Although the public can't attend this edition of the Singapore Airshow because of the Covid pandemic, anyone can watch the live-streamed daily flying displays and flypasts from home. In addition to eight flying displays, four air forces along with Boeing and Airbus are flying aircraft during the show’s flypasts. The daily flying display schedule begins today at 12:30 p.m., then starts at 11:30 a.m. on February 16, 17, and 18.
Highlights of the displays include Airbus’s A350-1000 and Boeing’s 777X, both making their Asian debuts. A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress will participate in the flypasts, and the U.S. Marine Corps’ Lockheed Martin’s F35B Lightning II short takeoff, vertical landing stealth fighter will also make an appearance.
The Singapore Air Force will fly two solo aerobatic performances with its F-16C fighter jets and fly a graceful pairing of AH-64D Apache attack helicopters.
This year’s other aerobatics displays include a single-jet performance of the Indian Air Force’s indigenous design, the HAL Tejas light combat aircraft, also making its Singapore Airshow debut, and the Jupiters, Indonesia’s aerobatic team, flying six Korea Aerospace Industries KT-1B Woong Bee single-engine turboprop trainers.
“In all aspects, the level of optimism is high and growth potential is good,” said Leck Chet Lam, managing director of Singapore Airshow organizer Experia. “The Singapore Airshow is a catalyst for the global aerospace industry to connect, converge, and converse. It’s even more important now to get the industry players together, to find solutions to this pandemic and sustained growth beyond the pandemic.”
The air show’s organizers aren’t here just to talk about the business climate and how the pandemic is affecting the aerospace industry but also to help companies prosper by addressing “talent sustenance,” he explained. That means not only attracting new entrants into aerospace but also helping employees learn and grow in their careers.
This year, organizers expect more than 13,000 attendees from 37 countries and regions. The show will feature two forums to promote “business matchmaking,” said Leck, including the Aviation CEO Forum on February 15 and the Sustainable Aviation Forum on February 16 and 17. The CEO forum will address “how the industry is going forward,” he said, while the sustainability forum centers on “something we cannot avoid."
"These are conversations we have curated so we can discuss how to go forward,” he noted.
To underscore the airshow’s dedication to sustainability principles, Experia is publishing the show directory in digital form and hosting an online media center. At the show site, 15,000 solar panels will help cut carbon dioxide emissions.
“Covid changed our lives in so many ways,” said Lim Tse Yong, vice president of capital goods and conglomerates for the Singapore Economic Development Board. “We’re grateful to Experia for putting on this show.”
Lim said he expects a full recovery of the aerospace industry in 2025 or 2026, after governments lift more pandemic-related restrictions. But, he pointed out, despite the pandemic, a number of aerospace companies make their home in Singapore. “They put their trust in us,” he said.
Much of Singapore’s success in retaining its aerospace activity during the pandemic resulted from early collaboration between the government, trade associations, and companies. They all realized the importance of retaining the skilled workforce that the industry had spent so many years developing, leading to 23 months of wage support.
“Singapore never lets a good crisis go to waste,” he said. “We are turning a corner.” Since April 2021, Singapore’s aerospace manufacturing output has achieved nearly 60 percent year-over-year growth.