BIAS
Bucharest Air Show

Friday: the quieter way to begin

Friday was the public open rehearsal, not a second full airshow day. Some Saturday participants had already rehearsed on Thursday, some trained at another airfield and others did not need a public practice. Everything advertised specifically for Friday flew, so the fact that it didn’t reproduce the entire Saturday programme is no criticism at all.

The atmosphere was considerably more relaxed than it would be 24 hours later. It was warm, but overnight rain had taken the worst edge off the heat. More cloud crossed the display line and the wind was noticeably stronger. Saturday brought hardly any cloud, much lighter wind and temperatures that made the middle of the day a genuine endurance test.

Friday offered a first look at nearly all of the main international acts without the pressure of Saturday’s enormous crowd. “Bookie” immediately showed how hard he intended to fly the German Air Force Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon. Captain Carlos Botana, callsign “Charlie”, was just as uncompromising in the Spanish Air and Space Force McDonnell Douglas EF-18M Hornet, while Captain Alexandre “Rocky” Roeckel kept the French Air and Space Force Dassault Rafale C moving almost constantly. The German Panavia Tornado IDS stayed much farther away, Turkish Stars revealed both their precision and their pacing problem, and Frecce Tricolori showed that stronger wind is no help when it is still blowing all that smoke towards the crowd.

Friday also previewed one of the most intricate Romanian Air Force sequences, pairing a Leonardo C-27J Spartan with two IAR-Brașov IAR-330 Puma transport helicopters. The same three-aircraft sequence returned for Saturday’s main crowd. With the rehearsal establishing what each principal act could do, the displays are better considered across the weekend than recounted twice in strict running order.

International military visitors

The visiting contingent fell into two clear groups: four individual fast jets and two returning national teams. The solos supplied much of the pace and raw power; Turkish Stars and Frecce Tricolori gave the event scale.

Hornet, Typhoon, Rafale and a rare Tornado

The Spanish McDonnell Douglas EF-18M Hornet, German Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon, French Dassault Rafale C and German Panavia Tornado IDS gave BIAS its strongest visiting fast-jet line-up for years. The first three flew outstanding solos on Friday and Saturday. The Tornado was less satisfying as a display, but perhaps the most valuable booking of the four simply because opportunities to see one are running out.

Bookie’s Eurofighter routine was phenomenal. He seemed to throw the Typhoon from one manoeuvre straight into the next, keeping it low, close and almost constantly in front of the crowd. Direction changes came quickly and there was very little dead time. A scheduled Saturday morning display did not happen, but Bookie returned much later for the actual main-show performance and brought everything that had made Friday’s rehearsal so good into the warm late-afternoon light.

For all that aggression, the display never became untidy. Every reversal put the aircraft where it needed to be for the next pass, and Bookie used the Typhoon’s power throughout rather than saving it for one or two headline manoeuvres. It’s one of the best Eurofighter routines currently on the European circuit.

Bookie is the 2026 display pilot from Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 31 “Boelcke” at Nörvenich. The wing already has a Romanian connection, having deployed Eurofighters and an armed alert detachment to Mihail Kogălniceanu for NATO enhanced Air Policing in 2023. He has also described an ordinary training sortie turning into a real Alpha Scramble to identify an airliner that had lost radio contact near Frankfurt. That operational background helps explain how a routine can look so violent while remaining so precise.

Charlie’s Hornet and a golden departure

Captain Carlos Botana’s McDonnell Douglas EF-18M Hornet was every bit as physical. Friday’s rehearsal was low, extremely close and wonderfully aggressive; Saturday delivered the same hard pulls, rapid reversals and raw noise that make a Hornet feel different from almost every newer fighter. Băneasa’s compact display line suited it perfectly. Charlie kept bringing the aircraft back towards the crowd instead of allowing all that energy to disappear into empty sky.

The Ala 12 connection made the display especially relevant in Romania. Spain had deployed seven of the wing’s EF-18M Hornets and almost 200 personnel to Mihail Kogălniceanu for a four-month NATO air-policing rotation. Less than two weeks before BIAS, a pair from that detachment intercepted and destroyed an attack drone that entered Romanian airspace near the Danube Delta. Neither Charlie nor the display aircraft was publicly linked to that mission, but these Hornets were in Romania for far more than an airshow.

