Bucharest International Airshow 2025
Bucharest, 29-30 August 2025
Holding a major international airshow in a city seems like a good idea to you? Perhaps that means you are Romanian, because this is exactly what happens at the Bucharest International Airshow each year. What was the 2025 edition like?
The Bucharest International Airshow is Romania’s biggest airshow and draws huge crowds to the Baneasa airport. This is considerably closer to the city center than the city’s main international airport, Otopeni. In fact, the airport is situated among residential areas and has a large shopping center on the opposite side of the crowdline. Entrance to the show is free and as a result of this and the proximity to the city, people come and go throughout the day.
For the hearty visitors, the show runs uninterrupted from 9AM until about 9PM, so 12 hours. For the really brave ones, there is a rock concert at the end to take some pressure of the transport links, which are stretched beyond breaking point, seeing how the event relies on public transport and does not have car parking. That means a lot of visitors dump their vehicles close to the airport, adding to the traffic pandemonium.
Does this sound like an ordeal so far? It really shouldn’t, because the show is proper unapologetic fun. It draws heavily on displays from the Romanian aeroclub and the Romanian air force who throw everything and the kitchen sink at the show with countless (mixed) formations, solo displays, role demos, aerobatic routines and reenactments. Listing them would take a while, but a few special mentions are in order.
Andreea Banesaru proved extremely popular flying an Extra 330 both solo and as part of the Hawks of Romania. She is likely an airshow star in the making, having also played a part in training another display team of the Romanian aeroclub. No fewer than 18 F-16s of the Romanian airfare flew at the show, appearing several times throughout the day. The Zlin team of the Romanian aeroclub flew a bonkers World War 2 dogfight reenactment that was highly entertaining. The Romanian police presented a new S-70 helicopter in the air. The same type from Romanian emergency SMURD drew enormous crowds on the ground. Aside from the Romanian Air Force, there were also 3 foreign solo displays from Greece, Germany and Slovenia.
>Friday was dedicated to arrivals and rehearsals. On Saturday, the usual main event took place, but in 2025, the organizers added an extra event day on Sunday. This had an abbreviated programme, which was curtailed further still due to inclement weather. This provided quite a contrast with the scorching conditions on Friday and Saturday. Seeing how the 2026 airshow reverts back to the traditional single day format, this extra day was likely a result of the participation of the Patrouille de France. The show was also supposed to see a flyby by the British Red Arrows. In the end, they didn’t make it to Bucharest as they were stuck on the ground at Radom (Poland) when the Polish F-16 solo display suffered a fatal crash causing damage to a slab of concrete on the runway.
