Which aerial advertising company was chosen to fly the Union Jack flag over Westminster for 'Veterans Day' by the Ministry of Defense, by SonyEricsson for the start of the Volvo Ocean Challenge , by Dubai Aerospace to open the 2006 Farnborough Airshow by Channel 4 for 'Big Brother' and by Liverpool to advertise over the 2006 FA Cup Final?

You can choose from three impactful and cost-effective aircraft banner packages:

Entry Package: Competitively priced and ideal for short, attention-catching announcements and personal messages. This is flown using our standard composite, five feet high red or black letter display. Up to 32 characters (including spaces) and is included in the £300+VAT hourly display charge. ('click' photo to enlarge)

Intermediate Split-banner Package: Mixing the impact of a colourful digital design with an interchangeable letter message at a competitive price. This involves the one-off cost of a custom-design sheet logo, approximately 15 feet high and 35 feet wide, - like the Alex Gold example you see above - with trailing five foot letters or the video clip below.

Standard Skysign Package: One of our most popular corporate and brand awareness advertising packages, this consists of a bespoke, high-resolution digital banner from the client's artwork of approximately 15' - 20' high and 55' - 65' wide.

A skybanner of this size is light enough to be displayed by one of our conventional tow aircraft at the standard hourly rate.

Airads Premium Sky Banner Package: This is the very top of the range in aircraft banner displays for corporate brand awareness campaigns and involves a huge, digital skybanner/skysign of up to 2,000 square feet from your design. We need to use a more powerful aircraft for banners of this size and so fuel and display charges are proportionately greater. The cost of the display is the hourly and positioning charge plus the one-off production cost of the client's skybanner, which we then fly, often year after year, on demand.

Watch a slideshow of our different plane banner examples.

Our single-engined aircraft fleet can tow up to 32 characters in a letter banner. or if size matters, a sheet banner up to a massive 2,000 square feet of sign, printed to your own design! These can cost between £1000 and £2,500 +VAT depending on size and digital artwork requirements,so please enquire.

When you enquire, please tell us where you plan to fly the banner, as location and travel distance can have a significant impact on the final cost. Aviation fuel is expensive!

Costs of Towing Letter Banners

Please note that with aviation fuel prices rising monthly, display costs may be subject to review, revision and possible surcharge at short notice. We apologise in advance for any possible inconvenience this might cause.

The average cost of preparing, positioning and flying a one-hour aircraft letter banner for an address in the south-east of England is approximately £450+VAT which includes our standard letter banner design. The costs are determined determined by the fuel positioning costs involved in reaching the point of display and wthether the client wishes to have a standard letter banner - included in the price - or pay for the design and production of a giant sheet aerial billboard.

AIRADS is based very close to London, the M25, M20, M23 and M2 motorways, making it ideally placed to capture large audiences on the roads and large crowds in shopping centres such as Bluewater and along the southern and eastern beaches in the summer months.

Duration Cost Rate (per hour)

1 hour displaying an aircraft banner* £300 +VAT Positioning charge to the nearest airfield: £195+VAT per flying hour.

As a more complex and costly exercise than fixed-wing aircraft, for helicopter banners please enquire for costs, terms and separate conditions.

Additional discounts are available for long term contracts

Our rates include all costs of operation, based on use of standard equipment. Prices of special equipment such as non-standard characters, non-standard colours, custom logo, and billboards are available on request.

Flight display times run from banner launch to drop (except under special circumstances).

Prices may adjust according to peak season times, after 6pm, weekends, holidays, special events etc, or quoted on basis of a route or circuit, rather than time.

Terms & Conditions:

The minimum display booking period is one hour*. A deposit of 50% of the quoted price of the display is required on booking and the balance is payable seven days in advance for private customers and within 30 days following the display date for corporate clients with previously agreed terms. (Airads accepts BACS or VISA).

The cost of designing and developing bespoke sheet banners, company logos etc is not refundable. These are the property of the client and will be sent to the client, following the display, on request.

In making a booking, the client accepts responsibility for providing accurate information on the location required. We strongly recommend that the client checks any postcode against the latitude and longitude results returned on www.multimap.com and then passes these details to us for confirmation. In some very isolated examples we have experienced, a postcode may be as much as one mile adrift from the map reference we need to correctly identify the target area for the banner display. If there is any doubt, please ask us and we will be happy to assist.

In providing bespoke – sheet banners– to our clients from their artwork, Airads acts as an intermediary and is unable to offer or imply a warranty on the materials, which are produced to the highest “flight ready” standard by specialist companies in the United States.

Very occasionally, a sheet banner may tear in flight, a consequences of the dramatic forces – much like a sail – being applied against the material. Frequently and like a sail, repairs can be made but if the tear is too large, there may be no option but to replace the banner at the client’s cost.