Then came the departure, which felt like a bonus display of its own. The two Hornets took off together and, almost as soon as the wheels were up, the first broke dynamically with the second following. Both showed dramatic high-alpha behaviour close to the ground, then returned over the airfield for another high-alpha pull-up and a synchronised roll before finally leaving.

Every part of it happened in perfect golden light. The angles, vapour and colour made it the day’s finest photographic sequence. It hardly felt like two operational fighters leaving an airshow; it felt like an unscheduled mini-display. For the flying, timing and photographs it produced, this was the highlight of BIAS 2026.

Rocky’s Rafale

Rocky’s Dassault Rafale C completed the trio of outstanding soloists. BIAS caught Captain Alexandre Roeckel in the first season of his 2026–27 tenure as the ninth Rafale Solo Display pilot. Both appearances were low, close and fast, with afterburner and rapid attitude changes keeping something happening in front of the crowd almost constantly. On Saturday the Rafale arrived just as the light began to soften. After hours of harsh sun, the aircraft suddenly glowed. A display that was already excellent became a gift for the cameras too.

A Tornado worth catching

The Panavia Tornado IDS was a very different experience. It stayed much farther away on both days than the Hornet, Eurofighter or Rafale, which reduced its impact and made photography difficult. That distance felt especially ironic for an aircraft built around very-low-level penetration. Even so, its presence was welcome. The aircraft came from Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 33 at Büchel, where the Tornado is due to give way to the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II as Germany moves towards retiring the type by the end of 2030. European airshow appearances are already becoming scarcer. It was the weakest display of the four, but the aircraft itself may soon be the hardest to replace.

Turkish Stars and Frecce: precision with problems

Booking Turkish Stars and Frecce Tricolori for the same BIAS was a major coup. Turkish Stars were back in Bucharest after eight years and Frecce after 14. Both rehearsed in full on Friday before flying again for Saturday’s main crowd, and both carried the same strengths and frustrations from one day to the next.

When Turkish Stars were over the display line, they were excellent. The Canadair NF-5A and two-seat NF-5B Freedom Fighters looked superb, the formations were strong and the synchro work was precise. The trouble was the wait between those moments. Gaps were horrendously long on Friday and felt even worse in front of Saturday’s huge crowd. These were not brief repositioning pauses. The aircraft repeatedly disappeared for so long that the display seemed to have stopped.

Bookie’s Eurofighter made the contrast impossible to miss. His routine felt like one continuous attack on the display line; Turkish Stars left every set piece isolated from the next. The team has the aircraft, precision and visual identity for a superb show, but loses too much momentum while nobody can see it.

Saturday also produced the strangest pass of BIAS. The synchro pair appeared unusually displaced from the normal display line and performed their mirror pass behind the spectators. The reason was unclear, but seeing one of the routine’s main set pieces happen on the wrong side of the crowd was bizarre.

Frecce Tricolori through the smoke

Frecce Tricolori’s Aermacchi MB-339PAN aircraft were beautifully precise on both days, but far too much of each display was spent looking at their smoke rather than their aircraft. Friday was windier, yet the wind was still blowing towards the crowd and carrying the smoke straight back across the display line. Saturday’s gentler breeze allowed it to hang there for even longer.

Great banks of green, white and red drifted across the display axis. Formations were partly hidden and sometimes vanished from view, making several manoeuvres impossible to photograph cleanly. The smoke could still look magnificent in the golden light, and at one point it became dense enough to block the sun. After a day of fierce heat, the brief shade was at least welcome. Frecce’s return was still significant and beautifully flown, but from a photographer’s point of view the wind direction made both displays deeply frustrating.

Romania in the air

The visitors gave BIAS international weight, but the home contribution made it feel Romanian. The Air Force supplied the scale and heavy machinery; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Romanian Police brought a tactical demonstration; the Romanian Aeroclub covered almost every form of sport aviation; and the airlines connected the show to Băneasa’s own history.

A huge Romanian Air Force opening

The ceremony began with small fireworks bursting into blue, yellow and red smoke, introducing the Romanian tricolour theme that would return throughout the day. Nine IAR-Brașov IAR-330L/L-RM and IAR-330M Puma transport helicopters then crossed Băneasa in several configurations, led by one carrying a huge national flag beneath it. It was a powerful sight over an airport already full of spectators.

