That's in Latvia, at least! We release the first teaser for a series of interviews that we conduct with eminent manufacturers and operators of wind tunnels in different parts of the world. As a follow-up on an article that addressed the topic of “Indoor Skydiving – A Future After COVID-19” published in April, we ask some of the people quoted then to take stock of the situation now, five months later.
"As East Europe has suffered the least from COVID-19, we are planning to open our wind tunnel by late May or early June,” Ivars Beitans, the chairman of AERODIUM, told us in April. He opened right on schedule. Like in the other Baltic and Scandinavian countries, the impact of the virus was, by comparison, minimal in Latvia. Now he speaks of business at his wind tunnel in Sigulda during the summer months.
Almost against the odds and despite of the (minimal) COVID-19 fallout, business was booming, he tells us.
While the same does not currently apply to many tunnels in other locations, it could and should inspire operators everywhere. Once SARS-CoV-2 is (minimally) under control, there are opportunities out there.
Ivars, as a manufacturer/operator of indoor/outdoor tunnels of all sizes and in many different markets, appraises the situation on the global level and lets us know what he feels should become the guiding principle for the industry.
This is a one-minute teaser for the much longer interview with Ivars that will be published – in print and as video – on www.indoorskydiving.vision shortly.