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The day after the BACA Excellence Awards 2018

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4th October 2018

The day after the BACA Excellence Awards 2018

Dear Member,

I am delighted to report that a record number of guests gathered at Guildhall in London yesterday and what a fantastic event it was.

The Awards are presented annually and attract guests from all over the world to see who has received accolades from BACA.

The 2018 Awards saw a number of changes to ensure that they reflect the very best in the air charter industry on a global level. A panel of international judges, representing many of the key regional and trade associations, reviewed the nominations and allocated their marks to account for a high proportion of the scoring. Our thanks go to AIN Online, AsBAA, EBAA, Geraldine Malempre and TIACA for joining the panel. The BACA membership also voted on the shortlist of finalists and the scores were combined to find the ultimate winners.

The Chairman’s Award was the final presentation of the day and this saw a very warm reception for 99 year old Capt. Eric Thurston, MBE who we were delighted to welcome, to accept the Award in person.

The complete portfolio of Award winners was as follows;

Passenger Charter Operator of the Year – AIR CHARTER SCOTLAND
 – sponsored by Air Charter Service

Cargo Charter Operator of the Year – ANTONOV AIRLINES
 – sponsored by Network Aviation Group

Handling Agent / FBO of the Year – SIGNATURE FLIGHT SUPPORT
 – sponsored by Luxaviation UK

Aircraft Manufacturer of the Year – BOMBARDIER
 –  sponsored by London Biggin Hill Airport

Young Person of the Year – ZACH RANKIN
  – sponsored by TAG Farnborough Airport

The BACA Chairman’s Award – CAPT. ERIC THURSTON, MBE
 –  sponsored by Titan Airways

Thank you to all our awards sponsors and also our event sponsors; Gogo Business Aviation, Air Charter Service, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Air Hamburg and Sixt. I should also like to thank our events team and BACA Council for their dedication and bringing this wonderful event together.

I should also like to thank everyone very much for their generous donations to our charity fly2help, a huge £3,400 was raised. To put this into context, this amount will fund a week long Aim High Educational programme and a family Air Smiles Day, with enough left over to almost fund a second. Thanks again to Coastair, Signature Flight Support, Harrods Aviation, XLR Jet Centres, Inflite the Jet Centre, Magma Aviation and Rwandair for their generous raffle prize donations.

Feedback from guests was fantastic and the celebrations continued after the Luncheon with a Networking Reception at the nearby Telegraph where Doncaster Sheffield Airport sponsored the first drink.

Photos of the event are online and can be viewed here. Thanks to Susanne Hakuba for capturing some stunning shots of the Luncheon for us.

I feel very proud to be Chairman of BACA and yesterday marked the end of an incredible year for the association. Here’s to our seventieth birthday next year and we will announce more about this in the coming weeks.

Richard Mumford
Chairman

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