Admit it honestly, the first thing you thought was: “Well, now everything is clear! BLACKLIST.AERO has been talking about “bad” companies for a long time, and now they will talk about “good” ones and charge money for it!”

You know, I was “taught” how to “make money from bad companies” (by publishing articles about non-payers for money, and then removing them for money too) back at the dawn of the formation of BLACKLIST.AERO two years ago. I didn’t go for it on principle. Although a huge number of “journalists”, including aviation ones, make their living from this. I do not have the heart to call them journalists without quotes.

But BLACKLIST.AERO and WHITELIST.AERO are not “black” and “white” PR. These are principles. Which we have defended and will continue to defend.

Over the past two years, we have been telling you what “bad” is and showing specific examples. We urged you not to perceive the facts of systemic non-payments and fraud as the “new norm”. We urged you to show professional solidarity and fight against frauds with common efforts. And we will continue to do this further.

However, if the market opinion more or less agrees on what not to do, then I foresee heated discussions about what should be done. Firstly, any business transaction involves two or more parties. Everyone has their own interests. Balancing these interests is quite a challenge.

Secondly, over the past years, during which the aviation market has turned into a “wild wild market” (almost like the Wild Wild West), the understanding of what “good” is has become so blurred that we will have to work really hard to jointly define new whitelisted criteria for each area of aviation business.

What exactly do we intend to do?

We intend to develop documents (examples of agreements, operating procedures, etc.) that will be publicly available for free download and further use by any interested party. These documents cannot be called Regulations. But if representatives of all parties interested in the balance of interests and having authority in aviation take part in their development, then such documents may have the status of “Recommended Whitelisted Business Practice”.

It is important for us to give the aviation market clear guidelines. So that they become a kind of model, a business standard with which market participants can compare certain processes in their companies.

How do we intend to do this?

Each time we will start from a specific problem. We define (propose) a problem – We determine possible ways to solve it – We develop a solution (recommendation).

Who will develop solutions?

For each new solution, we intend to form an Expert Council of professionals in the aviation field which the Recommended Whitelisted Practice is related to. It is extremely important that these experts represent two or three parties of a particular business process. Without this, it will simply be impossible to develop a fair and balanced document.

This is completely volunteer work. People who will participate in the development of documents must understand that they are spending their time so that absolutely EVERYONE can benefit from the fruits of their work. The documents that end-users will be able to download from the WHITELIST.AERO website will have open copyright with the legal opportunity for further use in their commercial activities by anyone.

The composition of the Expert Council will be published on the website. First of all, we will invite aviation professionals from among those who have previously signed the Three Cases Declaration. We will also be glad if aviation lawyers and specialized associations in a particular area of aviation take part in the process. However, the circle of possible Expert Council participants is not limited to this. We are ready to listen to market proposals and invite candidates from among those recommended by market participants.

The main criteria for inviting candidates to the Expert Council is professional experience in a specific field of aviation and an impeccable business reputation.

How we intend to organize the process?

Each member of the Expert Council will have his own user account on the Whitelist.aero website. Once logged in, he will be able to see the draft document that is being worked on and make suggestions for edits or additional items.

All edits to the document and the document itself as a whole will be accepted by electronic voting of experts. Our goal is to ensure the simplicity and transparency of the process.

Where do we start?

While working on the cases that our claimants create in BLACKLIST.AERO, we have to notice certain patterns. For example, in the part of the cases where we are talking about unfulfilled obligations when organizing business aviation charter flights, brokers complain about the facts of full or partial non-refund by operators of prepayment for a flight after a flight was canceled due to a technical failure (AOG situation). Operators promise get the money back, but they delay the refund for months (and sometimes years).

And sometimes we see situations in which, according to the agreement, the operator does not provide for a refund at all - the money goes towards a “deposit” for the next flight. And the operator will offer this “next flight” to the broker with a 20-30% markup, understanding that sooner or later he will want to take his money back. And so on, and so on... There are simply a lot of opportunities for abuse of not only the client’s trust, but also elementary legislation on the protection of consumer rights.

In turn, operators who agreed to operate a flight with payment after the flight, after the cancellation of such a flight by the client at the last moment, are faced with failure to comply with the cancellation fee clauses. Sometimes brokers do not want to pay for a flight even when the aircraft has arrived specifically to pick up passengers and the flight is canceled for reasons beyond the control of the operator.

Both parties have the right to protect their interests. However, agreements are often written in such a way that one of the parties has the opportunity to interpret the agreement in their favor, abusing professional ethics and even common sense.

Of course, you can say: “No matter what kind of agreement you draw up, if your counterparty is an asshole, there will be a conflict situation with subsequent proceedings!” I am ready to partially agree. However, only partially.

Often such situations arise precisely because one of the parties considers the agreement as an empty formality. “The main thing is an arrangement between the two parties, and a agreement is just a formality!” they think. However, then both parties tell us exactly the opposite stories about their verbal “arrangements” over the phone, not even by email! And in this case, what we can really build on is the signed agreement.

To minimize such stories in the BLACKLIST.AERO Registry and in the business aviation market in general, we propose to develop an agreement template that would absorb as much as possible all the experience of “failures” that market participants face on both sides. We fully understand that it will be impossible to create a versatile template of agreement for all types of charter flights. Cargo flights have their own specifics; there are more parties involved in the flight (at least the operator, the customer and the warehouse). Different specifics of cargo. Therefore, in developing of an agreement for cargo charters, it is necessary to convene a different composition of the expert council, which will be done in the future. The same situation is with the supply of aviation spare parts and other areas of aviation.

Dear friends,

The BLACKLIST.AERO team (and now WHITELIST.AERO) is ready to listen and analyze all your comments and suggestions. We really want the BLACKLIST.AERO Registry to become unnecessary over time. We want to restore an atmosphere of trust to the aviation market. But for this we need your sincere help, not only in word, but also in deed.

Please send your proposals regarding the formation of candidates for expert groups, as well as regarding problems that in your opinion should be resolved by creating a Recommended Whitelisted Business Practice, to email: council@whitelist.aero