The Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (ABACE) is being reintroduced in Shanghai in 2012 after a four-year postponement.
According to co-organisers, National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the Asian Business Aviation Association (ASBAA), the event will be held at the Shanghai Hawker Pacific Business Aviation Centre at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai from 28 February to 1 March 2012 and incorporate its 4,000sqm hangar plus outdoor space.
An ABACE spokesperson said it initially ran a regional forum in 2004 before launching the larger event in 2006 and 2008. Plans to hold the event in 2010 were shelved in 2009 due to the recession and difficult market conditions facing the aviation industry, the spokesperson said.
Although organisers tentatively scheduled ABACE for Hong Kong in 2011, Shanghai and 2012 presented the right place and time to introduce the event, the spokesperson added.
“When NBAA and ASBAA hosted the first ABACE in Shanghai in 2004, much of the world questioned the potential for business aviation in Asia,” NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen said. “However, those early shows yielded results by increasing awareness about our industry. We are returning to Shanghai far ahead of where we started, but with still much to accomplish; nevertheless, it is now clear to everyone that there is tremendous potential for business aviation in Asia.”
Features will include a static aircraft display as well as on-site education sessions covering regulatory and business conditions. AsBAA Chairman Chuck Woods said the event also presented an opportunity to work with regional regulators to develop better industry policy. Several original equipment manufacturers with plans to exhibit at ABACE also voiced strong support for its return.
“We expect it to be like the NBAA Convention, the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition and the Latin American Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition – one of the world’s premier business aviation events,” Dassault Falcon Jet president Jean Rosanvallon said.
Cessna Aircraft Company chairman, president and CEO Jack J. Pelton said his company saw significant growth potential in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Events like ABACE are more than tradeshows; they are the foundation for growing business aviation in a country or region,” he said.
