The journey to Bahrain International Airshow (BIAS) 2024 started well over 9 months prior with looking at travel options and researching a little advertised airshow. Initial research suggested that tickets to BIAS came in 2 types - family tickets and trade tickets, although this took a lot of digging. The difference between these two types of tickets was yet another challenge. Which type had access to the statics? Was the flying display visible in both? Would trade tickets be so focused on corporate dealings that there would be little focus on what it was - an airshow?

After too much digging, I understood the difference to be that trade tickets had to be applied for in advance, the application granted and then this gave you access to the full static line-up and flying display as well as the business stands. In contrast, the family tickets were cheaper, but had no access to the statics and was aimed heavily at children with bouncy castles and ball pits etc. It was clear which ticket was the right option for me.

Registration for trade passes opened in late August from memory and used the same form fields as the application to Farnborough Airshow (they're run by the same organisation). Trade passes cost 10 Dinars per day (~£20/day) totalling £60 over the 3-day airshow. A couple of weeks went by before I got an email stating that the trade application was successful and giving a link to a print-at-home pass. After this, I saw on the BIAS website that media passes were available for application. Judging by the name of the ticket, I deemed this to be a better fit than a trade ticket, so I promptly submitted my application for a media pass. Another few weeks go by until I hear that my media application is successful along with some more print-at-home passes. There is also attached information on how to apply for a media VISA to save myself the £10 expense and hassle at the border, so I submit all the required information. Less than a week before travelling to Bahrain, my VISA came through. My colleagues came through 2 days before departure, on a weekend. Thankfully we were able to check emails at weekends - I hope others who didn't have this luxury didn't miss out on receiving any important documentation. Throughout the lead up to the airshow, I chased the organisers to little effect but thankfully it did work out in the end. Compare this to RIAT for example, who would have had this sorted many weeks before the airshow.

Flying out to Bahrain was uneventful but was odd to see the oil flares lighting up the desert at night - something I hadn't seen before.

Before heading out to Bahrain, I had spoken with some people who had done the airshow before and had watched some YouTube videos on the show, and it was clear that it was a very backlit event. I had considered going to the other side (North-West) of the base where the lighting would be better however thought it would be risky due to not knowing what the laws are like in Bahrain. Furthermore, I would have forfeited access to the static display.

Announcements to the airshow were very poorly communicated. On a random day in October, I happened to check the announced aircraft list on the website to see lots had been added, with some claiming to have been added in March. There were some military assets in this list such as the PAF JF-17, the UAE F-16 and Mirage as well as all the RBAF assets. What really excited me was the Avro RJ's of the Bahraini government which were due to be on static. These were nowhere to be seen at the airshow with no communication that they had been removed from the list. It was a similar story with the UAE Mirage which was meant to be performing a flying display but was later moved to static. Although it would have been great to see it fly, this was not what was frustrating, it was the lack of communication as to the fact it was no longer performing. I will keep referring to RIAT throughout this blog, as it's the gold standard for airshows. As the self-proclaimed “fastest growing airshow in the Middle East”, BIAS should be striving for greatness. RIAT takes pride in its announcements, when there is a new aircraft on static or flying, this is communicated over all their social medias. The same goes for if an aircraft is no longer able to attend so as not to disappoint people. I will reiterate that the problem was not that aircraft were unable to attend, it was the fact that this was never communicated to the ticket holders.

The PACAF F-16 Demo Team announced their new patch on Instagram a couple of days before the airshow - this was the first hint of a US asset confirmation. The day before the airshow, the BIAS Instagram page announced other US assets attending such as the MH-53E, A-10C, B-52H, C-130J and P-8 flypast. These were much welcomed additions to an otherwise quiet but very unique and diverse line-up. I spoke to the American crews at the show and they said they knew they would be attending for between 1 and a few months. With many of these US assets deployed at the time, I understand that operational requirements change and perhaps this being the reason that these aircraft were not announced earlier.

The flying timetable for each day of the airshow was announced the night before, with day 1 being kicked off with a Gulf Air 787 flypast along with 3 ships of F-16s, F-5s and Hawks from the RBAF. The 787 then landed, although the military assets did not. There were 3 flypasts of 2x B-52H's from Minot AFB followed by a single flypast of a USN P-8. All the above flypasts only happened on day 1, apart from the 3 ships of RBAF aircraft which took place on all 3 days. Apart from this, the flying displays consisted of the same aircraft over the 3 days but in different orders.

