Midway Through The Air Show Season, Sequestration Remains The Main Topic For Discussion

As the North American air show community approaches the halfway point of the 2013 air show season, sequestration continues to be the main topic of conversation within the industry. Within the last several days, three different shows have made sequestration-related announcements about their 2013 events.

The Thunder over the Valley Air Show in Santa Maria, California, originally scheduled for August 24 and 25, has cancelled their 2013 air show. Citing a lack of sponsor interest in their event due to sequestration, Event Director Mike Geddry said, “Without funding in place, the Museum’s Board of Directors [the show is organized and conducted by the Santa Maria Museum of Flight] decided to cancel the air show this year.”

In El Paso, Texas, organizers of the Amigo Airsho also announced recently that they reached the difficult decision to cancel their 2013 air show, originally scheduled for October 12 and 13. For many years, the event has been held at Biggs Army Airfield on the grounds of El Paso’s Fort Bliss U.S. Army installation. Sequestration made it impossible for show organizers to use Biggs this year and, after a concerted effort to find an alternate location, show organizers were eventually forced to cancel this year’s event. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Canadian Snowbirds, who had been scheduled to perform in El Paso, will perform instead at the Wings over North Georgia air show in Rome, Georgia.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, base leaders at MCAS Miramar made the decision earlier in the month to proceed with the annual open house and air show despite the severe limitations of sequestration. In a two minute video announcement, MCAS Miramar Commanding Officer Colonel John Farnam makes a compelling case for the importance of Miramar’s annual open house as a unique opportunity for the personnel at the base and the people of San Diego to interact and get to know one another. Farnam said, in part: “The air show is my opportunity to open the gates at Miramar…to allow you onto the base, to bring you to a place where most people don’t get to go, onto our flightline.”

Although base personnel will be prohibited from even taxiing military aircraft while spectators are present, the show will include extensive static displays of military aircraft based at Miramar and a robust schedule of civilian performers, including the Patriots Jet team, Sean Tucker, the Shockwave Jet Truck, Chuck Aaron and the Red Bull helicopter, John Collver, Bret Willat, and Dan Buchanan. The Miramar show will become the first air show or open house to be held on a U.S. military base since April 1 of this year.

FMI: www.airshows.aero