David Coleal, President Bombardier Business Aircraft Heavy Iron Specialists: Bombardier Business Aircraft Continued from page 11 ABJ Bombardier Business Aircraft (BBA) is a component of Montreal-based Bombardier. What are the other Bombardier segments? DC Bombardier’s business segments include: Bombardier Business Aircraft, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, Bombardier Aerostructures & Engineering Services, and Bombardier Transportation. ABJ When did you become President of BBA? DC I joined Bombardier Business Aircraft as President in 2015. ABJ BBA participated in the just-held Sustainable Alternative Jet Fuel event in Van Nuys on January 17. Should I refer to BBA as a sponsor? DC While Bombardier Business Aircraft did sponsor the event, we are one of several partners that comprise the industry coalition leading business aviation’s efforts to increase the adoption of Sustainable Alternative Jet Fuels (SAJF). When I took on the position of Chairman of GAMA’s Environment Committee in 2016, I set a focus on SAJF as a priority. Through the Environment Committee, Bombardier has worked to support the efforts of the industry coalition, including most recently the design, planning, and execution of the Business Jets Fuel Green event. We worked together with the Van Nuys Airport community, the fuel providers, and our fellow industry associations EBAA, IBAC, NBAA and of course, NATA. It was an extraordinarily collabora- tive effort that brought the event to life. We couldn’t have done any of it without this partnership. SAJF is a truly agnostic issue—it is something that affects us all. By working together, we were able to achieve this milestone. ABJ What was your incentive for participating or sponsor- ing the event? Was it, for instance, that there is grow- ing concern about the viability of alternative jet fuels? DC Sustainability has long been an integral part of Bombardier’s strategy and operations. We have been 26 involved in the development and certification pro- cess of SAJF since the inception of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative back in 2006. As a member of the R&D group within this initia- tive, Bombardier gained the knowledge required to develop its own project to further the advancement of SAJF, and in 2010, Bombardier received support for this project through the Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN). This early project was an international, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and in 2011, resulted in the first-ever commercial tur- boprop flight on SAJF in the world: a Horizon Airlines flight on a Bombardier Q400 aircraft. Bombardier Business Aircraft first flew its demon- stration fleet on SAJF in 2017 in conjunction with the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. We continue to do so today, when our fleet travels to major airshows and events. We have been involved in leading the industry level SAJF initiative since its inception in 2017, including leading market research, providing technical support and leadership within the industry coalition. Business Jets Fuel Green in Van Nuys was a signifi- cant milestone for our industry because we are proving to the world that Sustainable Alternative Jet Fuels (SAJF) are ready to fly today. The event also marked an important first for the business aviation segment: Van Nuys Airport is now the first general aviation airport in the U.S. to offer SAJF on a trial basis, paving the way for other general aviation airports and reliever fields to follow. On January 17 at Van Nuys Airport, OEMs, airports, authorities, FBOs, fuel suppliers, and operators came together to actively demonstrate that the moment an aircraft takes off using alternative fuel, we are contrib- uting to our industry’s collective carbon neutrality goal. We are working to educate our industry and all our stakeholders on the fact that SAJF is safe and ready to use on current aircraft, with zero change to equipment, performance, and most importantly, no impact on Aviation Business Journal | Spring 2019
