Air Transport

A London advertising business gives new meaning to the term "megasite" with the unveiling on 22 October of a 100m x 200m (330ft x 660ft) advertisement for a real-estate business visible from aircraft approaching Dubai.

Ad-Air - backed by £5 million ($10.1 million) of private equity finance - also has sites lined up at London Heathrow, Paris, Madrid, Los Angeles, Beijing, Tokyo and other major airports.

Managing director Paul Jenkins says the medium offers advertisers "the opportunity to reach a high-quality captive audience of typically ABC1 airline passengers, including many otherwise hard-to-reach business travellers, at a moment when they have little else to distract them".

The advertisements will lie flat, tied to ordinary scaffolding just above ground level.

To avoid puddling, which would attract migratory birds, advertisements will be printed on mesh except in desert locations where vinyl sheet will be used. Operations director Haakon Dewing told Flight that the cost of producing an advertisement is about £100,000 and installation another £15,000 the price to clients will be in line with other "spectacular" outdoor advertising.