Luxaviation says it won’t be at EBACE 2019 because it is too expensive

In an open letter to the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), Patrick Hansen, the CEO of the Luxaviation Group, says that his company will not be participating in the 2019 European Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (EBACE) due to the costs of the show and the expensive nature of Geneva.

Hansen says that attending the show can cost hundreds of thousands of euros, directly and indirectly, explaining that he would rather be investing that money in further safety initiatives.

Hansen’s point about moving EBACE away from Geneva to a less expensive city has been spoken about previously. Geneva’s advantage is that the Palexpo exhibition halls are right next to the airport, making the transition between exhibition halls and static display of aircraft fairly straightforward.

Until some years ago visiting the expo’s static display entailed simply crossing a bridge. Recently, though, it has become necessary to take a bus.

Geneva’s disadvantage is that it is in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Switzerland tops the Economist’s ‘Big Mac Index’ as the most expensive countries in which to buy a Big Mac, which is taken a proxy for how expensive it is to live and visit the country.

Hansen also addresses this in his open letter, stating that Geneva has the highest average hotel daily rate (€242) of any city in Europe.

As well as the costs involved in participating and attending the show, Hansen also states that in the modern digital world, he believes that the current EBACE format does not lend itself too well to being able to meet clients, stating that clients themselves no longer visit the show.

“We believe that EBAA should use its resources, financial and operational, to support the business aviation industry in Europe and not organise events that might be financially profitable for the EBAA but have counterproductive effects on the industry it serves,” Hansen says.