The flying displays consisted of the Saudi Typhoon, Saudi Hawks, Pakistani JF-17, PACAF F-16, Indian Sarang display team and the Global Stars. It was quite a challenge to shoot in the light at this location due the strong desert sun being directly behind the subject although this did present some unique shots…

A complete list of static aircraft (military only + cool civvy assets):

• Saudi F-15SA 5518 (special livery)
• Saudi typhoon 013 (special livery) - display jet was a separate airframe (8020)

• Saudi Hawk x1 8807
• USN MH-53E Sea Dragon 162508 (TB tail)

• USAF F-16 92-3918 (SP tail) - display jet was a separate airframe, also SP tail (96-0080)
• A-10C Thunderbolt II 81-0964 (FT tail)

• B-52H 61-0040 (MT tail)

• USAF C-130J (08-3172 although tail number removed)
• RBAF AH-1FB 997

• RBAF AH-1Z 2210

• RBAF UH-60 338
• RBAF F-5 682 85-1593
• RBAF Hawk 504
• RBAF F-16 103 90-0029
• RBAF Bell 505 1002

• Bahraini Police UH-1
• Bahraini Westland Scout BSP1
• PAF JF-17 22-306 on static with 13-147 and 16-227 as display jets over the 3 days

• UAE F-16 3064
• UAE Mirage 2000 756
• Emirates A-380
• Texel Air 737
• DHL 767-300
• AirArabia A320
• Flynas A330 (1 day only)
• Aramco Air Tractor - this was considerably larger than I had imagined, I thought it would be comparable to a Piper PA-28 or the like. Pretty similar in size to an A-10!

The flying displays were very nice, with the highlights for me being the JF-17 flares, Saudi typhoons over the crowd pass and watching the PACAF Demo team send out their aircraft.

Static display highlights were in no particular order:

• Climbing the ladder of the A-10 to look inside the cockpit - not an aircraft that'll be around for too much longer sadly

• Going inside the MH-53E

• Getting shots of all the crew in front of the aircraft

• The RBAF AH-1s - just a unique aircraft in awesome schemes

Although the show said it closed at 1700h local time, there seemed to be a stream of visitors entering the grounds at about 1630h each day. It was on the last day that we stayed until after dark to get some darkness shots of the assets. Thankfully we were never asked to leave. A point worth noting is that the night lighting is a much better white light near the trade entrance (where the US assets were parked) compared to the other end of the static area near the RBAF and UAE aircraft where the light was a deep orange floodlight. The white light gave a much more true to life image. During this time after the show finished on the third and final day, we saw the A-10, B-52 and static F-16 being towed back which provided good opportunity for photographs without people in the background (or foreground!).

Overall, this airshow provided excellent opportunity to see aircraft which are unlikely to be seen on UK soil all that often, if at all. For static aircraft, the selection was great, and the crews were more than happy to chat about their aircraft. Although the flying displays were not that long, I felt as though this did not detract from the experience if you are attending all 3 days. The main disadvantages of the show were the backlighting and communications.

Its difficult to say whether I would attend again. If the attending aircraft were announced earlier, then I would be able to decide based on what was coming, however this was not the case. If I were to go again, I would definitely be doing 1 or more days outside the base where the lighting is better.

I also felt that sending over someone's VISA and pass which they need to print off so close to the date that they fly out was very frustrating. If these didn't need to be printed off and instead used a QR code it would have been less of an issue. Furthermore, not knowing the status of your VISA and pass until it magically appears in your inbox 2 days before you fly out was quite worrying. Thankfully we had our trade passes already bought (due to lack of information about the airshow made available beforehand) which could be used in the very possible event that the passes were never received. I appreciate it must be a challenging job sorting out VISAs for many attendees, however more communication is necessary, even if its just to say ‘we haven't forgotten'.

In summary, a great airshow with even greater attending aircraft with opportunities for airborne shots degraded due to harsh backlighting and the lead up experience to the airshow degraded by poor communication.