“Dead on arrival” was how a disappointed veteran of previous Aero India shows in Bengaluru described the 10th edition of the event. As the curtain came down on it on Sunday, defence analysts, business visitors and many spectators summed up the last five days to The Hindu as: “slack”, “flat”, “no show”, “dull”, “drab” and “lacklustre”, each for a reason.
There were no big military business deals hovering; many exhibitor companies had packed up on Thursday, two days before the show closed; and for those who came to watch flashy planes, it was no big deal. “It was a routine show without big planes or deals,” observed Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (retd.), who has seen it all from its seed in 1993 as Avia India. Over the past three years, enthusiasm levels for Aero India have vastly dipped for major global defence companies, domestic exhibitors and they made flying displays low key.
Although the major players were present, they came minus their aircraft unlike in 2009 or 2011. Also, with no hint of a new purchase of aircraft that they need, “The aviation wings of the three forces, too, had nothing to rejoice about here,” he noted.
Back then, Boeing IDS, Lockheed Martin, Saab, EADS and the now shortlisted Dassault were in the Rs. 45,000-crore-plus race to sell Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft to the Air Force. Now the same MMRCA deal is seen as done and its fate will not be known until the Prime Minister visits France in April. The Navy copter has been picked. Decisions on the VVIP Avro replacement plan and the attack helicopters may be due but they are nothing compared to the MMRCA, Air Marshal Pandey said.
Separating the civil aviation part from Aero India in 2008 — where Boeing and Airbus disclosed their sales — has also taken some colour off this event, according to him.
Make in India
Was ‘Make in India’ a takeaway? He said it generated an anticipation of offsets business opportunities for the small and medium industry; the OEM also needs to be convinced as the concept lacks clarity about how feasible it will be.
A teenager said she missed the colourful Suryakirans of the previous shows. Aviation photo enthusiast K. Murali said, “I have been to almost all air shows here but never seen spectators leaving midway through an aerobatic show. The flying displays were uninteresting. The exhibitors had scooted and I feel there was no value for my business ticket of Rs. 2,500.”
Corporate executive Gopal S., who is a regular at the other international air shows, said, “This air show is disorganised and has a long way to go before it catches up with Le Bourget, Farnborough or Singapore.” Look at it any way, security, infrastructure, toilets, wi-fi or food and water, he remarked that nothing has improved in all these years. People who come all the way for 50 km are taken for granted, according to him.
A woman corporate executive of a British firm said, “Business and spectacle should be clearly separated. This time I felt the air base is not the venue. Farnborough and Le Bourget have permanent a dedicated show area.”
Aero India 2015 opened amid rumours that this may be the last one to be held here. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, however, rubbished it and said the event would return in 2017. Will it just be bigger again? Or truly better?
