05 August 2011
Miami’s hopes of hosting a massive commercial airshow in 2012 were dashed as the U.S. Air Force denied its request to use land adjacent to the Homestead Air Reserve Base for the show.
Frank Nero, president and CEO of the Beacon Council, previously said getting the Air Force’s approval wasn’t “going to be an issue, quite frankly.”
The air show, which would cater mostly to the aviation industry, has already taken up a significant amount of human and financial resources. Miami-Dade County commissioners earlier this year agreed to spend up to $15 million for infrastructure improvements at the show’s planned site. It was to be the Americas' answer to the massive air shows held biennially at Farnborough, near London, and Le Bourget, held on the outskirts of Paris.
The agency over the past two years has sent staff to Washington, D.C. to speak with regulators and lawmakers, and to Paris to shadow the organizers of Le Bourget to get a feel for how they build the massive event. Paris Air Show Chairman Louis Le Portz was hired as an outside consultant for the project. The Beacon Council has been a regular attendee of the Paris Air Show for years, and scheduled its show on opposite years so as not to compete.
The Beacon Council originally pitched the show, to be held in summer 2012, as a five-day event that could pull in about 200,000 public attendees, house more than 800 exhibitors and generate up to $100 million in hotel reservations, day pass sales and parking.
There would be some public events, but it would be mainly an industry trade show, with countries and airlines buying planes and supplies from some of the world's largest manufacturers.
The next possible date for a show would be summer or fall 2014, leaving Miami-Dade County, the Beacon Council and the local legislative delegation plenty of time to cut through red tape and secure sponsorships from major aerospace manufacturers.