Bucharest International Air Show 2024
Bucharest Baneasa, 31 August 2024
Following my previous visit when the airshow was postponed with a day and me missing it as a result, I was due another dose of Romanian aviation. The practice day on Friday was now billed as a public day too offering the audience an extra opportunity to enjoy the action while aircraft arrived from around Europe.
The airshow is held at Baneasa airport, just north of the city center. This is a busy part of the city and the airport is squeezed in between residential apartment buildings and a large shopping center. The flying display runs from 9Am until almost 9PM, without interruption. Access to the show is free so with the highly populated catchment area, it is no surprise the showground gets very crowded. Many people actually come and go throughout the day, popping out to get lunch or dinner at home and then return to watch the rest of the action.
Interestingly, people are discouraged from coming by car by not offering any parking, which sounds good in theory but just results in cars getting dumped all over the wider area and blocking the roads. To be fair, while there are many bus lines that serve the area, the capacity is nowhere near sufficient to get the audience to the show and when the show is over, seeing the crowds trying to find transport back home sends shivers down the spine.
The show is well worth the effort though. There is a good mix of different types of aircraft and the opportunity to admire the Romanian air force in action in significant numbers is nothing to be sniffed at, as they have a diverse fleet with some very rare types, painted in attractive camouflage. In 2024, there were also military participants from Greece, Germany, Slovenia and France in the flying display, with some other countries like Croatia and the United States also adding to the static park. The Daedalus T-6 display, German Typhoon and French Rafale certinaly went down a treat alongside the more common sight of the Slovenian PC-9M solo routine. The Romanian airforce provided the bulk of the military flying with plenty of IAR-330, IAR-316s, IAR-99s and F-16s. Civilian highlights included the Czech Flying Bulls, the Hungarian Heliforce Mi-2 and Goldtimer’s Li-2 and Polisg Flying Dragons adding to the countless Romanian civilian flying displays.
The showground is sufficiently spacious to make everyone comfortable. Aircraft taxy in front of the crowd before or after their display, but the front row space is more limited than you’d expect, with only the extreme western side of the runway and taxiway being near the public area. The catering offering is nice and affordable, and partially run by the Carrefour supermarket chain. The static has a nice mix of domestic and foreign aircraft, both military and civilian, and it is all topped off with some trade stands.
Towards the end of the flying display, the music that is played through rock festival-like sound towers get turned up all the way to 11 which creates a very different atmosphere to most shows. To stagger the exit by the general public, there is a rock concert after the final display which also explains the music volume towards the end, as it is basically the pre-show to the rock band.
If you’ve never visited, the show is definitely well worth checking out.