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PLANE CLEVER
FLY-PASTS, LOOP THE LOOPS AND PRIVATE JETS GALORE… PETERJON CRESSWELL PREVIEWS THE LAUNCH OF THE BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL AIR SHOW – ONE OF AVIATION’S MOST ANTICIPATED EVENTS
AIRCRAFT ILLUSTRATIONS BY Jeffrey Milstein
Fly in, go up for a spin, talk shop one-to-one and fly out again – all on the same morning. If you’re in the market for a private jet, you won’t find a more accommodating destination to seal the deal than the Bahrain International Air Show (BIAS), which launches on 21 January at the Sakhir Airbase, next to the Grand Prix circuit. With the experienced backing of the team behind the UK’s Farnborough Air Show, Bahrain has customised its own inaugural event to suit the client eager to do business quickly and convivially. While long-established air shows such as Paris and Singapore are vast, crowded trade fairs – Farnborough attracted some 1,500 exhibitors to its most recent 60th-anniversary do in 2008 – BIAS is centred on 40 cherry-picked companies, each with its own personalised chalet with a private entrance, garden and individual display area. Dubai may have unveiled a fourth exhibition hall for its air show last November, but at Bah-rain less is more. Prestige is paramount.
“BIAS differs from other shows in the Middle East by the exclusivity of its nature,” says Farnborough Exhibitions and Events Director Amanda Stainer, who is operating in the same role for the Bahrain air show. “The 40 participating companies from the civil, defence and business sectors of the aerospace industry will be afforded the opportunity to meet with invited delegations, high-level buyers and suppliers from the region, as well as receiving private introductions with the royal contingent. It is a very personal show that offers effective return on investment and will grow over the ensuing years.”
According to Trevor Esling, Vice President for International Sales at the Cessna Aircraft Company: “Bahrain offers something quite distinctive in the focused nature of its event. For Cessna, the real value in a show comes from the one-to-one meetings and relationship-building we can have with customers. We expect that the Bahrain show’s select and intimate atmosphere will be highly conducive to such discussions.”
Yet BIAS is more than an oasis of exclusivity. Established under the patronage of a royal family proud of Bahrain’s long aerospace heritage, BIAS has not divided its schedule, as Farnborough does, between business and public pleasure. The three-day event will be marked by fly-past displays, stage shows and family entertainment – while trade talk takes place in the air-conditioned comfort of the 40 private chalets in the same Sakhir complex. Up to 8,000 visitors a day are expected, encouraged by discounted flights from Gulf Air (see right), fixed rates at Bahrain’s many hotels, and admission prices pegged at BD20 (US$50) for a family of four. Complimentary transport is being laid on from Bahrain International Airport and points around the capital Manama, 19 kilometres from Sakhir.
It was at Bahrain’s most recent Grand Prix, won by eventual champion Jenson Button last April, that a US$2 billion investment was announced in the land around the Bahrain International Circuit. The project envisions more than one million square metres of business, entertainment and educational space at the Sakhir site. At the airbase, Arena Group and Lea International, collectively ArenaLea, who won the $28 million contract to construct the buildings and interiors, have been supervising the excavation of 600,000 cubic metres of earth, 425,000 cubic metres of rock and the arrival of 200 tonnes of steelworks which, when combined, will accommodate the biggest names in the aerospace industry. Like Farnborough, BIAS will take place every two years – ArenaLea has the contract for the next three events. Unlike Farnborough, whose 100,000 square metres of exhibition space is left fallow for 23 months, the chalets at Sakhir will be permanent, a ready-made facility for high-level corporate hospitality.
In a world of dramatic oil-price fluctuations and stockmarket wobbles, the aerospace industry is relatively robust. And it is the Gulf region that’s leading the way. New airports, new terminals and new manufacturing plants characterise a regional industry that’s on the move. Bahrain International Airport alone will have two new terminals in the next four years, part of a $680 million expansion over the next 20 years, called Vision 2030.
After all, Bahrain has always been ahead of the pack. The Kingdom was the first in the Arabian Gulf region with an international airport and a regular scheduled service from London, touching down as early as 1932. From 1937, giant sea-planes would land at what is now the Mina Salman Marina Club, and in 1950, Bahrain’s first commercial aviation company was set up. (Gulf Air celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.)
“A happy coincidence,” was how royal spokesman Matthew Gunther-Bushell described the timing of BIAS, concurrent with the Gulf Air’s landmark anniversary – as well as the anniversary of Concorde’s first commercial flight out of London, which was to Bahrain and took place on 21 January 1976. Exactly 34 years later to the day, distinguished visitors will be tucking into traditional delights at the inaugural BIAS opening reception dinner. In the public area, a display outlining Bahrain’s aerospace heritage will stand proudly alongside the giant TV screen set up to transmit live action of air displays and fly-pasts.
