Kate Sarsfield/LONDON
THE THIRD North Weald exhibition, formerly known as the Business and Light Aviation Exhibition (B&LA), will be open from 5-8 September. Sponsored by Flight International, the show will provide an opportunity for manufacturers to assess the present confidence of the general-aviation (GA) industry.
The biennial North Weald '95 exhibition, introduced in 1991, is expected to attract capacity crowds totalling about 25,000. "We offer a definite niche forum for the GA market and we expect the exhibitors to have proper end users as visitors," says Anthony Hutton, joint director of show organiser, International Aviation Exhibition Services (IAES).
The last exhibition, held in 1993, was deemed a success by IAES, with several companies reporting firm orders for aircraft and equipment as a result of their presence. "We believe in North Weald '95 as a European show. It provides the only opportunity for general and business aviation to be displayed in the UK, and it also attracts a great deal of interest in Europe," says Graham Forbes, chief executive of the General Aviation Manufacturers and Traders Association (GAMTA).
Ian Taylor, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Trade and Technology, will open the show on 5 September.
MET-X '95
Once again, the International Meteorological Exhibition, Met-X '95, will be incorporated in the show. The exhibition, which was launched in 1993, is aimed at airport owners and operators who wish to keep abreast of technological progress in meteorological products and software. Met-X '95 is designed to provide a forum for manufacturers to meet prospective buyers.
Jill Harmer, marketing manager (aviation) with the UK Met Office says, "We found the Met-X '93 show a very useful forum for making contact with a key part of the target market".
The GA industry will gather at North Weald '95 during a climate of anxiety over the growing problem with airfield closures and restrictions. General aviation has often been pilloried, not only by many sectors of the aviation industry, but by the increasingly powerful environmental pressure groups, anti-aviation lobbyists and local protesters. In recent years, several airfields have closed notably Hertfordshire based Leavesden and Hatfield. Many more airfields find themselves under threat, by the potentially crippling restrictions being applied by airports and local authorities. According to the General Aviation Awareness Campaign, at Southampton Airport, three training organisations have been restricted, to an aggregate 10,000 movements, a year. Manchester International Airport has told its resident operators that there will be no more GA operations after 1997 and Birmingham International will not allow any new GA companies to start up when existing operators leave.
"The large airports have delusions of grandeur," says Martin Robinson, spokesman for the GAAC. Robinson cites the case of Crowfield Flying club in Suffolk, which is threatened with closure after a restriction of ten movements a day was imposed on its operations. The GAAC believes that, by "kicking out" GA, airports and local authorities are infringing the terms of the Public Use Licence, which is made available for all aircraft users on equal terms. "General aviation is being squeezed into smaller and smaller pockets. We are now having to fight for its survival," says Robinson.
With many airports looking to privatisation, GA is not an attractive proposition for potential shareholders, as it does not generate as much revenue as the more profitable commercial-airline operations. "We have to establish a better relationship between business operators and managers, which is already beginning to happen," adds Forbes.
GA in the UK is set for a further shake-up with the onset of the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) JAR Ops in the second half of the 1990s. JAR-OPS 1, covering fixed-wing commercial air transport, will be implemented formally on 1 April, 1997, for aircraft with more than 19 seats and on 1 April, 1999, for smaller types. After then, the rules will have the force of European law. Forbes believes that the legislation will "...regulate the industry and create a level playing field across Europe". He fears that the additional equipment required will prove expensive for many operators. Despite the implementation of JAA regulations, it is widely believed that they will be fairer than the existing UK Civil Aviation Authority policies.
According to Trevor Trivett, sales director at Oxford-based CSE Aviation, "...business is better than it was". For many companies, however, the seeds of recovery are slow to take root.
As the international GA market wrestles with the fragile economy, IAES is sanguine that North Weald '95 will be an important showcase for the industry in Europe. For Patrick Casey, joint director of IAES, "...North Weald '95 is the biggest thing of its kind in Europe. There is nobody else who can compete with what we are doing - we are it".
Source: Flight International
