This year’s Paris Air Show will take place from June 15 to 21 at Le Bourget Airport in the northeast suburbs of the French capital. At press time it was too early to say what aircraft will be there, according to the organizers, but what is certain is that the U.S. military–which did not take part in 2013’s event–will be back with “10 to 12 aircraft” (after some French sweet talking), and the Russians won’t be staying away. Neither nation’s forces are likely to be featured in the flying display. Even the JSF, which almost made it to last year’s Farnborough airshow, is not likely to make an appearance, although the Airbus A350, the Dassault Falcon 8X, Pakistan’s JF-17 fighter and the Bombardier CSeries are expected to attend.
Gilles Fournier, the biennial show’s managing director, said that this year organizers are expecting 2,200 exhibitors from some 45 countries (“around the same as last time”) and approximately 340 chalets. He added, “We are expecting 139,000 trade visitors from 181 countries and will have 26 national pavilions and 285 foreign delegations, including 151 defense delegations.” The number of static display aircraft and public visitors is also expected to be similar to the tallies in 2013, when there were 150 aircraft on the static display and more than 176,000 general-public visitors after the trade days.
Improved Visitor Experience
The organizers have extended operating hours “to foster meetings,” said Fournier, and the show is now open from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Security has been a major focus this year in France following the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and to this end the show organizer has “invested €7 million in a new CCTV camera system,” said Fournier. There are luggage X-ray machines being installed and an “air specific protection plan” has been put together, said Fournier. In addition, “There are also new parking lots, better disabled access” and a redesigned traffic flow.
In other improvements on the public days, entry to the Air & Space Museum will be free to all visitors with a show ticket; there is a 3,000-seat stand on a new 30,000-sq-m lawn area next to the runway so people can get closer to the flying displays; a special three- to four-hour-long flying display has been specially designed for the public, including appearances by the Patrouille de France and several historic aircraft to celebrate 70 years since the end of World War II; and big screens will show the flying display around the show grounds on all of its seven days.