The end of the Air Show?

After two financially challenging years, the Bob Jones Memorial Air Show & Transport Festival will not be taking place in 2018, which could mean the end of one of the most popular events on the town’s social calendar.

Despite a sell-out crowd of 10,000 three years ago, the weather and spiraling costs have impacted the past two years, leaving organisers no choice but to put it on the backburner.

This year as few as 2,000 people were thought to have attended with many complaining that the line-up was not up to the impressive displays of the past.

“Welshpool Town Council, in conjunction with Mrs Linda Jones, the owner of Welshpool – Mid Wales – Airport, have taken the reluctant decision to not hold the Welshpool (Bob Jones Memorial) Air Show in 2018,” said Robert Robinson, Town Clerk.

“Planning for the event would normally start immediately after this year’s show, but in the face of mounting costs and much reduced attendance the decision is unavoidable because any losses have to be borne by the Council and local tax-payers.

“The Air Show for Mid Wales, which brought several thousands of visitors to the area between 2006 and 2017 and had become a major event on the Air Show calendar and certainly put Welshpool, Mid Wales and the airport on the map.”

Mr. Robinson said the event fund was stretched by recent additional safety costs and that prevailing weather in the days before, and on show days, for two consecutive years had placed an unsustainable strain on financial resources which resulted in the decision to place the Air Show on hold.

In its heyday, the Air Show attracted displays by the Red Arrows, Vulcan, Typhoon, Lancaster, Hurricane and Spitfire and in 2015 it won Wales Tourist Board Silver Award, Best Small Event.

It is believed the long term future will be discussed later in the year.