It was on the initiative of the King of Bahrain himself, Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, that the Farnborough office was first approached in 2004. With the additional help of the king’s second son, Prince Abdullah, who has provided hands-on involvement from the early planning stages, and encouraged by $400 million annual tourist revenue from the $150 million investment in the Grand Prix circuit, the Bahrain Air Show began to take shape. Deciding on a high-end strategy seemed the natural course of action – this is Business Friendly Bahrain, “one of the few countries which is showing real economic robustness in the face of the current global recession,” as Farnborough’s Amanda Stainer puts it.
Soon after the announcement that Farnborough International would co-operate on the Bahrain International Air Show, prestigious names began to be confirmed chalet by chalet: Rolls-Royce, Lockheed Martin, Hawker Beech-craft, Cessna, Airbus and Boeing. The select 40 are almost equally divided between civil, business, and defence aircraft and equipment. From the business sector, the seven companies booked for BIAS include Hawker Beechcraft, Prestige Jet, Cessna and Aero Toy Store, the Florida-based firm whose debut at the recent Dubai Air Show illustrates the buoyant demand for luxury leisure travel in the region.
Meanwhile, with nearly 500 new passenger planes on order among the Gulf region’s national carriers, it will be interesting to see how sales figures pan out between the two major players in the world market, America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus, the latter having streaked ahead in 2008. Both aircraft makers have been experiencing much-publicised delays in delivering their latest supermodels – insiders will be fascinated to see how this multi-million dollar power struggle plays out among the chalets of Sakhir. Don’t forget – not only can traders see which client is striding up their garden path, they can also see which one is heading for their competitors.
ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR
HAVE A BLAST AT THE ACTION-PACKED AIRSHOW
While the millionaires are pricing up new toys, what is there for Joe Public to do at BIAS? Quite a lot, actually. Whereas most airshows are trade fairs with a programme of public entertainment tacked on after the real business agenda, Bahrain has made its inaugural event as accessible to the public as possible.
Dotted around the public arena, there will be funfair rides provided by Bahrain’s Adhari leisure park, a heritage village showing traditional local skills of weaving, box-making and other handicrafts, along with henna tattoos and face-painting, while on the main stage musicians and dancers will be performing liwa, a form originating from the communities of Muharraq Island. High above will be displays by crack aerobatics teams the Royal Jordanian Falcons, set up by the late King Hussein in 1976, and the Saudi Hawks, formed 10 years ago to coincide with Saudi Arabia’s centenary celebrations. There will also be parachute displays, flypasts by Gulf Air planes and the Royal Bahrain Defence Force putting an F16 fighter jet through its paces.
Official BIAS carrier Gulf Air is offering a 20 percent discount on its scheduled flights for participants and visitors, for departures to Bah-rain between 17-26 January. An across-the-board deal with Zibrant means that this global event management company will take care of hotel booking and room allocation – and at reasonable rates. Complimentary buses will shuttle between Bahrain International Airport, key points in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, and the Sakhir venue. Admission prices are being kept to an affordable BD7 ($18) for adults, BD3 ($8) for kids. For more details including on where to buy tickets locally, see www.bahraininternationalairshow.com.
FLIGHTS OF FANTASY
EVER DREAMT OF HAVING YOUR VERY OWN VIP 747?
Fancy your own flying palace complete with bedroom, Jacuzzi and cinema lounge? Then don’t forget your credit card when visiting the Bahrain International Air Show. Exhibitor Aero Toy Store specialises in new and second-hand jet sales, and it currently has a used heads-of-state Boeing 747 on its books complete with an upper deck Majlis-style lounge and 64 airliner seats in the back for guests and staff.
But maybe you don’t want a Majlis-style lounge and you can squeeze by on less than five-dozen staff? In which case, you could always get the cabin refitted to your own taste.
No VIP jet worth its salt is complete without a luxuriously appointed bedroom, complete with king-size bed (although, note, waterbeds are best avoided for weight and safety reasons). A fully adjustable model with electronic controls will set you back about US$300,000. Lavish bathrooms complete with stand-alone showers, marble floors and gold taps are common at the top end of the market, and Jacuzzis are not unheard of, so long as they are designed to drain at the first sign of turbulence. One designer is, apparently, currently working on an onboard hammam for a Middle Eastern client. Gyms are out – strenuous exercise at altitude isn’t recommended, unless there’s a doctor on board.
For entertainment, wide-screen LCD monitors and flat-panel speakers can be integrated into walls, while the latest cabin management systems let you dim the lights or call an attendant using your iPod. If you’re concerned with safety and privacy, then there’s the Aerolift – a ground-to-main deck elevator for a VIP Boeing 747-8, providing an elegant and secure boarding method ideal for celebrities wanting to avoid the paparazzi. Given the money, the sky’s the limit.
Anthony James is the editor of Aircraft Interiors International
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