Frankly, I'm with NuName on all this.
I stand singularly unimpressed with the current representation for genuine private ops, especially in Europe.
We have things like EBAA, IBAC, IS-BAO in force but isn't it time to wake up and smell the coffee?
What on earth to the private operator is IS-BAO than a bunch of hoops to jump through? at the end of the day it is a means of compliance with the new legislation, which in essence is a bunch of costly and unnecessary hoops to jump through.
We proved in the debate about third country licensing and registration that there was no safety disparity between EU reg commercial and non-EU reg private operations, but nobody will fight this. Why? EBAA is in bed with IBAC that created IS-BAO, the end. There are still costs associated with IS-BAO, and whenever a new piece of legislation comes out, as far as I can see the 'representative' bodies do little to fight our corner at the consultation stage and then pedal their compliance solution at the implementation stage.... Don't believe me? why the backpedal by EBAA advising it's members to boycott the ETS when the EU wouldn't approve its ETS solution? A boycott was what was needed from the outset by Airlines, Charter and Private alike.
There is a parallel here with other industries, remember when BS 5750 and ISO 9000 series were 'trendy' routes to go down, These all involve quality systems and audits etc, but at the end of the day it's in the interest of the auditor to accept or pass the applicant as the receiving organisation get membership and service fees from the applicant on an ongoing basis!
This whole thing smells, it does nothing but impose cost an an industry in a precarious economic condition with quite the opposite of tangible benefit for it's efforts. ICAO has acted ridiculously here and, what a surprise, the US of E as someone quite eloquently put it [as long as it meant United S***hole of Europe] was at the front of the queue arm-in-arm with IBAC to jump on the bandwagon.