How Private Aviation Can Brace for Climate and Class War Protests

Spring has sprung and summer is fast approaching in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s the season for air shows, major sporting events, packed European vacation resorts, and increasingly, climate change protests looking to disrupt their bête noire, private aviation.

The disruption and damage caused by protestors at the 2023 EBACE trade show in Geneva shocked some in the industry, but it has become all too commonplace, especially against a backdrop of heightened political tensions. Organizers of the 2024 EBACE show are bracing for more turbulence when the industry reconvenes in the Swiss city’s Palexpo facility from May 28 to 30.

This conflict is part of the wider trend for which the term "permacrisis" was coined in 2021 to describe the spiraling chain of events in which companies and individuals get snowballed by one threat after another, thanks also to divisive world leaders like Russia’s self-crowned czar and warlord Vladimir Putin. Medaire’s global security director, John Cauthen, said his team is increasingly helping business aircraft operators better understand and contextualize their approach to risk management. These days, almost regardless of where you are based or where you travel, there is no dodging the multi-faceted fallout from overlapping crises and flashpoints.

For security experts like Eric Schouten with Dyami Security Intelligence, the industry now has to operate with protests being almost as much of a given element as wars and the weather. In his view, rather than bemoaning the injustice of being targeted in this way, companies would do better to focus on the steps that can be taken to function safely and effectively in this environment.

Having access to intelligence about the threats is important, and experts like the former Dutch security services officer and his team can help in that area. But the response to known threats, in his view, is more nuanced than the obvious answer of recruiting battle-hardened security operatives to mount a protective cordon around aircraft and other assets.

Schouten told BJT that security at airports has to be the primary responsibility of government agencies, although multiple incidents over the past year or more confirm that this has been far from robust. What’s more, very few protestors seem to have faced criminal prosecution, and those that do seem to be dealt with very leniently by courts that seemingly shy away from creating deterrents.

Security analysts at Osprey Flight Solutions are also warning their clients to expect ongoing protests and security breaches at airports. "Airports serving private jets and air charter services remain the most likely to be targeted," aviation security analyst Isobel Kerr told BJT. "However, activists may also attempt to disrupt air traffic at major international airports."

“We all need to prepare, but we still have to go ahead with events like EBACE; we can’t just give in because we’re too scared,” Schouten told BJT. “Companies need to help their people be clear on how they can tell the story of how the industry is responding to the climate crisis. They should have a short summary ready for everyone, and it can’t just be ‘green-washing’ because the protestors know when that’s happening.”

Plenty of people in the aviation industry care passionately about averting climate change dangers and are taking effective action to make a difference. This is a reality that too easily gets glossed over in noisy protests.

The “private jets are killing the planet” narrative also masks a class war, wealth-resenting agenda to “make the rich pay.” Again, it’s perfectly possible to care about myriad 21st-century social injustices and damaging inequities and also be committed to a positive future for aviation in which it is part of the solution and not the eternal scapegoat. As security experts like Schouten would advise, it takes courage, preparation, and “knowing your story” to keep safe and composed in an environment of distrust.