The recently-announced Business Aircraft Park for Farnborough 2004

is attracting a wave of interest from big players in the industry, with Embraer, AvCraft and Sloane Aviation all signed up to display their wares

at the show.

The Brazilian manufacturer

will be bringing its Legacy aircraft; AvCraft will exhibit the 328JET, for which it recently restarted production in Germany; and Sloane Aviation will be showing off the Piaggio P180 Avanti, for which it has distributorship status across the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands.

Also in attendance will be NAC Aviation, which has a Premier I and Hawker 800XP to exhibit, and also the UK’s Aravco, which has a

Fokker 100 in vip configuration to display. The decision to provide business aviation with its own segregated section was made earlier this year and according to Sloane’s Adrian Munday, the move was an excellent one.

“It’s important both to Piaggio and Sloane that we have an aircraft to show those in the UK who have expressed an interest in it. I think

the idea of a Business Aircraft

Park is a big improvement on previous Farnborough shows.

“It allows the manufacturers and their representatives to actually operate aircraft for demonstration purposes during the show, which is an important move for all of us. It also shows that SBAC is really committed to business aviation.

“We have a lot of light business aircraft operating in the UK, on a variety of registers, and to see

support by those manufacturers at Farnborough, shows they have

a little more faith in the

credibility of Farnborough as a prominent European show. We must remember that we are part of a European business.”

According to Sloane, the P180 is doing exceptionally well, both in the US and Europe.

The production line at Piaggio’s Genoa facility is sold out for 2004 and the company is looking to increase production in 2005 to some 25 airframes per year.

The launch customer for a

UK-registered aircraft is

Euroskylink, based at Coventry. They’ve had the use of a leased machine for the last 12 months and their G-registered aircraft is due for delivery during EBACE.

A commercial operator, they are deploying the P180 on ad hoc and contract charters.

“Another part of Euroskylink’s business is medevac,” said

Munday, “and we’ve seen quite a considerable amount of interest in the P180 due to its large cabin volume and ease of patient loading as an air ambulance aircraft.”

Piaggio has also sold its first dedicated twin stretcher fit aircraft to the Polish government. This will operate in an aeromedical role as a dedicated air ambulance and is due for delivery during May.

Another reason why the P180 is attracting attention, says Munday,

is because people see it as a way

of upgrading from a Beech King Air type aircraft.

“We’ve had tremendous interest from existing light jet operators

who are looking for a similar sort

of performance but a larger cabin,” he said.

“The aircraft really has an unrivalled cabin in its class. It’s a genuine 395 knots, which is a similar speed to that of a CJ1/CJ2 but

you’ve got the cabin size similar to a Hawker 700. So it lends itself to a high quality vip interior.”

This year, EBAN is working with organisers SBAC to promote the show and to co-ordinate the booth and static display sale.

Available for purchase are a limited number of standard-sized shell scheme booths within the

Park chalets and ample space on the static for aircraft to be displayed

and demonstrated.

Said EBAN show co-ordinator Dawn Marshall: “I am delighted with the bookings I’ve taken so far and look forward to more takers between now and the event. But don’t delay if you want to exhibit, because space is fast being taken up.”

For more information about

how to exhibit, contact Dawn Marshall on +44 1279 714 508 or at dawn@ebanmagazine.com