Europe's largest general aviation exposition, AERO Friedrichshafen, has been postponed among fears of the spread of coronavirus.
The event, which attracts thousands of aviation people annually to the German city including most aircraft manufacturers, was due to go ahead on 1-4 April, but has now been postponed to a later date.
“The current situation with the coronavirus has resulted in a nasty domino effect,” said Klaus Wellmann, Managing Director of AERO organisers Messe Friedrichshafen. “The industry members of the general aviation community also see the health and economic risks of the upcoming trade fair as too high. We share this assessment, but it is with a heavy heart that we now need to take this serious step together.”
Messe Friedrichshafen said that many exhibitors had already indicated that they were considering pulling out of the show, which meant it would have been impossible to proceed anyway.
Roland Bosch, head of AERO Friedrichshafen also expressed his concern.
“I have never experienced a comparable situation in the last 30 years," he said. "In accordance with the saying ‘Complete safety is an illusion; there are only varying degrees of risk and uncertainty,’ we were convinced right up until the end that we would be able to overcome the challenge we were facing in the coronavirus.
"Despite the uncertainties, we believed AERO Friedrichshafen 2020, with participation of around 700 registered exhibitors, would be able to be held. However, in recent days we received a very large number of cancelations and clear signals from our exhibitors and potential visitors, making it impossible to hold the event now.
"We will postpone the AERO Friedrichshafen 2020 to a date not yet determined.”
Visitor tickets already bought will remain valid for the rescheduled event or can be presented for a refund.
More information is on the AERO Friedrichshafen website.