Fifteen Romanian Lockheed Martin F-16AM and F-16BM Fighting Falcons, upgraded through the Mid-Life Update programme, followed from the 71st and 86th Air Bases. Four led in their own formation while the remaining eleven created a giant figure “10”, marking a decade since Romania received its first F-16s in September 2016. The 86th Air Base at Fetești was the original home of the force, while the 71st at Câmpia Turzii now fields the second operational squadron, completed with former Norwegian aircraft in 2025.

The formation would have been impressive enough on its own, but the F-16s then returned and worked the Băneasa circuit in almost every imaginable bank, attitude and configuration. They seemed to appear from everywhere, giving photographers upper surfaces, undersides, breaks and landing configurations in rapid succession. It was one of the strongest Romanian Air Force sequences of the show.

Three Leonardo C-27J Spartans appeared together before two generations of Hercules arrived side by side. The older Lockheed C-130B Hercules retained its traditional camouflage, while the newer Lockheed C-130H Hercules showed how the fleet had evolved. Romania received its first B-model in October 1996 and its first H in 2007, making this a rare chance to compare both generations in the air.

Then an Antonov An-30, serial 1104, appeared without warning.

It was neither fast nor dynamic, but it may have produced the biggest smiles of the opening. Romania received its first An-30 in 1976 for aerial survey and photographic work. The raised flight deck and heavily glazed nose make it instantly recognisable, while Romanian service later included geodetic work and OSCE Open Skies missions. An An-30 deployment to Hungary in 1995 also formed part of Romania’s first joint military activity with NATO-allied forces.

This was precisely why BIAS is worth travelling to. The An-30 was unannounced, unmistakably Romanian and extremely difficult to catch flying elsewhere. One genuinely unusual aircraft created more excitement than several predictable flypasts could have done.

Transport aircraft with real presence

The transports were not limited to formation work. The C-27J and newer C-130H each flew a solo, and both were presented with real commitment. The Spartan used tight turns and strikingly high bank angles, looking far more agile than many would expect from a transport. Romania’s seven-aircraft C-27J fleet has been in service since 2010 and had passed 30,000 flying hours across roughly 28,000 transport, medevac, firefighting and training missions by May 2026. This was no polite transport flypast. The solo showed why the aircraft is so useful.

The C-130H was just as committed for an aircraft of its size, staying low and using strongly banked turns instead of settling for flat passes. Hercules aircraft appeared several times on Saturday, but each appearance had a purpose: the B and H flew together in the opening, an H performed the solo, another pass released the mass parachute drop, and a Hercules began the Combat Search and Rescue scenario. Those appearances never felt repetitive because the aircraft was doing a different job each time.

Romanian Air Force in action

The scale of the opening was followed by displays that showed what the individual aircraft and crews could do. Among the most intricate was the sequence previewed on Friday and flown again on Saturday by a Leonardo C-27J Spartan and two standard IAR-Brașov IAR-330 Puma transport helicopters. On both days the Spartan approached in landing configuration with one helicopter on either side before the Pumas broke away into a fully synchronised series of turns, crossovers and paired manoeuvres.

The defining figure began with one Puma holding a steady hover and slowly turning on the spot. The second circled it while keeping its nose pointed towards the hovering helicopter throughout. Even as one aircraft moved around the other, the two remained facing each other and matching every change of position. It was an aerial dance between two helicopters.

The Combat Search and Rescue demonstration replaced that precision with a clear operational story. A Lockheed C-130 Hercules dropped a simulated downed airman, after which two Lockheed Martin F-16AM/BM Fighting Falcons arrived to establish air cover. Two standard IAR-Brașov IAR-330 Puma transport helicopters provided additional security before a further pair moved in as the rescue element and recovered the isolated person amid smoke, explosions and simulated battlefield effects.

Every aircraft had a distinct role and the scenario was easy to follow without needing every pass explained. It was far more engaging than presenting the same assets separately. All four helicopters were standard IAR-330s; no SOCATs took part.

