Students, Recent Grads Come to EBACE2016 for Intro to Business Aviation

26 May 2016

Jose Luis Cunill is 25. He’s from Barcelona and earned his pilot’s license from Phoenix East Aviation in Daytona Beach, FL.

“I always wanted to work in business aviation, because it’s more versatile than airlines, and more challenging,” said Cunill. “Instead of flying the same routes all the time, you might have to go from a meeting in London to Paris, then New York.”

With 1,300 hours, multi-engine and instrument ratings, Cunill’s working on his European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) conversion – getting his U.S. pilot’s license recognized by EASA so he can fly in Europe. He was one of about 40 recent graduates and current students attending the 2016 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition’s (EBACE2016’s) third day for free, starting with a session titled, “Skills & Careers.”

“Business aviation is not very big, but it’s very diverse,” said Christian Weiss, leader of the Hay Group’s practice on organization and workforce design, at the career session. “And it’s fairly easy to jump to new fields.”

“Are There Opportunities for ______ in Business Aviation?”

Weiss and panelists from Europe and the U.S. told the young people that business aviation offered a broad range of opportunities – from engineering and maintenance to marketing and sales; from flight operations to interior design.

“There’s not any day that’s necessarily like the next,” said Margriet Bredewold, ‎founder, trainer and consultant at Co-Guard gmbH. “A job in business aviation comes with a lot of freedom and a lot of responsibility. It’s a very exciting, very diverse industry, where many people can find their own way.”

Students soaked up the versatility message, asking the panel if business aviation had opportunities for young people interested in green technologies, human resources, aircraft financing, flying and management.

“It’s great that you’re all so innovative,” said Marc Bailey, CEO of BBGA. “Business aviation is really welcoming to new ideas. It’s an industry where very early, you’ll have the opportunity to get involved with the customers, operations, planning and all aspects of the business.”

The students had numerous questions about finding a mentor, networking and how to get started. Many had come from Hamburg University and the University of Applied Sciences, Worms in Germany; as well as the Swiss Transportation Research Institute in Zurich, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and ECORIS Enterprise School in Lyon.