Private Aviation

The aviation calendar alternates: the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget in odd Junes, Farnborough in even Julys, the Dubai Airshow in odd Novembers, with NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas every October and EBACE in Geneva in May. They are trade shows with static displays and public days, and they bring their own crowds to cities already on the calendar. The alternation is deliberate: Paris and Farnborough divide the summer between them so the manufacturers need only build one chalet a year, and the Gulf and American shows take the cooler months. For the calendar the useful facts are that each show fills its city's hotels for a week, that the trade days come first and the public days last, and that the flying displays, where a show has them, are visible from outside the fence. Geneva in May and Las Vegas in October are the two weeks when business aviation itself, rather than the aircraft, is the subject.