Recce

I don’t have to tell you that times have been tough. That probably a quarter of a million people have seen their aerospace dependant livelihoods disappear in recent years through the combined effects of deep recession and the end of the Cold War. Even in Australia more than 10,000 aviation related jobs have disappeared with precious few likely ever to come back on line. Consequently Avalon 95 (we’ve given up on its official name which seems to take half the page!) provided something of a pleasant surprise for this writer who has been attending major airshows since the seventies.

So what was different?

For the first time since Paris ’89 people were upbeat. That is in fact an understatement as there was not one corporate person at Avalon that the AA team met that was doing nothing less than excellent business, and it has been a long, long time since that sentiment has pervaded the major airshow exhibits. We ourselves did about three times as much constructive business as we anticipated and achieved more on the first trade day than we did in the entire previous show. Now that’s heartening, for not just AA but everyone as it was a sentiment expressed by almost everybody we made contact with.

Avalon to us represents a tangible change in the international aviation business climate. Aircraft sales are again picking up, not with ego driven mega orders but with a continuing string of carefully thought out acquisitions to replace ageing aircraft and to pioneer new and potentially profitable routes both here and abroad. That certainly wasn’t happening just a year ago and indeed hasn’t since the early nineties when everything began to turn sour. Things in Australia seemed to fall apart around the time of the Pilots’ Dispute in late ’89 and a year later for the rest of the world when Saddam Hussein accelerated global slowdown into deep recession with his expensive foray into Kuwait.

Thus, with a much boosted exhibitor attendance, Avalon 95 already has matured into the largest and most important aviation expo in the southern hemisphere. If 1995 was successful then the next one in two years should be even more so. The number of individual executives from major international companies that AA spoke to that participated this time to just have a ‘look see’ or in casual backup to their Australian agents whose companies are next time going to display in their own right are many.

Australian Aviation May 1995

People make up the numbers but it’s the business of trade that makes the wheels of the aerospace industry turn.

In 1992 there were 291 exhibitors from just 12 countries, this year there were 335 from 24 countries. Though total general public spectator attendance was substantially down (125,000 in 95 against 175,000 in ’92) the trade attendance was fractionally up at 53,000 versus 49,000. In ’92 though little real business was done, Mother Nature had already done her best to scuttle the show and the state of the economy was little better.

The money that this show brings into Australia, and to Victoria in particular, is stark evidence of why the Victorian Government has worked so hard to support the event, both monetarily and at an official level. It is estimated, for instance, that the show brings in around $50m of additional business to the State. We cannot discount this as you can see it everywhere you go with money being spent on goods and services that would not have ordinarily occurred. Added to this is that the majority of overseas attendees also took a few days of well earned R&R in Australia (usually on the Barrier Reef, far from their snowed in northern hemisphere bases) before heading home. Indeed, Avalon is a winner for all Australians, particularly more so that it has now been given a real identity by becoming a specific event to be held every two years.

And the timing is ideal also. To be next run in the first quarter of 1997 though most probably during March and positioned so as not to clash with the Melbourne F1 GP, Avalon will dovetail in nicely with Asian Aerospace in the February of each even year and Paris in the June of each odd year and Farnborough in the September of each even year. Though we realistically don’t think that it will ever challenge the highly successful Asian Aerospace in Singapore, Avalon should continue to grow stronger with each successive event. Indeed a decade from now it could be realistic to expect something in the order of 500 plus exhibitors with an inflation adjusted return to our nation of more than $100m in what essentially are export dollars. Now that beats a Grand Prix, Bike GP or Indy race any day.

Asian Aerospace

Indeed, this writer remembers back to the second Asian Aerospace in Singapore. When it commenced in the early eighties most pundits felt that it was floated as a good excuse to fill then empty Singaporean hotel rooms at a time of global recession. They may well have been right but the formula worked and worked well. Most of the Asian Tigers are now kicking themselves that tiny Singapore thought of it first and made it the success it is today where Asian Aerospace ranks closely behind Farnborough and Paris in credibility as the third of the aviation world’s premier trade expos.

Avalon has all the long term credentials to do likewise, albeit on a smaller scale, and provide the international aerospace community with a second opportunity to parade its wares (and Australia’s too) to the powerhouse of South East Asian trade. Certainly a great effort from Ian Honnery and his hard working team and most specially our thanks to that veritable legion of volunteers who endure the elements come rain, hail or shine to make it all work as advertised. The unsung heroes of each major event. Good one Oz!