A Different Look For NBAA

This year's NBAA is different. It even looks different. The only four full-scale airplane or cabin mock-ups on the floor are the Fairchild Dornier Envoy 3 and Envoy 7, the Embraer Legacy and the Ae270 Ibis­and nobody can be upset when we say that they are not industry leaders. Bombardier and Dassault have less space than Fairchild Dornier or Embraer. Most of the other manufacturers are missing entirely or downsized to invisibility: Rolls-Royce and Boeing have individual spaces and Cessna, Raytheon and Gulfstream are missing from the hall.

But the pattern is not consistent. The FBO brands­Chevron Texaco, Air BP and ExxonMobil­have a respectable presence. Lufthansa has more space than Rockwell Collins, which in turn has the same amount of space as Lektro with its tugs. What gives?

A random and utterly unscientific survey reveals that exhibitors weighed different factors differently when they decided whether to show up and how much baggage and people to bring. FBO brands needed space to represent their individual dealers. Shrink the exhibit too far and some dealers would not be represented at all.

Set-up time was another factor. With only two days' lead time, one exhibitor remarked, there was no chance to put up dual-deck exhibits -- so some exhibitors may have downsized but still need as much floor space as they did before.

Some companies cut back sharply because they had already paid most of the costs of September's exhibit and did not want to boost their exhibit budget. Nordam has cut its booth and staff by three-quarters and its own employees assembled the exhibit.

Raft manufacturer Winslow, however, did not downsize at all. "To downsize would not reflect our true image. The fact that the show is down doesn't mean that the right person isn't coming along."