Absence, it is said, makes the heart grow fonder. If true, it goes a long way toward explaining the yearning the aviation industry has for the Australian International Airshow.
After four years away, it returns to us in the form of Avalon 2023, and the Australian aviation community is more than ready to embrace the event warmly, welcoming it back as the last vestige of aviation to return to normality post-COVID. We are whole again.
Love that large brings with it expectations of grandeur, and the team at organiser AMDA Foundation is very aware that the aviation community is looking at Avalon 2023 to make up for lost ground.
Co-incidentally, the returning air show is also the first one for new AMDA CEO Justin Giddings, who replaced retiring boss Ian Honnery in April last year.
Giddings is no newbie when it comes to the show: he has attended every one, and as the former CEO of Avalon Airport, has intimate knowledge of the hidden web of organisation that makes the show work.
He is also very aware of the expectations placed on the first Avalon to be held since 2019, and wasted no time getting up to speed in his new role.
“I've been able to look at our team and how hard they work,” he told Australian Flying. “Setting up and accommodating 200,000 people over six days in an unserviced paddock,
