Aerospace Forum Asia

Aerospace Forum Asia is rated 3 out of 5 in the category airlines/aviation. Read and write reviews about Aerospace Forum Asia. Aerospace Forum Asia (AFA) was formally registered as a non-profit association in 1986, in Hong Kong. In its early years AFA was an informal lunch club for aerospace executives keen to compare notes on the fast-developing Asia-Pacific market. The founding president Gareth Chang, was the pioneering boss of McDonnell Douglas China, who oversaw the batch production of thirty MD-80 airliners in Shanghai in the late 1980s. A fascinating project, well ahead of its time – as was AFA. The “accidental lunch club” typically met monthly and started to invite out-of-town industry leaders from the supply side (Boeing , Rolls-Royce, Airbus). By the mid 1990s airline CEOs from the world’s most influential airlines like Sir Colin Marshall, Gordon Bethune, Peter Sutch and Sir Richard Branson were attracting luncheon crowds of over 200. In the lead up to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong and opening of its new airport at Chek Lap Kok additional activities were incorporated including research, advocacy, charity fundraising and luncheon events around the whole Asia region. In 2003 the Hong Kong Government entrusted AFA with SARS recovery funds of US$200,000 to deliver a program of events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight, including a conference and a charity gala dinner for 400 with “The Economist”. By 2011, the organisation’s 25th anniversary, over 170 Industry Leader Luncheons had been delivered and more than US$350,000 had been raised for aviation related charities, such as ORBIS, the Flying Eye Hospital, from the innovative auctioning of aviation experiences and memorabilia. In September 2011, AFA conducted its largest and most complex event, a full-day symposium on the pros and cons of a third runway at HKIA. As AFA approaches its 30th anniversary in 2016, new events and refreshed advocacy campaigns are planned with a view to attracting the best and brightest to the industry to ensure that the “human ware” matches the unprecedented “hardware” expansion.