Space for the 2019 LABACE, to take place August 13 to 15 in São Paulo, was opened for exhibitors last Friday, with a lottery for static display locations to take place on May 31. “Our objective here is to hold the largest business aviation event in Latin America,” ABAG (Brazilian Association for General Aviation) CEO Flávio Pires told AIN after the launch at fair organizer MCI’s São Paulo offices. MCI’s Rodrigo Cordeiro told representatives of the country’s major business aviation firms that efforts to bring purchasers and exhibitors from elsewhere in Latin America, begun last year with success, will continue in 2019. AIN will be publishing three editions of LABACE Convention News.

Brazil’s economy is making a slow recovery from the country’s longest modern recession, and the optimism that came with the election of new president has resulted in a surge of interest in business aviation, but purchasers are awaiting firm evidence that the new administration can implement its policies in such areas as the long-needed public pension reform. “With luck, LABACE will take place at the moment that interest becomes a decision by buy,” Pires said.

Prices have increased by about 5 percent, both for exhibitors and for visitors, and the static display area will again be configured with a circular walkway that leaves no one in a dead end. The conference area will again use headphones, allowing speakers to share the stage simultaneously. A large tent will again be set up for rotary-wing exhibits. An innovation is conference rooms that exhibitors can rent by the hour. Informal areas such as an “outdoor living room” will be added, though the landmark hangar that hosts the booths will have the roof inspected, and Pires confides he’s got 600 umbrellas in stock. Cordeiro announced more extensive online registration requirements to reduce lines at the fair entrance, and the designation by MCI of a single contractor for booth construction, since delays by some contractors last year almost resulted in having to push back the fair opening ceremony. Volume discounts should yield lower costs, he assured. The carefully choreographed insertion of aircraft into the cramped ramp area will be even more complex than at past fairs, as the ramp on both sides of the landmark hangar will be used.

Pires said that this year’s fair will likely be a farewell to Congonhas, as the area traditionally used for the fair has been leased for a home-construction superstore, with groundbreaking scheduled before LABACE 2020. Rumor indicates the replacement will be Campo de Marte, Brazil’s leading business airport, with a broad ramp in smooth concrete rather than cobblestone, and a runway with length and an expected upgrading of the PCN to 32.