Features Airlines
ANA Ramps up for Montreal

Aerospace North America (ANA) has successfully redefined how
aerospace trade shows can be staged. But after appearing to take a
backseat at the 2001 Aerospace Congress and Exhibition (ACE) in
Seattle, the ANA is looking confidently to Montreal in 2003.

The 2003 edition will be the first for Dale Hunt, a former director
of the ANA who was appointed president in 2001. And if people are
confused over the alphabet soup of acronyms that surrounds one of this
continent's biggest aviation trade shows, Hunt suggests that they
shouldn't be. "ACE is the event," he said. ANA is what puts it all
together.

To understand the relationship between ANA and ACE it is useful to
go back to where it all started, with the launch of Airshow Canada at
Abbotsford, British Columbia in 1989. The location proved a good
meeting point between West and East.

By its second year, the biannual Airshow Canada had already
established itself as a major international event. Although never vying
with Paris or Farnborough, it had clearly broken into the big league as
the only North American aerospace show of substance. By 1997, with 509
exhibitors from 29 nations, and 15,000 trade visitors, Airshow Canada
had outgrown the facilities at Abbotsford.