Congratulations Avalon!
Aviation Advertiser team at Avalon
Airshow supremo Ian Honnery cheerfully admits to being a bit biased, but insists the success of Avalon 2009 was a pleasant surprise against the background of some challenging local weather as well as the global financial storm:
“Initial response from exhibitors has been very positive and we’ve already received quite a number of accolades. Overall attendance was a little bit down, with preliminary estimates at about 9% but we’ll probably end up with a slightly better figure at the final count.”
Preliminary numbers have overall attendance (trade plus public days) at around 165,000. The total expo area occupied about the same footprint size as in 2007 but the 600 participating exhibitor companies represented about a 6% downturn from the previous airshow. There were about 400 participating aircraft, so that figure held the line, and several exhibitors told AviationAdvertiser they remained impressed by the quality and interest of trade day visitors and the business opportunities the show provided.
Above: Avalon Organiser, Ian Honnery
So was Ian Honnery: “We were impressed by the sizeable number of international delegations, the quality of the exhibits was world class, the trade day attendees were of a high order, the array of aircraft on display was very good, and I think overall the outcomes demonstrate how strongly positioned the show now is, and its importance to the aviation & defence industries.”
Even the Friday night displays and the public days, which some expected to see markedly lower attendance, stood up well despite some disruptive weather: “Friday night’s show was disrupted but we were determined to get everything up in the air that we could. It was a bit ‘gappy’ because there were times we just couldn’t fly anything, and some acts, particularly parachutists, we couldn’t operate at all. But we got about 90% of the planned performers into the air, not necessarily in the scheduled sequence, and I think the show closed about an hour late so we could fit everything in. It was quite impressive that the people stayed on to the end.
“Saturday had good attendance despite occasional storms, and again people cheerfully stayed out in the rain and got wet, so we took the view that if they were that keen we were here to put on a show so let’s do it!”
Honnery said the total expo area this year covered some 31000 sq m; 364 tents were delivered in 46 semitrailer loads, and total installation time was just under 4 months: “Our permanent staff number just over 20, but at the airshow we had 120 staff and 800 volunteers. The chalet line alone was 265 metres long. I think a lot of people don’t realise what it takes to put it all together, but the outcome is a tribute to the strength and positioning of the event, as well as to the staff, volunteers, contractors and participating exhibitors.”
Work has already begun on planning the 2011 show but final dates have not yet been decided. “We’re always making improvements, and we’ll look at the experiences on this occasion, but an airshow’s an open-air event and there are limits to what you can do. Airfields in Australia don’t have lots of tarmac and we use it all for aircraft displays and operations.
“We’ve built up our infrastructure a lot over the years, and it’s the largest event under temporary structure that’s held in Australia.”
AviationAdvertiser congratulates the organisers and like most of the industry we’re looking forward to an even bigger and better show in 2011.
