Corinna Schwiegershausen <<email>> writes:

Cost might have been one aspect for some people, but had that been the real issue. Turkey would have won. I think people chose Monte Cucco because Flavio was very successful with his last year's worlds with good tasks and without any accident.

With the tragic accidents in Forbes and Hay, I think people just want to see a place that is less prone to possible fatal or severe accidents. Also with Big Spring, Hay and Brazil, three out of the recent four comps were flatland flying (if you take Laragne into account), and people thought it should be in the mountains again.

Mind you, the financial crisis has arrived over here in Europe, many people are losing their jobs at the moment, others earn less, flights are emptier, people are getting scared. I hope that the situation is better in two years (for Oz it would have been one and a half years), but I think many pilots of the twenty six nations who can easily travel to Italy at low cost are happy about the decision made.

I hear that the European banks are in much worse shape than the US banks and actually did much more gambling than ours did. Also I hear that the Euro is about to take a dive. See the ongoing economic coverage in the Off Topic section of the Oz Report forum.