The BIA is 50 years old

For this anniversary, more than ever, live your passion!

It was in fact in 1968 that the Aeronautical Introduction Certificate (BIA) replaced the Elementary Air Sports Certificate, itself derived from the supervised leisure activities set up by Jean Zay, the Popular Front's Minister of National Education. And it was from 1968 that a balance was established between National Education, the federations and the Ministry of Transport.

Today, the success of this qualification and of its teaching in very varied situations is spectacular.
Indeed, 11 000 candidates sit it every year, including 2 700 girls. The BIA is a UFO in National Education, because it corresponds to nothing that exists, and it feeds on a constant relationship with the federations brought together in the CNFAS (National Council of Aeronautical and Sports Federations), with the Ministry of Transport, the DGAC, the GIFAS, the FNAM, the Ministry of Sport and the armed forces.

The BIA is the junction of education and the world of aviation and space; a bridge between passion and reason, knowledge and practice, professional and amateur, civil and military. Its long and prestigious history shows its value and interest.

This success since the very beginning is linked above all to the exceptional network of clubs and airfields that make France, together with the USA, the leading countries of aeronautical culture.
All activities are represented: aeroplane, glider, microlight, free flight, balloon, parachute, model flying, helicopter, amateur building. All of them help keep alive the desire to fly, in which professional or recreational pilots, engineers and everyone whose job is linked to aeronautics and space naturally find a common space in which to live their passion.

The latest reform of the BIA, in 2014, placed particular emphasis on the space dimension. So it is only natural that Thomas Pesquet, ESA astronaut, is the patron of this 50th anniversary of the BIA.
The anniversary will be celebrated in every education authority area, but above all in June at the Le Bourget air show.

Find out more about the BIA on our site

or on www.monbia.fr