IAR-Brașov IAR-330M Puma serial 75 returned late in the day for the Romanian Air Force’s strongest solo helicopter display. More than 160 licence-built Pumas were manufactured by IAR Brașov, with 104 supplied to Romanian military aviation. Commander Ovidiu “Bamse” Nimigean is careful to call his routine a manoeuvrability demonstration rather than aerobatics because every figure remains within the flight manual.

There was nothing conservative about how it looked. Bamse flew the helicopter hard at low level, changing direction aggressively and releasing flare after flare. These were not occasional decorative bursts; large patterns filled the sky behind and around the Puma, growing brighter as daylight faded. The old Romanian-built airframe still knows how to put on a show.

The police Black Hawk

The other major Romanian helicopter demonstration came from a different service entirely. The Sikorsky S-70M Black Hawk, built by PZL Mielec, belonged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ General Aviation Inspectorate, not the Romanian Air Force, while the tactical element came from the Romanian Police’s SIAS special-intervention unit. The General Aviation Inspectorate operates its S-70Ms on public-service work including search and rescue, firefighting, medevac and disaster response.

In the first of two Saturday demonstrations, SIAS operators descended by rope with a Belgian Shepherd working dog and moved in on two simulated suspects who were refusing police instructions. The ground sequence ended with a rapid extraction, but the Black Hawk itself stole the show. It flew extraordinarily low and aggressively, carving through hard turns close to the ground and changing direction with an urgency that made a large utility helicopter look almost impatient.

The first demonstration was excellent. The second was still spectacularly flown, but it repeated essentially the same scenario and inevitably had less impact. One deserved its place; the other lengthened the programme without adding much.

The military and public-service demonstrations accounted for most of the larger helicopter action. Between them, the Romanian Aeroclub provided almost every other kind of flying on the programme, sometimes rather more often than necessary.

Too much of a good thing from the Romanian Aeroclub

No organisation contributed more to the variety of BIAS than the Romanian Aeroclub. It supplied powered aerobatics, gliders, parachutists, ultralights and several of the evening’s best ideas. It also put so many Extras into the programme that Hawks of Romania began competing with themselves for attention.

The “Slow Start” lived up to its name. Two Zlín Z-242L trainers opened with uncomplicated formation passes. Six ICP Savannah S aircraft then crossed one after another rather than in a single formation while the Doomstrikers motorcycle parade occupied the ground. Three Extra EA300/L aircraft, marketed as Extra 300Ls, and one Extra EA300/SC, marketed as the Extra 330SC, followed for simple formation flypasts, creating the first Hawks-linked appearance of the day without yet delivering a proper routine.

Andreea Bănesaru then took an Extra 330SC into a much more aggressive solo. The gyroscopic manoeuvring was hard, the display was close and ground pyrotechnics added a strong finish. Her background made it more interesting than another anonymous Extra routine. Bănesaru began the Aeroclub’s free flying training at 16, earned an ultralight licence at 17, became the first woman formally inducted into Hawks of Romania in 2022 and finished second at the 2025 FAI World Intermediate Aerobatic Championship.

The full Hawks routine used four Extra 330SCs and one Extra 300L. Its crowd-rear arrivals were highly effective, while the solo aircraft came extraordinarily low and close, at times seeming almost on top of the crowdline. This was the team at its best and fully deserved its place.

Put all the appearances together and the problem is obvious. Saturday contained the opening four-aircraft flypasts, Bănesaru’s solo, the five-aircraft full display, a later three-ship of Extra 300Ls, three Hawks beside the TAROM Boeing 737 and a six-aircraft sunset routine. Much of the flying was excellent. There was far too much of it.

The three Extra 300Ls after the Hercules parachute drop were particularly difficult to justify. They repeated the same uncomplicated formation passes already seen during Slow Start and added almost nothing. The morning Eurofighter slot had fallen through, so the Extras may have been filling the gap, although there is no confirmation of that. Whatever the reason, it looked and felt like filler.

The final six-aircraft Hawks appearance earned its place because it offered something new. Three Pelicans in ICP Savannah S aircraft flew slow formation passes with smoke while the Extras performed formation aerobatics and solos around them. The distinctive green Extra added short individual sequences, then manoeuvred around the Pelicans while the main Hawks formation continued elsewhere in the box. There was action at several speeds and in several parts of the sky at once.

