needs to focus on the 80% that are open to debate and constructively demonstrate the efforts and actions that are taking place to meet net zero goals.

A positive takeaway was that both sides managed to have a conversation on the inside of a venue. Let’s hope this leads to better communication between the two in the future.

Buyers beware:

There was mixed opinion among panellists regarding whether increasing costs were encouraging owners to handover the keys and turn to charter. One sentiment was that owning an aircraft is not just expensive but inherently complex; charter allowed the complexity to fall away as the operator absorbed the risk both in terms of operation but also on aircraft value.

A panel of maintenance experts expanded on this, explaining the frustration many owners feel when they are not provided with an accurate forecast of the cost of owning and operating an aircraft. “Owners now want a bespoke package; they are now more sensitive to cost and do not want to pay for elements they do not use” explained Martin Spiegl of JetLeg, “we need to manage expectations and explain why costs rise in addition to what they are and how to budget for this.”

As always, the aircraft brokers in the room were more optimistic: “we are coming back to normality – that does not mean the phone is not ringing, rather, we are getting longer to sell aircraft and educating sellers is part of that”. This view was shared generally with an agreement that more aircraft availability was a benefit for both buyers and sellers to get a good deal, a good aircraft and a better experience.

Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity (FBI):

Around $2.7billion was stolen globally in 2012 due to online fraud, that number is now closer to $23billion in 2023. However, in 2012 only 12% of funds were returned to victims, that number is now 80% if fraud and cyber-attacks are reported in the first 72 hours. This was the news from special agent Kathryn Sherman who provided the audience with an overview of the work being done to tackle cyber criminals and how business aviation can protect itself.

SA Sherman was not the only one talking cyber safety. The in-flight cyber security panel provided a demonstration of the gadgets that could hack inflight WIFI and how to protect passengers onboard. The good news is that, at the moment at least, the flight deck and cabin systems are segregated. However, new technologies and use of live-time data sharing for maintenance monitoring, means aircraft data protection needs increased protection going forward.