rganizers of the biennial Asian Aerospace event claim that it is “the world’s second most influential airshow.” This is a big claim, since it stands or falls on the contention that either the self-evidently larger Paris or Farnborough shows are less important than the Singapore event. But be that as it may, there can be no disputing the stature of Asian Aerospace in the Asia/Pacific region, and the evidence from the 2004 show (held February 24 to 29) strongly suggested that this beleaguered part of the global economy is now back on its feet, despite the best efforts of the avian flu virus to drag it back into the mire created by last year’s severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic.
According to show organizer Reed Exhibitions, the four trade-only days of Asian Aerospace 2004 generated $3.52 billion worth of deals. Again, this seems like an inflated claim, since–as is now almost the norm on the post-9/11 airshow circuit–there were no blockbuster airliner sales announcements. According to computations done by AIN, the reported grand total can have been achieved only by factoring in every cent of every optional element contained in the business transactions announced at the show, including all support deals. In fact, AA’04 organizers acknowledged that the sales tally included all business transactions announced by companies during the show.