Ground pyrotechnics erupted beneath the aircraft, Romanian-coloured smoke spread across the airfield and the setting sun turned everything gold. Once the Hawks landed, the Pelicans continued alone, trailing blue, yellow and red smoke while explosions and coloured smoke still burst below. This was the opposite of padding: familiar performers had been turned into one of the richest visual sequences of the show.

Gliders and parachutes over Băneasa

White Wings also flew twice, although their second appearance was far easier to justify. The smooth formation gliding provided a graceful change of pace early in the day and looked even better in the warmer late-afternoon light. The ICA/IAR-Brașov IS-28B2 Lark gliders were developed and built in Romania during the 1970s, giving the quiet display extra value at an edition short of indigenous types in the air. The tow aircraft seen during Friday’s rehearsal was Maule MT-7-235 YR-VLP.

The parachuting was harder to balance. The first Blue Wings display from Cessna 208 Caravan I YR-GVB had plenty to look at, including canopy manoeuvres, long streamers and a huge Romanian flag. The Hercules mass drop justified its length through sheer scale; the sky remained full of military and civilian parachutists carrying Romanian, NATO and European Union flags for what felt like an eternity. By the time Blue Wings returned after Iacării Acrobați, the audience had already watched both. The problem was the amount of parachuting, not the skill involved.

Băneasa’s airliner surprise

One of those Hawks appearances provided the link from the Aeroclub’s displays to Băneasa’s airline history: three Extras arrived beside a TAROM Boeing 737. The airport lay on the 1922 Paris–Bucharest–Constantinople route and remained Romania’s only international airport until 1970. TAROM began domestic operations there in 1954, while Wizz Air’s first Bucharest service left Băneasa for London Luton in January 2007. Against that background, the two airline appearances belonged in the programme rather than feeling like publicity flypasts added at random.

TAROM’s Boeing 737-78J (737-700), YR-BGI, was the shock highlight of BIAS 2026. The aircraft, named Iași,, delivered in December 2003, first appeared with three Hawks of Romania for a single formation pass. Bănesaru had particularly wanted to fly beside it because she had never flown in formation with an aircraft that large. The pairing also completed a personal circle: both of her parents had worked in ground roles for TAROM, and the first cockpit she entered as a child was a Boeing 737 at a TAROM hangar event.

The Hawks broke away and the airliner continued into a proper solo that was almost absurd in the best possible way. It flew extremely low and close, making sharp turns at steep angles of bank. At points the 737 looked almost on its side while still close to the ground. Nobody expected an active, nearly 23-year-old passenger aircraft to be presented with the attitude of a much smaller display machine, which made it all the more enjoyable.

There was plenty of experience on the flight deck. TAROM identified the crew as Alexandru Ghiurco, Alexandru Fodor and Răducu Moise, with approximately 44,800 flying hours between them. Moise had flown the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 LanceR operationally from Romania’s 86th Air Base before joining the airline. TAROM did not say who handled each manoeuvre, but that background helps explain how confidently the 737 was flown. It did not make the display any less surprising.

That was the best part of it. Once the applause ended, the 737 went back to being an everyday passenger aircraft.

The Wizz Air Malta Airbus A321-271NX (A321neo), 9H-WMR, offered nothing remotely comparable in the air. Its passes were straightforward and there was no dynamic solo. The flying was sedate, but the aircraft itself had been chosen well.

Delivered in November 2025, this A321neo carries Wizz Air’s “250th Aircraft” scheme and represents the airline’s milestone 250th jet. It appeared in the year Wizz marked two decades of operations in Romania, where it reported nine bases and services from 14 airports. A standard fleet aircraft would have been forgettable after TAROM’s display; the milestone jet over the airport where Wizz’s Bucharest story began was much more worthwhile.

TAROM won the contest in the air by an enormous margin. Even so, both airliners had a genuine reason to be at Băneasa, which is far better than dropping a random passenger jet into the programme for a few passes.

Aerobatics, trainers and mock combat

Beyond the Aeroclub and airline set pieces, the sporting and trainer programme ranged from graceful to mad. Jurgis Kairys sat firmly at the second end of that scale. At 74, he still threw the Sukhoi Su-31 LY-LIK through extreme rotations, bizarre attitudes and his famous Cobra. His age alone made the display remarkable, but his connection to the aircraft made it even better. Kairys worked as a Sukhoi test pilot and helped develop the Sukhoi Su-26, Su-29 and Su-31 family. Decades later, he is still displaying the result of that work.