Airads is happy to store digital sheet banners for clients out of season, however this service is at the client's own risk and the client may wish to add the banner to its own insurance.

Airads charges a monthly storage fee of £5.00+VAT, - payable annually - per banner but may waive this fee if the banner is used at least once during the course of the preceding twelve months.

The client should specify the required display time on the order and check this time against the confirmation on the invoice for the display.

Providing a banner display is a complex exercise involving many different factors, among these are the equivalent of Health & Safety regulations for aircraft which are governed by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority. When providing a service, our pilots will pay particular attention to all safety aspects of the flight and in particular both 'Article 155' of the Air Navigation Order and 'Rule 5.0' which govern both the regulated safe altitude and proximity to congested areas in the unlikely event of an emergency. Airads cannot accept responsibility for any delays outside its control. Your flight may also be subject to unexpected Air Traffic Control routing or technical delays if we are close to controlled airspace with large airports nearby.

During the day of the display and time leading-up to the display, it is essential that the client provides a means of contact, so that Airads can inform and confer with the client by text, email or mobile phone of any changes to weather conditions, arrival times or en-route delays. Failure to provide a contact point in the critical period leading-up to the flight may lead to the flight being cancelled with a subequent loss of refund.

On occasions and as a consequence of longer positioning distances involved, Airads will need to make an operational "Go/No Go" judgement decision based on the available weather forecast for the destination. Unless instructed otherwise, the client accepts that Airads will make this appropriate operational decision and if the weather at the destination is below limits on arrival, then Airads will only charge the client for banner production and the positioning costs involved. If the client however wishes to make any final decision prior to any flight commencing, then Airads should be notified of this preference in advance.

Cancellation terms:

If a cancellation instruction is received inside seven days of the display (but not the day before), 50% of the total fee or deposit , will be returned to the client. For a cancellation received the day before the flight, the display element price only will be subject to refund.

For a cancellation received outside seven days, the total fee will be returned less any deposit (normally 50% of the total package) or the client may ask to re-schedule the booking to a mutually agreeable date.

The event can be re-scheduled to a mutually convenient date at any time within seven days of the display without charge. Inside this period, there is a re-arrangement charge of £175+VAT

If the weather conditions on the day of the assignment are considered marginal, Airads will consult with the client to determine whether a "best efforts" attempt should be made to deliver the display.

If, for operational reasons beyond our control or technical problems, Airads is unable to provide the service, then a full refund of the display fee, will be offered to the client within seven days.

In the event of bad weather cancellation, the client will, on request, receive a full refund less £75+VAT costs of preparing the banner.

If the aircraft is unable to complete the assignment for weather or operational air traffic reasons and has already made its positioning flight, then the client will be offered a refund less the quoted hourly positioning charges for the aircraft and the banner preparation fee.

Airads can roll-over a weather-cancelled and paid-for flight for the client for no longer than six months from the date of the booking. After this time the client will be offered a 25% discount if they wish to re-book in the following season.

Airads normally has multiple flight assignments on any one day and as a result may be unable to accomodate a client who may wish to make a last minute change or delay a display from the assigned time. While we make every possible effort to be flexible booking times are final unless changes are agreed in advance with the pilot. Clients should be aware that strong winds, air traffic control re-routing or bad weather may cause an aircraft to be delayed on site and every effort is made by Airads to keep clients informed in such an eventuality. The risk of such operational factors outside of our control make it impossible to 'guarantee' an exact display time only a 'best-efforts' committment onthe part of Airads.

Safety is of course our paramount concern and while we will make every effort to deliver your message on schedule, the unpredictable nature of the British weather may come between us and your display.

Picking-up and displaying an aerial banner is a difficult and demanding exercise for both pilot and aircraft. We will always consult with our clients before the event and offer a best estimate of our ability to reach the location required. If air traffic is heavy, the location is under air show control or the weather forecast is not promising, we will tell you and may suggest that you re-schedule the time of your display. If this is not possible, perhaps the weather between our base and the destination is at minimums or the destination airfield is fogged-in, you may ask us to make our "best efforts" to fly to the location in spite of the actual and predicted forecasts on the day. As long as this does not violate flight safety regulations, we will make an attempt to reach the location and if we have to turn back, we will only charge for the fuel used against our published positioning tariff.

Airads acceptance of any booking and business, is contingent on the client reading and accepting the terms and conditions of service published on this page.

Airads has an acceptable use and content policy where clients promotional materials are concerned. For a copy of this document please enquire. Banner messages should reach us in good time for production. Normally seven days minimum in advance of the flight is required unless agreed in advance.

*Start to finish time after leaving the nearest positioning airfield for the display.