France Air Expo · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• France Air Expo is a trade show dedicated to general aviation in France: three days of exhibition on the tarmac of Lyon-Bron airport, with stands, an indoor hangar and a static display of new aircraft, from microlights to jets.
• The organiser presents it as the leading general aviation trade show in France and the second-largest event of its kind in Europe.
• Next edition: the 20th, from Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 May 2027, at Lyon-Bron airport (ICAO code LFLY), in the commune of Bron. Open 10am to 6pm on Thursday and Friday, 10am to 4pm on Saturday.
• Organiser: Adone Events, a limited liability company (SARL) based at Cannes-Mandelieu airport. No co-organiser; the show is organised in partnership with Lyon-Bron airport.
• Annual frequency. The organiser presents the 2027 edition as the show's 20th anniversary, having been created in Cannes.
• Results of the 2026 edition, 4 to 6 June, as reported by the organiser: more than 10,000 pilots, owners, professionals and enthusiasts, and more than 200 exhibitors and brands.
• Mixed audience: the organiser presents it as a place of business for manufacturers, distributors and schools, but the show is open to everyone, with a ticket (€15 online) or by invitation.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The offer covers the whole general aviation chain. On one side, new aircraft: microlights, autogyros, certified single-engine and twin-engine aeroplanes, turboprops, jets and electric aircraft. On the other, products and services related to flying: avionics, equipment and accessories, engine and propeller makers, flight schools and aviation training, insurance, financing, maintenance.

The sector's institutions join them: federations, the civil aviation administration, the armed forces and gendarmerie, engineering schools and training bodies.

The show also covers leisure and air sports (microlights, gliding, light aviation).

Notable exhibitors

The list of 2026 exhibitors and brands is published on the official website; the 2027 list will be available on the same page. Among manufacturers, it notably includes Cessna, Beechcraft and Textron Aviation, Pilatus Aircraft, Piper Aircraft, Diamond Aircraft, Daher with TBM and Kodiak, Tecnam, Robin, Aura Aero, JMB Aviation, Blackwing, Bristell, VL3, Pipistrel, MagniGyro, Robinson Helicopter Company and VoltAero. Among equipment and engine makers: Garmin, Rotax, Lycoming, Continental Aerospace Technologies, Hartzell Propeller, Becker Avionics, Dynon, Avidyne, Bose, Michelin.

Institutions were also on the 2026 list: Direction générale de l'aviation civile, DSAC, DSNA, ENAC, Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Gendarmerie de l'air et de l'espace, Fédération française aéronautique, FFPLUM, Réseau du Sport de l'Air, GIPAG France.

For 2027, the organiser has announced the return of Hartzell Propeller as a conference sponsor, and indicated after the 2026 edition that more than 90% of exhibitors had already confirmed their participation: an announcement, not a result.

Visitor quality

The show targets the French-speaking general aviation market: France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The organiser puts this market at more than 720 flying clubs, 160 ATO and DTO schools and 60,000 active pilots. The audiences listed are pilots and aircraft owners, distributors and manufacturers, federations and flying clubs, students, investors, insurers and financiers, and institutions.

It is an audience of end users as much as professionals: a pilot-owner who comes to compare aircraft is a potential buyer. For the 2025 edition, the organiser reports significant aircraft sales concluded on site, without publishing the volume.

No OJS certification or third-party audit of attendance is published. The figures available are those the organiser has released for some editions, and they do not distinguish trade visitors from the general public.

Activities & community

Conference programme

A series of conferences and round tables runs over the three days, free of charge for all visitors. The 2027 programme had not been published at the time of writing; the official conferences page still shows the 2026 one.

In 2026, the GIPAG was the official conference partner, and the conferences were announced as organised in partnership with the federations (FFA, FFPLUM, RSA). Thursday focused on regulation and products: an update from the FFPLUM on the OPS order, a talk by the Gendarmerie de l'air et de l'espace, and presentations by Hartzell Propeller and Garmin. Friday looked at training and the future of the sector, with a round table bringing together the DGAC, the CFNAS, the GIPAG and the FNAM on training future talent, a GIPAG session on the aircraft of tomorrow with Daher Aircraft and Elixir Aircraft, and a talk by the RSA on amateur construction. Saturday was devoted to careers: pilot, maintenance, cabin crew, engineer, electric microlights.

Training and careers

This is the show's other pillar. In partnership with the Académie Aéronautique et Spatiale Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France Air Expo hosts a "Village Métiers & Formations" and, in 2026, the 4th Horizon Aerospace forum in Lyon. The 2026 format: a B2B day devoted to employment with a job dating session on Thursday, a school day on Friday, a general public day on Saturday. According to the joint newsletter from the show and the Académie, the 2025 forum had brought together more than 1,000 young people.

A BIA area also allows instructors of the aeronautical introduction certificate (brevet d'initiation aéronautique) to bring their pupils, on request via the website.

Community & networks

The website displays three circles of partners. Institutional partners: Lyon-Bron airport and the Académie Aéronautique et Spatiale Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Official sponsors: Garmin, Daher, Bellonte Aviation (a brand bringing together JG Aviation and Troyes Aviation) and the GIPAG. Federation partners: the Fédération française aéronautique, the Réseau du Sport de l'Air, the FFPLUM and the AOPA.

