Halldale for Sale?

By Rick Adams, FRAeS

The Halldale Group, organizers of commercial aviation training events, is apparently for sale. At least, that’s what owner Andy Smith has been telling me the past 2-3 years in the wake of the devastating impact of Covid.

Given the current direction, it may be difficult to make a deal for the price they’d like.

Reports suggest that attendance at the recent Asia-Pacific Aviation Training Summit (APATS) in Singapore was down from previous years by multiple hundred delegates. Similarly, a smaller crowd in May at the World Aviation Training Summit (WATS) in Orlando, USA, particularly international visitors in reaction to the Trump Administration’s aggressive social media surveillance and deportation policies. (https://aviationvoices.com/thinking-of-travelling-to-the-us-for-business/)

No word yet on registrants for this week’s European Aviation Training Summit (EATS) in Lisbon, Portugal.

The real test will be next spring’s WATS, for which European, Latin American, Middle Eastern and other non-US industry personnel are having serious reservations about the ever-changing and pyramiding US visa/ entry requirements: mandatory fingerprinting for visitors, facial recognition, a maze of fees (from $40 to $435 or more total, depending on your country of origin and where you have traveled), and relinquishing computer and mobile phone passwords for social media accounts. If your social posts contain any perceived anti-Trump memes or language, non-Americans may be denied a visa or even sent back home upon arrival in the States. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cbp-trump-border-tourist-vance-meme-b2854624.html). Some attendees and staff at WATS 2025 admitted using ‘burner’ phones to avoid border inspection.

Notwithstanding the growing anti-American feeling around the world as we watch US cities and citizens attacked by its own military and punitive trade tariffs levied against foes and friends alike.

In recent years, post-Covid, we had built international attendance at WATS to more than 40% of the roughly 1000 attendees. It had indeed become a ‘world’ summit. (Disclosure: I was Chair of the WATS Pilot Training Conference for several years.) WATS 2026, however, could devolve into almost exclusively Americans talking to Americans.

There have also been grumblings from influential exhibitors that:

1) the cost of the Halldale hotels, such as the host Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, have become far too pricey for sending teams of employees; and

2) the conference agenda needs to be refreshed in both format and speakers, many of whom are recycled year after year. (One speaker told me pre-Covid they had been on the program for eight consecutive years.)

3) the events need to do more to attract the younger aviation generations.

Events such as WATS often have a contractual guarantee to fill X number of hotel rooms; hence, the push on exhibitors to invite customers and guests to show up and spend money. Organizers such as Halldale are in return granted a block of executive suites/ rooms, at no charge, for their staff.

The conferences would not be nearly as profitable to Halldale and Smith if speakers were compensated, as they are at many other major professional events. Speakers (some doubling as exhibitors) don’t pay registration fees, which can be more than $1,500 dollars per person, but they are responsible for their own travel and hotel expenses.

The 2026 APATS is moving to Bangkok, Thailand, presumably less expensive than Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. However, Thailand has some issues with military repression that are concerning.

EATS is in its third year in Lisbon, after multiple years in Berlin. Will delegates tire of the Estoril/ Cascais venue? Especially the awkward exhibit areas. (But not the tapas.)

Rumors are that Halldale is considering moving WATS out of Orlando – perhaps to Dallas/Fort Worth, which is home to the largest number of civil flight simulators in the world, or Denver, where United Airlines has a large training center; both locations also have personal rationale for the Smiths.

With regard to agenda, speakers are largely chosen, almost single-handedly now for all three events, by Jacques Drappier.

I had attempted, in my role, to inject adjacent markets (such as business aviation and helicopter training) into the mix, typically against Halldale team resistance. Last year, for example, I lobbied for a specialized presentation track on the emerging eVTOL market, which is expected to launch operations next year, only to be told WATS is “an airline conference and airlines are not interested in eVTOL” (despite ample evidence that they are). In much the same way, virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) presentations took considerable lobbying (even though I had written about VRM Switzerland/ Loft Dynamics as early as 2019).

At least discussions of ‘Big Data’ (does anyone still use that term?) have segued into Artificial Intelligence themes the past couple of years.

Halldale now positions itself as ‘an events company,’ a transition from their original mission as a publisher of civil aviation and military simulation and training content. No surprise; with my exit this past summer (after writing for them for 27 years and editing the CAT and MS&T magazines for several years), preceded by the departure a couple years ago of longtime CAT European Editor Chris Long, followed by the retirement last week of Marty Kauchak, 16-year veteran who had succeeded me at MS&T and then CAT as well (https://www.halldale.com/defence/halldale-group-statement-on-the-retirement-of-marty-kauchak), there is no one left on the Halldale staff with any significant aviation journalism experience. Editorial on the website is now mostly industry press releases and video interviews of event speakers.

Smith, who in my opinion never highly valued the role of journalists in fostering dialogue on industry issues, has steadily reduced the amount of editorial content from freelancers, especially when Covid finally destroyed most print and online advertising, never to recover.

There have been other missteps too: a ‘Pioneer’ newsletter targeted at C-level executives (consisting of largely recycled material from the website) which published only one issue… an aviation training ‘leaders forum’ for online networking for which no one at Halldale seemed to stimulate engagement… (I offered to manage it but was rebuffed.)

From an insider/ outsider point of view, the management ‘style’ seems chaotic. No independent market research on what the industry needs. No real strategic plan, just short-term pursuit of one idea after another in hope of generating revenue. And an unwillingness to abandon content which no one reads, such as construction industry or oil-and-gas simulation under the banner ‘Safety-Critical Training.’

The Women in Aviation International initiative, driven largely by the female staff and industry representatives, has been more enthusiastic and successful thus far.

Should someone be interested in acquiring Halldale’s WATS/ EATS/ APATS commercial aviation events monopoly, they might be wise to retain, in transition, Andy’s wife Chrissy, who is the logistics wizard behind organizing the conference rooms, exhibit hall, food catering, registration, etc. with 25+ years of experience.

Certainly there’s a compelling need for aviation training networking events in regions around the world. Who will step up and drive them to a new level in the next generation of aviation?