Farnborough Airshow ready for launch - despite absentees

One of the biggest airshows in the world is once again preparing for take-off - but this year there will be some notable absentees.

Neither the Red Arrows or the prime minister will be in attendance at Farnborough, due to a clash of diaries and an ongoing handover of power in Downing Street.

Despite the "curse of Farnborough" as one industry boss calls it, the show is bigger than ever, with a new exhibition hall to host the businesses who come to this corner of Hampshire to sell everything from state of the art fighter jets, to the seat you will sit on for your summer holiday flight.

"We call it the curse of Farnborough," said Kevin Craven, boss of trade body ADS, reflecting on how recent shows have often coincided with a transfer of power within Number 10.

The group, representing the aerospace, defence and security sectors, owns the show which has welcomed every prime minister since Clement Attlee, back when it was an all-British affair in the late 1940s.

The latest was Keir Starmer, who arrived just weeks after the Labour landslide, two years ago.

But Craven accepts Andy Burnham has perhaps a more important meeting on Monday, when he will have an audience with the King, the point where he officially becomes prime minister.

Officials are keen to roll out the red carpet for the new PM whenever he can get here. This weekend, there were still hopes he might make it later in the week.

One joked: "We'd keep it open an extra day, if he could come next Saturday."

That won't happen, but Craven knows getting the prime minister to Farnborough matters to British industry and beyond.

"This is one of the greatest airshows in the world, where global CEO's are meeting with investors to talk about buying British goods," said Craven.

"The leader of our country should be at that show to support and use that platform to send the messages that he deems to be important to the country."

That message at the last show was about the government's plans for growth and how the sector might drive that.

Since then, Andrew Barnett, who chairs the South Central Regional Defence and Security Cluster and runs his own business, says many companies have been left "hanging on," waiting for Whitehall to make decisions about the direction of travel.

"Many businesses have now started to move on their own," he said.

The Red Arrows, the other notable absentee, proves his point.

Again it is a clash of diaries that has kept them away. The RAF's aerobatic team is currently in the US for a visit planned to coincide with that country's Independence Celebrations.

But they are flying the flag in jets that are second in age only to the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, with its World War Two vintage Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancaster.

While they await a decision on which, almost certainly foreign designed, jet will be picked to replace the Arrow's BAe Hawk trainers, crowds at the airshow will be entertained by a display team from the UAE Air Force.

The Fursan Al Emarat, or Knights of the Emirates team, use a fleet of Chinese-built planes.

It would be wrong to see them as a metaphor for the challenges facing Britain's aviation sector or the new prime minister. But they do represent the changing world in which both must operate.

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