Organisers of the Australian International Airshow at Avalon Airport have revealed overall attendance and participation numbers for this year's event.
Held at Victoria’s Avalon Airport from March 1-6, the numbers show that Avalon 2011 was an improvement on the 2009 incarnation in most areas.
Airshow CEO Ian Honnery says the weekend public session attendances were particularly pleasing, with numbers up by more than 30 per cent compared to the Saturday and Sunday public days in 2009.
“We had a great show and perfect weather on the weekend,” Honnery said. “Total attendances across the full six trade and public days of the event were almost 195,000, compared to just over 170,000 for the previous event.
“This event has been evolving at Avalon for the past 20 years, and we believe the site layout, ground displays, external exhibits, special attractions and aircraft static displays were our best ever.”
The combined attendances over the three main industry-only trade days totaled 36,238. The number of aircraft involved this year was also up on previous years, with a total of 651 aircraft participating.
575 businesses from 23 countries exhibited at Avalon 2011, with 341 of them local Australian businesses. This is slightly down on the 599 businesses that participated in Avalon 2009, but Honnery puts that down to the global financial crisis.
“Despite this slight downturn in the number of businesses participating in the exhibition, initiatives such as special precincts for unmanned aerial vehicles, alternative aviation fuels, aging aircraft sustainment and an enhanced military vehicle mobility track, have proved successful, and will help enhance the event in the future,” Honnery explained.
Of the other Avalon 2011 numbers, 636 aerospace student professionals registered to attend the industry-only trade sessions; 97 secondary teachers and careers professionals registered for the Professional Development Forum; and 840 secondary school students registered for the Student Information Day.
Read our full Avalon 2011 wrap-up in the forthcoming May/June print issue of Australian Flying, and click here to see four large photo galleries from the event. The biennial event will be staged again at Avalon Airport in March 2013, so be sure to hold the date.
Perfect weather pushed weekend attendance at Avalon 2011 up by 30 per cent compared to Avalon 2009.
