CEO Ian Honnery has described the 2015 Australian International Airshow as the best event yet held.
Honnery made the remark today as the attendance figures for the six-day show were released to the public.
“It featured great flying displays from the Air Force, Army and Navy and overseas military and the best array of aerobatic acts ever assembled in this country,” he said.
Avalon 2015 organiser put the total crowd at 169,251.
“It is an increase of about one percent when compared to the 2013 figure,” Honnery said. “It shows the strength of our event that we can attract such numbers despite having reduced crowd numbers on the Saturday due to forecast rain. Saturday is, usually our busiest day.”
The three trade days attracted an estimated 33,406 people, with the Friday night and Sunday attracting healthy numbers also. The big disappointment was the Ssturday.
“There’s no doubt the Saturday let us down,” Mr Honnery said. “I believe the forecast rain cost us many thousands of patrons who would have otherwise attended. Being an outdoor event we are at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather on the day.”
Although rain was forecast, the weather was fine until the Saturday evening down-pour.
Honnery remains confident the crowd figures show that Avalon is still going strong.
“I’m sure many of our patrons will be eagerly looking forward to our next event in 2017," he said.