New Farnborough Management Ready to Fly

The July 17–23 Farnborough Intl. Air Show will be the first under new management, which faces some pressure as it works to recover from a disappointing 2004.

Not to worry, managers said, the retooled biennial event is ready for takeoff. And as soon as this year's event is over, they'll turn their attention to task No. 2: transforming their air show venue into a year-round exhibition facility.

The Farnborough Intl. Air Show two years ago saw an increase in exhibitors from 1,240 to 1,360, according to owner and organizer the Society of British Aerospace Cos. Attendance, however, was lackluster, with only 133,000 attendees on trade-only days (July 19–23), compared with about 150,000 in 2002.

So, during the last show and for a few months afterward, the SBAC conducted a sweeping strategic review.

It determined, among other things, that the show needed independent management. After entertaining the idea of hiring an outside firm (Reed Exhibitions and Montgomery Exhibitions were said to have been candidates), the SBAC found it had sufficient operational expertise in-house. To continue running the show while minimizing the financial risk the multi-million-pound enterprise posed for the association, it set up a separate, wholly owned company, Farnborough Intl. Ltd.

When the new company began operating in January 2005, Trevor Sidebottom, deputy director general of the SBAC, took over as managing director of both the Farnborough show and management company.

"What happened was that a bunch of people previously employed by the SBAC on the expo side — various managers of various aspects — were transferred into Farnborough Ltd. We kept the expertise," said Sidebottom, who until 1994 had been with the British Royal Air Force.

The core show management staff of about 20 people, divided between offices in London and Farnborough, was retained, and they spent last year looking for ways to strengthen the 2006 event.

Besides adding an Intl. Youth Day — inviting college aerospace and engineering students to the last trade day of the exhibition — and enlisting the support of industry dignitaries for the opening night dinner, the team reconfigured several areas of the show. For instance, formerly separate trade displays and hospitality chalets have been combined, and the media center has moved to the center of the site.

The event will start with a one-day business conference. On the first display day, the Airbus A380 will make its debut. Sidebottom anticipates a far greater number of aircraft at the show, with 60 to 70 submissions for static displays and a flying program that will last 25 hours over the course of the seven-day exhibition.

Farnborough has reported increased interest in sponsorship packages and other support from key companies, such as Bell Helicopter, which is returning to the show after an eight-year absence.

"On the exhibition side, we've sold 98 percent of the space. On the chalet side, we've got 95 percent of that sold as well," said Sidebottom at press time. Ticket sales for trade days will open March 1.

All good news. Yet improving the show is not the new Farnborough team's only job. It also has a mandate from the British government to develop the 120,000 square meters (1.3 million sq. feet) of the Farnborough Air Field that it occupies as a general-use exhibition venue for Southeast England during the air show's off-season.

Located about 30 miles southwest of London on a major highway, the air field still belongs to the Ministry of Defense. Because the Royal British Air Force no longer uses it, private airport operator TAG and Farnborough hold long-term leases to use the air field.

As the principal lessee of the whole site, TAG will be a stakeholder in the new initiative, and Sidebottom said the two companies have a good relationship.

As for whether England needs another exhibition venue, "Earls Court and Olympia, and ExCeL (London) are serving the 10 million people of London within 10 miles of the city's center," Sidebottom said. "But we have an airfield, and any day of the week we have lots of people flying in and out. Because we're heavily populated, we're very attractive as an exhibition site."

Farnborough is still working on a comprehensive site development proposal, Sidebottom said. For now, the plan is to hire De Boer, the Dutch company that builds chalets for the air show, to erect a large, semi-permanent structure on the site in August and begin marketing it as an exhibition site in order to get a feel for its potential.

Sidebottom said the focus would not be on air shows, other than possibly one for business jets. He believes the site could lend itself to virtually any type of show, public or trade, gardening to RVs.

"We've already got people interested in bringing various events to the site," he said. "We'll do that and see how we go from there."