Brokers need strength in numbers

Anyone who has visited the magnificent Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace in the old terminal building at Paris's historic Le Bourget airport, will learn that the French invented everything when it comes to aviation. From the first hot air balloon ascent by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, and the first hydrogen balloon, the first humans and animals to fly, the first humans (and animals!) to descend by parachute, the first woman to fly in a balloon and the first woman to fly an aeroplane – the French claim them all.

They also invented the dirigible airship and the first seaplane, achieved the first non-stop crossing of the South Atlantic and, more recently, built the only vertical take-off aircraft to reach Mach 2. The Ariane rocket and Concorde were, of course, made in France! In the first 30 years of the twentieth century, French aviators held most of the air speed records, height records, distance records and endurance records. If a Frenchman's record was beaten, it was usually overtaken by another Frenchman.

On emerging from the museum one is left with a feeling of astonishment that the French were responsible for so much when it comes to aviation.

ven if you raise a sceptical eyebrow to some of the claims, there is no doubt that France was a leader in the field, and still is. And there is equally no doubt that a Frenchman, Louis Bleriot, was the first man to cross the English Channel by air exactly 100 years ago, thereby establishing that (unless you want to count the balloon crossing by a Frenchman in the opposite direction in 1785) Britain was no longer an impregnable island, but a European country like any other. With that flight, international aviation was born and, ten years later (90 years ago this year) serious commercial passenger flights began between Britain and its immediate European neighbours. Borrowing a language, documentation and a regulatory structure from its maritime forebears, the industry rapidly grew into a framework which would be pretty recognisable to us today.

When the Baltic Air Charter Association (in its original incarnation) was created exactly 60 years ago, it too grew out of a maritime background, and acquired its current heritage from the principles and ethics enshrined and developed at the Baltic Exchange over 250 years. But in 1949 conditions were nowhere near as optimistic as they had been 30 years before. Britain was emerging painfully from war, and the brief boost for airlines provided by the Berlin Airlift was coming to a close. Times were hard, especially for the independent operators who had to cope with a government determined to give priority to its new state-run airlines BOAC and BEA.

At the time most airlines had no sales department as such, and so they appointed agents to market their services. The agents were usually long-established passenger ticket companies and I suppose what we would now call travel agencies, acting as brokers and representing the airlines on the 'trading floor' of the Baltic Exchange in London.

Gradually the airlines became more self sufficient, and the need for an in-house broker faded away, so today that system has more or less disappeared. The broker often relies less on having a tame airline in his portfolio and more on having a wide overall knowledge of his field, and the ability to offer a value-added service to the client, over and above what the airline itself can provide.

Now times are hard again and both brokers and airlines have to go the extra mile to stay alive.

Where does a trade organisation like BACA fit into this, and is there any place for such an assoc-iation in these gloomy times? In fact this is precisely the most important moment for the facilities that BACA can offer. In desperate times all sorts of worms crawl out of the woodwork, and anybody with a cellphone becomes a potential charter broker. The poor charterer can be tempted by amazing offers from people he has never heard of and the internet only helps these newcomers to spread their tentacles.

This is the climate in which the customer needs to know who the good guys are and where he can find a reliable, honest and experienced colleague in the industry to guide him in the right direction. A good trade association, in whatever industry, provides that assurance and BACA is the leading trade association in the world specifically based around air charter brokers. This is the place to be, at any time, but particularly right now.

An association also offers its members strength in numbers. Whether a company is one of the big international groups, or a small broker with a niche clientele, there are times when we all need to have a common voice. Not only that, we can share advice, warnings and expertise without compromising our individual integrity. We may compete on a regular basis (that's good for the client), but it's unlikely that any one of us can do ALL the business in the world, so there is room for plenty of members in our family – including the French, of which we have surprisingly few.