Halloween is the one seasonal window where businesses that never decorate anything will decorate. Pumpkin patches, haunted attractions, car lots, garden centres, restaurants — all of them light up for about six weeks and then go quiet. Six weeks is short enough that the buying decision is really about what happens the rest of the year.
The season, and its deadline
The commercial Halloween window runs from about the third week of September to the thirty-first of October.
Backwards from that: shipping is two to five business days UPS Ground from North Carolina, and printed production is three to seven days from **artwork approval**. So a printed unit needs ordering by the first week of September to be flying when the season opens.
Plain 5.5-foot spheres in stock ship in one to two days, which is far more forgiving if you have left it late.
The mistake: buying a pumpkin
The tempting purchase is something unmistakably Halloween. It is also the worst value in this category, because it is unusable for forty-six weeks of the year.
Two better approaches:
**Buy colour, not theme.** Orange and black 5.5-foot spheres at $350 each read completely as Halloween in October — and then read as autumn in November, and as school colours or brand colours whenever you want. Nothing on them says “October”.
**Buy your name.** A 13-foot blimp at $1,526 with full-colour artwork on both sides included, carrying your business name and logo. It works in October because it is up and visible. It works in March for the same reason.
If the business genuinely is Halloween — a haunt, a seasonal attraction — then themed artwork is correct, because you have no off-season to waste.
Autumn wind is the real risk
October is windier than most of the flying year across much of the country, and the rule does not change: winds forecast over 25 miles per hour, bring it in.
Wind does not wear an inflatable out. Wind loses one. In a six-week season, losing a unit in week two means the season is over for you — production and shipping together are longer than the time you have left.
Two practical habits:
– Check the forecast daily, not weekly. Autumn systems move fast. – Give the bring-it-in job to a named person on each shift. Seasonal operations run on seasonal staff, and “everyone knows” is how units get lost.
Cooler air is on your side
One genuine autumn advantage: cool air is denser than hot air, which means more lift from the same fill.
A blimp with about three pounds of net lift in ordinary conditions performs at the top of that range in October, not the bottom. Balloons simply fly better in autumn than they do in July.
Running it for six weeks
Helium leaves at about one percent per day. Across a six-week continuous run, that means topping off every three to seven days.
A 13-foot blimp takes about 170 cubic feet for a full fill — roughly $255 at $1.50 per cubic foot from a welding-gas supplier. Top-offs run about $2.50 per day of flying, so a full six-week season is roughly $105 of gas on top of the initial fill.
A 5.5-foot sphere takes about 87 cubic feet, roughly $130, and one 200 cubic foot tank at about $300 covers around two months of sphere flying including top-offs — which is almost exactly one Halloween season.
You will also want a fill hose, $45 one time.
Rolling into November and December
This is where the “buy colour, not theme” advice pays off.
Orange spheres carry straight into a harvest or Thanksgiving look. Swap in red and green for December, or fly your branded blimp continuously through the whole retail season from late September to New Year.
Three months of continuous flying on one blimp is roughly $255 for the fill plus about $225 of top-offs. Against $1,526 spent once, the second season is nearly free.
Storage between seasons
Units deflate, fold flat, and store in the 60 by 26 by 3 inch carton they shipped in. No special conditions.
Polyurethane matters here more than in any other seasonal use, because these things spend most of the year folded. Polyurethane recovers from folding; PVC holds a crease and eventually fails along it. That is the difference between a unit you fly for fourteen years and one you replace every second season.
Where it flies
120 feet on the standard tether, deliberately below the 150-foot line at which the FAA becomes involved in tethered balloons. Within five miles of controlled airspace, call the local tower — routine, and never refused in forty years of doing it.
Indoors, 15 feet of clear ceiling. Anchoring is a sandbag or a fixed tie-off against about three pounds of pull.
Questions we get
What does a 13 ft advertising blimp cost?
$1,526 printed, with full-colour artwork on both sides included in the price. Shipping is $135 UPS Ground from the factory in North Carolina.
How much helium does it use?
About 170 cubic feet for a full fill, roughly $255 at $1.50 per cubic foot from a welding-gas supplier. It loses about one percent per day, so top off every three to seven days.
How high does it fly?
120 feet on the standard tether. That is deliberately below the 150-foot line at which the FAA becomes involved in tethered balloons.
What happens in wind?
Winds forecast over 25 miles per hour, bring it in. Wind does not wear a balloon out, but it can lose one.
How long until it ships?
Three to seven days from artwork approval, plus two to five business days shipping.
More at giantadvertisinginflatables.com.