With the impressive arrival of the demonstration flock of Saudi Hawks from Saudi Arabia on Friday 25 August, a delightful foretaste of what this year’s 11th Athens Flying Week 2023, which will take place at Tanagra Air Base on 2 and 3 September, will have in store.

It is the second time that the elite flock from the country of the Arabian Peninsula is performing in our country, as a previous year it had participated in events in Kavala, Panagiotis Podimatas, president of the Organizing Committee of the Athens Flying Show 2023, explains to APE-MBE.

“We are particularly happy as an organizing committee to have the Saudi Hawks pilots with us. This is an amazing team and it is the second time they come to Greece. I want to say that last time he came to Kavala and these pilots have created fanatical fans”, added Mr. Podimatas.

“They have a loyal fan group in Greece, the Saudi Hawks fan group. Because they share with the public, videos, photos, communicate with him. They also have a Saudi fan group, which the Greek fans are members of and we have a large community of their fans. This also means that we bring together Saudis who are in Greece and it is very important to bring together pieces of two cultures and now they are our friends, their leader Mohammed and the rest of the members”, he emphasized.

For his part, Sultan Al Zawahri, deputy commander of the Saudi Hawks, told APE-MPE: “We are happy and delighted to participate in the Athens Flying Show. We hope you enjoy our show and we look forward to seeing you all here at Tanagra Base.”

Referring to the demanding training that such a flock needs to carry out in order to achieve such impressive results, the deputy commander of the Saudi Hawks underlined that “usually our training is divided into two parts: the training period and the demonstration period. The training period usually lasts 3.5 to 4 months of flying and another two months of preparation. So we have to be very precise. We will have to be careful and alert so that the result we get is worthy of what you are going to watch.”

“We are very close to each other and we have to be focused in order to get the best possible result,” he noted.

As for the rest of the swarm’s schedule, Sultan Al-Zawahri stated that “leaving here, we will go to S. Arabia for our national holiday, for a period from September 17 to 24, touring Saudi cities for demonstrations about National Holidays”.

Referring to the program of Athens Flying Week 2023, Mr. Podimatas expressed his satisfaction with the large number of participants in this year’s event. Especially for the final confirmation of the arrival of the demonstration flock of American F-35s in Greece. As he mentioned, in addition to the F-35 and Saudi Hawks, in this year’s event the F-16s from Belgium and Denmark, the French Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Greek teams “Dias” and “Daedalos” will participate in the Solos. “. As for the teams, in addition to the Saudi one, the Spanish Patrulla Aguila and teams from Switzerland and Belgium, the Fursan swarm from the United Arab Emirates and the aerobatic team from Kavala will also participate, while Italy is arriving for the first time a team of disabled pilots, proving how much the human will can achieve. Also, special mention should be made here of the presence of the world aerobatic champion Luca Bertosio, while the event will also be accompanied by Greek Sky Diving and Gliding teams. A surprise of the event will be the participation of the Aegean civil aircraft fleet.

Of special interest beyond the air sports part and the demonstrations will be the static exhibition of the aircraft and other flying means that will participate, which will be able to be admired up close and be informed by their crews and the spectators, added Mr. You walk.

Both the president, as well as the member of the organizing committee and announcer of the event, Leonidas Karanatsis, emphasized to the APE-MPE the importance of the versatile cooperation in the organization of many agencies, which involve not only the air force, but also the Civil Protection, the Navy , the Police, the Coast Guard and the Fire Brigade for guarding, security and fire fighting. And of course the great support of the Air Force, which for the first time has an active and combative base and actively participates in the organization of the event.

As the two members of the organizing committee pointed out, this wide participation and the interest of the groups in the 11th Athens Flying Week 2023 already makes the base of Tanagra insufficient, with the result that the “Eleftherios Venizelos” International Airport also helps with parking and hosting so many aircraft.