The official press review lists in particular Aviation et Pilote, Info-Pilote, Le Progrès, Les Échos and BFM Lyon, and Aerobuzz was a partner of the 2021 edition, before launching in 2022 a daily live programme on the show ("Jump Seat"), according to announcements on the Media page.

On site: what you need to know

The show takes place at Lyon-Bron airport, avenue Louis Mouillard in Bron, just after the business aviation terminal. The stands are set up on the tarmac, around the static display, and the whole site covers more than 60,000 m².

By car, the airport is 15 minutes from the centre of Lyon and an hour from Grenoble: A43 motorway, exit 4 Bron - Aviation, towards the business aviation terminal, free parking. By public transport, tram line T5 serves the Parc du Chêne stop, and buses 26 and 52 pass nearby. The website mentions the railway stations of Lyon Perrache, Lyon Part-Dieu and Lyon Saint-Exupéry; Lyon-Saint Exupéry airport handles scheduled flights.

Admission costs €15 online, free for accompanied children under 12, or is by invitation, with mandatory registration of the code; it rises to €20 on site. The ticket is neither refundable nor exchangeable, and any exit from the site is final. The visitor rules notably prohibit bulky luggage, drones and alcoholic drinks; a paid left-luggage service is provided at the entrance. Catering on site.

Pilots can arrive by air. A landing slot is mandatory during the show, booked online; the price shown on the Fly-in page is €30 and includes landing fees, parking of the aircraft for the day and two entries. Microlights are accepted if equipped with a radio and a transponder, Avgas 100LL is available on site, and pilots get priority access to the show from 8:30am. The website also offers a selection of hotels via a partner agency.

How much does it cost to exhibit

Adone Events does not publish any price list online: prices are obtained through the admission request form on the Exhibit page. The page does, however, describe the formats offered: stands from 6 m² to more than 100 m², indoors or outdoors, with or without partitions, and possible support for decoration, furniture and visuals through partner service providers.

A key point for manufacturers: a stand is mandatory to exhibit an aircraft, which is then positioned in front of the stand. For 2027, the organiser offered an Early Bird discount on the stand and aircraft, with priority in the allocation of locations, for any booking before 30 September.

Planning your visit

For exhibitors

• Book early: the organiser indicated in its newsletter announcing the dates that more than 90% of exhibitors had already confirmed their participation in 2027, and priority in the allocation of locations was tied to the Early Bird offer, whose deadline was set at 30 September.
• If you are exhibiting an aircraft, build its transport and the static position it will occupy in front of the stand into the booking.
• Aim for a speaking slot: exhibitors can speak or associate their brand with a round table.
• If you are recruiting, check whether the Horizon Aerospace forum, whose 2026 edition included a job dating session, is renewed in 2027 (not announced at the time of writing).

For decision-maker visitors

• Favour Thursday or Friday: on Saturday the show closes at 4pm, and in 2026 the careers forum was open to the general public that day.
• Arrive by plane if you are a pilot: booking the slot is mandatory and includes two entries to the show.
• Prepare your comparisons: the concentration of manufacturers on a single tarmac lets you see competing aircraft side by side.
• Check the conference programme as soon as it is published, in particular the regulatory sessions led by the federations (in 2026, the FFPLUM).

CSR policy & initiatives

The energy transition is a stated theme of the show: conferences on environmental challenges, the presence of electric and hybrid aircraft, and in 2026 an area announced by the organiser under the name AVLAB 35, devoted to low-carbon aviation technologies, as well as a challenge to convert older microlights to electric propulsion, the Vintage Electrofit Challenge, which appears in the 2026 exhibitor list.

This content should be distinguished from an organisational commitment. Neither the show's website nor that of Adone Events publishes a CSR policy, a carbon footprint or an ISO 20121 certification.

As for the venue, Lyon-Bron airport, operated within the VINCI Airports network, publishes an environmental charter drawn up in a consultative commission with the State, elected officials, local residents and users, and states a target of reducing its direct CO2 emissions by 50% by 2025, with no results published on the same page.

How the show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The turning point for the show is the 2021 edition. The 2020 edition, announced at Eurexpo Lyon, a venue the organiser then presented as linked to Lyon-Bron airport, was cancelled. The show returned in June 2021 directly to the tarmac of Lyon-Bron airport, under marquees, with a declared aim of relaunching rather than breaking records. It has not moved since: the specialist press wrote as early as 2022 that it had definitively set up its tents there.

Attendance has followed: 8,500 visitors counted by the organiser in 2022, 20% more than in 2021, then more than 10,000 announced in 2025 and 2026. The number of exhibitors and brands rose from more than 170 in 2022 (Aviation et Pilote) to more than 200 in 2026 (organiser).

The content has broadened in two directions. First, training, with the arrival of the Académie Aéronautique et Spatiale Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Horizon Aerospace forum, which makes the show a recruitment venue for the regional industry. Second, the energy transition, from VoltAero's hybrid flying test bed presented in 2021 to the sessions devoted to low-carbon aviation in 2026. For a manufacturer or distributor, the appeal lies in direct access to the French-speaking market: the organiser now presents itself as the only event entirely dedicated to general aviation in France (official newsletter announcing the 2027 dates).

The dates of the 2028 edition had not been announced at the time of writing.

All data that does not mention its source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (franceairexpo.com).