Iacării Acrobați used two Romanian-built Yakovlev Yak-52 aircraft for two daytime routines. Their close formation work, breaks and individual elements remained attractive and unmistakably Romanian, although the second display offered little that the first had not already shown. The same Yaks had a much better reason to return after dark as part of Air Bandits with Kairys’ Su-31.

The Grob G120TP and Slovenian Air Force Pilatus PC-9M Hudournik brought a calmer style of military-trainer aerobatics. Dariusz Stachurski’s Grob routine was smooth, polished and controlled, reflecting the experience of a pilot who spent many years leading Poland’s Orlik Aerobatic Team. Slovenia’s Pilatus PC-9M “Hudournik” was similarly graceful, although its day job is serious: the Slovenian Armed Forces use it to bridge basic flying and combat-aircraft training.

Escadrila Zlin brought three Zlín Z-526F Trener Masters in historically inspired American, German and Romanian colours. The Zlín Z-526 family has served with the Romanian Aeroclub since 1968, so the act had genuine local roots. The routine was a mock dogfight rather than conventional formation aerobatics, with aircraft chasing one another over ground explosions before joining for several final passes. It strongly recalled Slovakia’s Retro Sky Team and was much better to watch than to photograph.

From the Spotters Area, most of the simulated combat happened in all the wrong places. The aircraft rarely presented cleanly towards the photographers, and only the final formation passes produced consistently useful images. As theatre, it had a clear theme and plenty of action. Through a long lens, it was one of the afternoon’s most frustrating displays.

A programme in need of an editor

Escadrila Zlin’s positioning was a frustration confined to one display. By mid-afternoon, however, a broader structural problem had become impossible to ignore: the sheer length of BIAS. Saturday offered more than eleven hours of flying from the 09:00 Slow Start to the evening finale, followed by drones, fireworks and a concert. There were plenty of exceptional moments, but not enough genuinely different flying to stop parts of the day feeling padded.

Hawks of Romania were the clearest example, with six linked appearances once Bănesaru’s solo and the TAROM formation are included. Parachutists occupied three substantial sections when the two Blue Wings displays and Hercules mass drop are counted. The S-70M tactical demonstration was presented twice. White Wings and Iacării Acrobați each flew two daytime routines.

Some repeated appearances earned their place. White Wings looked transformed in the later light. The Hercules returned in distinct operational roles. Air Bandits gave the Yaks a new purpose, while the six-aircraft Hawks and Pelicans routine changed the line-up, structure and entire look of the display. Familiar aircraft were not the problem when they came back with a new idea.

The weaker repeats occupied time. The three Extra 300L formation passes, second Blue Wings drop and second Ministry/Police Black Hawk demonstration added little that the audience had not already seen. Cutting them would not have made BIAS feel smaller. It would have improved the rhythm and taken some weight out of the most exhausting part of the afternoon.

The enormous gaps in Turkish Stars’ routine made the same point on a smaller scale: running time is not the same as content. BIAS already has the ambition and operating hours of a major aviation festival. A firmer edit would make it a better one.

Then the light changed

For much of the afternoon, the padding threatened to define BIAS 2026. Then, just when the show needed it, the light changed.

From around Rocky’s Rafale onwards, the harsh light turned warm, low and golden. The temperature finally began to fall. The Rafale glowed, the Spanish Hornets produced that unforgettable departure, Bookie’s Eurofighter looked even more dramatic and Frecce filled the scene with smoke that was frustrating and beautiful, often at the same time.

After Frecce landed, their smoke remained suspended over Băneasa. Music blasted across the airfield and spectators began dancing. People were no longer standing quietly and waiting for the next aircraft; they were part of the atmosphere. A programme list cannot capture that. BIAS felt alive in a way that many technically excellent airshows never quite manage.

The combined Hawks and Pelicans display fitted that mood perfectly, followed by the Pelicans’ tricolour continuation and Bamse’s flare-filled Puma. SoloFox’s Margański & Mysłowski MDM-1 Fox then showed a very different side of gliding from White Wings. This was proper aerobatics, with wingtip pyrotechnics tracing every curve through the darkening sky. Watching a silent glider draw lines of fire overhead was beautiful.

Fire and flares after dark

Air Bandits abandoned elegance. The two Iacării Acrobați Yakovlev Yak-52 aircraft and Kairys’ Sukhoi Su-31 worked around one another as ground explosions erupted beneath them, while the Sukhoi carried a limited amount of onboard pyrotechnics. “Du Hast” by Rammstein blasted over the speakers. There was no need to analyse it as sophisticated formation flying. It was loud, theatrical and enormous fun, just right for the party BIAS had become.

Flying Dragons took the airborne effects even further with Dudek Snake 1.2 paraglider wings and Techno-Fly Tornado 280 power units. Powered paragliders come into their own once the light disappears, and the Polish team filled the sky with bright pyrotechnic trails while more effects fired from the ground below. They may be a familiar BIAS act, but darkness is where they belong.

Then the military finale raised the intensity again. A Leonardo C-27J Spartan and two Romanian Lockheed Martin F-16AM/BM Fighting Falcons arrived over an airfield already full of smoke and fire and released a massive sequence of flares. Against the darker sky the countermeasures looked almost painfully bright, cascading around the transport and fighters while more effects burned below. The same types had already appeared in daylight, but darkness made them feel new again.

After such a long programme, it was remarkable that BIAS could still produce something that felt fresh. The flare sequence was one of the most spectacular moments of the weekend and proof that the evening show is far more than an afterthought. A drone display and large fireworks finale continued after the last aircraft, but the enduring image was the Spartan and two F-16s filling the night with fire.

The finale showed BIAS at its most distinctive, but the weekend as a whole exposed a clear trade-off between international strength and local character.

What BIAS gained and what it lost

Internationally, BIAS took a major step forward. Spain brought the McDonnell Douglas EF-18M Hornet, Germany supplied both Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon and Panavia Tornado IDS, France sent the Rafale Solo Display and Slovenia added the Pilatus PC-9M Hudournik. Turkish Stars and Frecce Tricolori returned together after long absences. Recent editions had struggled to attract that depth of foreign military participation.

The Romanian Air Force contribution was substantial too. Fifteen F-16s, nine Pumas, three Spartans and two Hercules appeared in the opening alone, so saying it simply “did not bring enough” would be unfair. The problem was variety, not numbers.

There was no Antonov An-26 in the flying display, no IAR-Brașov IAR-316B Alouette III, no Avioane Craiova IAR-99C Șoim and no Romanian military Aerostar Iak-52, the Romanian-built Yakovlev Yak-52. The IAR-99 was the most conspicuous omission because it was not even represented on static. For an enthusiast travelling to Romania, an indigenous jet trainer such as the Șoim is the sort of aircraft that separates BIAS from a large Western European show. A visiting Rafale may fly the more polished solo, but it cannot provide the same sense of place as something designed and built in Romania and rarely seen outside it.

The surprise An-30 showed what the flying programme was missing. It performed no aerobatics and had no afterburner, yet its unexpected appearance was one of the most satisfying moments of the opening because it was rare, relevant and unmistakably Romanian.

Romanian aviation history was much better represented on the ground. Visitors could see full-size replicas of Vuia I and Vlaicu II, a 1:1 IAR-80 mock-up and the ROMBAC 1-11-560RC, the first jet airliner produced in Romania. All were worthwhile exhibits, although they made the shortage in the air even more noticeable at an edition explicitly celebrating the country’s aviation heritage.

The civilian side has lost some of its eccentricity as well. Previous editions featured machines such as Valer Novac’s modified Kamov Ka-26 and the HeliForce Mil Mi-2. They were never headline acts, but they gave Bucharest a character that was difficult to reproduce elsewhere. Genuine warbirds and classic jets were again scarce in 2026. BIAS used to mix Romanian military rarities, strange Eastern European machinery, unusual civilian acts and modern fighters. This year the modern fighters became much stronger while the rest of that mixture thinned out.

There was also no IAR-Brașov IAR-330L Puma SOCAT anywhere at BIAS 2026, either in the air or on static, despite the variant appearing in the published programme. The absence was noticeable because standard Pumas carried almost the entire Romanian helicopter contribution.

No official explanation was given, so it would be wrong to claim that operational duties kept the SOCATs away. The wider context still matters. Nine days before the main show, a SOCAT launched during a Russian drone incident near Romania’s border with Ukraine and located the crashed aircraft near Grindu; Spanish McDonnell Douglas EF-18M Hornets were scrambled during the same event. Romania also has continuing air-policing commitments, an expanding F-16 force, pilot conversion requirements and a war on its doorstep.

None of that explains why the SOCATs missed BIAS, but it is enough context to show why an airshow must come second to operational priorities. Their absence was disappointing and the programme lost variety without them, but Romania has far more important demands on its military aviation.

The Romanian Air Force did not fail to provide enough aircraft. BIAS simply loses part of its identity whenever those rare Romanian types are unavailable, whatever the reason. The 2026 edition showed how exciting a stronger international line-up can be, while one unannounced An-30 reminded everyone what Bucharest must not lose.

The view from the Spotters Area

Aircraft variety was a question of programme identity; the Spotters Area exposed a separate organisational problem. The enclosure itself was not overcrowded and, as at any photography area, everyone naturally moved towards the fence. The trouble was what happened in the first rows. Photographers in both the first and second lines stood on stepladders, while others climbed onto chairs and blocked the view behind them for much of the day.

The fix is simple: ban chairs, stepladders and other raised platforms from at least the first few rows. They could still be used farther back without obstructing everyone else. A proper photography area needs to protect sightlines, otherwise it is just another section of crowd behind a separate fence.

The number of visitors using only phones and families treating it as another public enclosure also weakened its purpose. There is nothing wrong with photographing an airshow on a phone or bringing children. The question is why a supposedly specialist area was being used in exactly the same way as general admission. If it is intended for photographers and spotters, the access and rules should reflect that.

There was no toilet inside the enclosure. Even one portable unit would have made a long day much easier and avoided forcing photographers back through the surrounding crowd. The general toilets do not deserve unfair criticism: the queues looked severe but moved quickly. The problem was specifically the lack of any facility inside the Spotters Area.

Verdict

BIAS 2026 was ambitious, record-breaking and often spectacular. Charlie’s Hornet, Bookie’s Eurofighter and Rocky’s Rafale delivered three exceptional fast-jet solos. The Tornado brought increasing rarity, while the return of Frecce Tricolori and Turkish Stars gave Bucharest two major teams for the first time in years.

Romania produced many of the weekend’s strongest moments itself: the 15-aircraft F-16 sequence, dynamic Spartan and Hercules solos, surprise An-30, synchronised Pumas and the multi-aircraft CSAR demonstration. Later, Bamse’s flare-filled IAR-330 and the C-27J with two F-16s showed just how dramatically darkness could change aircraft already seen in daylight.

TAROM’s 737 was the biggest surprise and the Spanish Hornets’ golden-light departure was the photographic highlight. Air Bandits was pure fun, Flying Dragons filled the darkness and the combined Hawks and Pelicans routine showed how familiar performers can earn another appearance by doing something new.

The weaknesses were just as clear. Painfully long gaps destroyed the flow of Turkish Stars’ otherwise precise routine. Frecce repeatedly vanished into their own smoke. The Tornado remained too distant, Escadrila Zlin presented poorly towards photographers and the Spotters Area needs basic sightline rules. Above all, the programme was longer than its variety justified, with too many Hawks-linked sequences, one parachute display too many and an unnecessary second Black Hawk demonstration.

An edition dedicated to 120 years since Traian Vuia’s flight also showed how much BIAS loses when fewer rare, historic or indigenous Romanian aircraft are available to fly. The international line-up made the show bigger. The An-30 showed what makes it different.

Even with those faults, they are not the lasting memory. What remains is the heat finally easing, the light turning gold and smoke hanging over Băneasa. The music grew louder, people danced, aircraft flew through fire and flares filled the darkness. That was the moment BIAS stopped feeling like an overlong sequence of displays and became a huge aviation festival with an atmosphere entirely its own.

The prescription for the next BIAS is simple: keep the international depth and evening spectacle, bring back more of the unusual Romanian machinery and tighten the programme so every return has a reason. This edition proved that BIAS can attract enormous crowds and world-class performers. It does not need to become any larger. It needs more of its eleven-hour programme to feel as distinctive as that unforgettable finale.