Southport Airshow

Southport Airshow

 

The Southport Airshow has had its problems in the past, but based on the early announcements, 2025 could be shaping up to be a very good year for the show.

 

Mélanie Astles has been French Champion no fewer than five-times and has top ten rankings at European and World levels. After her riveting performance at the Sywell Airshow in June 2024, