At Least One Air Show Cancelled Following The Announcement

USAF leadership has cancelled all aviation support to public events for at least the remainder of the fiscal year and is standing down the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team to save flying hours to support readiness needs.

As of Friday, active-duty, Reserve and Guard units ceased all aviation support to the public. This includes the cancellation of support to all air shows, tradeshows, flyovers (including funerals and military graduations), orientation flights, heritage flights, F-22 demonstration flights and open houses, unless the event includes only local static assets. Additionally, the Air Force will cancel the Thunderbirds' entire 2013 season beginning April 1.
 
The Thunderbirds and Heritage Flight crews will complete their certification procedures for safely flying aerial demonstrations in case the budget allows resumption of scheduled events in 2013, but and the Air Force will cease participation in Heritage flights following certification. The Air Force will reduce flying hours by as much as 18 percent -- approximately 203,000 hours -- and impacts will be felt across the service and directly affect operational and training missions. "While we will protect flying operations in Afghanistan and other contingency areas, nuclear deterrence and initial flight training, roughly two-thirds of our active-duty combat Air Force units will curtail home station training," said Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III.
 
Since all aerial support to public and military events is flown at no additional cost to the taxpayer using allotted training hours, Air Force officials said they had no choice but to cancel support to these events. "Engaging with the public is a core Air Force mission and communicating and connecting with the public is more important today than ever before. However, faced with deep budget cuts, we have no choice but to stop public aviation support," said Brig. Gen. Les Kodlick, the director of Air Force Public Affairs. "The Air Force will reevaluate the program at the end of the fiscal year and look for ways to curtail the program without having to cancel aviation support altogether."

The move has already cost some communities their air shows. In Latrobe, PA, the Westmorland County Air Show at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport announced that the loss of the Thunderbirds would mean the show would not go on. The Pittsburgh media group Trib Total Media reports that the April 27-28 show was to have been the second at the airport in 10 years, and that the event's organizers would keep the public informed should that status change.

But other shows said they would go on with or without the military jet teams. Newsday online reports in its Long Island edition that the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach will run as scheduled without any military aircraft should the sequester not be settled in time for the event. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that the cancellations of the Thunderbirds' performance at the Lauderdale Air Show will not mean the entire event will be cancelled. That show is scheduled for April 20-21, and producer Bryan Lilley told the paper that while he hopes that the sequester is resolved and the Thunderbirds are flying again by the middle of next month, the show will go on with or without the jet team.

The Thunderbirds will perform at the Titusville Air Show in Florida in late March, which could be the last such performance before the team begins its hiatus from flying.

(Images from file)

FMI: www.af.mil