The air show held at Central Coast Airport was a resounding success, attracting an estimated 15,000 people from near and far over the two days of May 22 and 23.
“It was a great economic boost for the region, the weather was perfect for both pilots and the spectators, everything flowed smoothly and all in all, it was an enormous success,” said John Codrington, Chairman of Your Central Coast Airport Association.
“We haven’t got the economic figures in yet but there were many local businesses benefitting from the air show, both the vendors on site and the money flowing around the businesses off-site such as those around the parking areas at train stations and other locations.
“The shuttle buses from the off-site parking areas worked pretty much perfectly and feedback on social media was saying how well organised the event was.
“We were very thankful to local landholders who allowed us to use their property for spectator car parking so we need to give a shout out to them as well,” Codrington said.
He said community support was exceptionally good, everyone wanted it to be a success.
“It certainly demonstrates that we have the capacity to put these shows on for the benefit of the Central Coast and that the airport is truly a community infrastructure.
“As a way of giving back to the Central Coast, we would like see this type of event held on a regular basis,” Codrington said.
One of the major events at the show was the RAAF display, the formation displays of the Air Force Roulettes, and it was the first time an F-35A fighter jet had been on display in an air show like this.
“Another spectacular event was the motorcycle flipping over the aircraft as it passed underneath with the big wall of fire, that certainly garnered everyone’s attention,” Codrington said.
Manager of Central Coast Aero Club, Andrew Smith, said the air show was a huge opportunity to showcase the community based airport and what it was capable of.
“The numbers of aircraft and the types of aircraft at the show don’t happen very often in Australia,” he said.
“It was a good partnership between Paul Bennet Air Shows, the Aero Club and Central Coast Council, all working together, so it’s all very positive.”
Smith said the air show was “a nice bookend” to all the recent decisions made by the Administrator to cement the certainty for the airport’s future.
“The economic benefits to the future of our region are very hard to calculate and this air show was a good way to advertise that fact to everybody.
“We have a couple of hundred student pilots at the airport every year, we’re very busy, we have 10 instructors here now.
“Soon we’ll be replacing some of our ageing infrastructure, some of our hangars are just about falling down around our ears.
“We haven’t been able to get any finance to fix those issues because of the uncertainty around the airport, so the new 45-year agreement allows us to get the finance we need to replace that ageing infrastructure.
“Some of the hangars will be replaced and positioned in a more efficient layout so that we can fit in more classrooms for our students and a bigger maintenance department.
“Our maintenance department is really at capacity, we are knocking back work because we can’t physically fit the number of aeroplanes inside that hangar to get the work done on those aircraft.
“We’re excited for the future, at the moment it’s looking really golden for us,” Smith said.
Sue Murray