Association cancels New Orleans convention date as city struggles to recover from Hurricane Katrina disaster
Orlando is looking favourite, as the National Business Aviation Association urgently hunts for a new city to host its annual convention in November after it emerged that New Orleans will not recover from Hurricane Katrina in time.
The NBAA – which was due to return to New Orleans after four years – had said immediately after the disaster that it “would continue to assess the opportunity” to keep the 58th convention in the Louisiana city. But following the city authority’s decision to evacuate New Orleans because of broken levees and the threat of disease, the association said that “regrettably” it had taken the decision on Wednesday to relocate.
The pressure is now on the NBAA to find a convention centre large enough to host the show, which also requires a nearby business airport to host a static display. Ironically, the last NBAA convention in New Orleans, in 2001, had to be rescheduled because it was due to take place days after 9/11. A scaled-down version took place later that year.
In recent years, the convention has rotated between the only three cities large enough to host the event – New Orleans, Las Vegas and Orlando.
Source: Flight International
