The Paris Air Show chose London last week to kick off a series of international presentations publicising the 46th Le Bourget aviation exhibition. Further briefings are planned, at Berlin 19 April, Washington 27 April and finally at Le Bourget itself on the Wednesday (8 June) before the show begins. The 2005 show is shorter than previous years events and runs from Monday 13 June until Sunday 19 June with the first four days strictly for professionals.
Two points straight away stand out. Firstly the importance the French aviation industry attaches to London as the commercial centre of the world and the place to be seen. Olympic organisers both sides of the channel please note. Secondly the lack of visibility for our own aviation exhibition, the next one due at Farnborough in July 2006. Sadly the web site is not even up and running and it proved impossible for ABTN to make contact. What is known is that Farnborough is no longer organised by the SBAC directly but by a new subsidiary company headed by an executive from Marshall Aerospace. The dates are 17 ” 27 July 2006. In 2004 what should have been a great business and social event went by with barely a whimper. Whilst COMMENT is in truth discussing Paris we must emphasise that Farnborough 2006 needs to attack its trade and public market at a very early stage unless it wants to be relegated from the top tier of aviation shows.
Paris 2005 will be dominated by the Airbus A380. Whether it flies or not is a mute point (or even makes an appearance). That will be an Airbus decision but it really depends on who gets the final say so, engineering or marketing. Or perhaps the politicos at the very top. The result will be of great interest to observers (including the airlines with fixed delivery dates). It has been suggested that it will fly and be seen only when the French president makes an appearance.
Boeing will of course try and compete with Airbus and the 777LR will no doubt fly in from some place the other side of the world after a near 24 hour non stop flight. Wait for a Boeing win when it comes to order announcements with a torrent of 787 commitments. Embraer will show the 190 and on the business aviation front Daussault will unveil the Falcon 7X. Just under 2000 exhibitors are booked from nearly 50 countries including for the first time Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Slovak Republic.
If you were looking forward to seeing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) perform in the air display it”s not on for this year. Whatever the manufacturers say the organisers and the French safety organisations are not completely satisfied on their 100% reliability. Maybe for 2007.
Getting to Le Bourget has always been a problem, one that has proved virtually impossible for the organisers to solve. There is ample parking provided and the RER between Gar du Nord and Charles de Gaulle has a station about 3k from the exhibition site with a paying shuttle provided. The 350 bus operates a parallel and actually passes by the exhibition entrance (but take something to read ” it can be slow). There are other public transport alternatives. Perhaps the best offering is the Helifrance service from various heliports to Le Bourget, which also includes a chauffer transfer to and from the chalet of your choice.
The Paris Air Show seems to have really got its act together. The 2005 event looks like going down as one of the best ever. It”s all about forward planning. ABTN wishes the organisers every success.
http://www.paris-air-show.com
http://www.farnborough.com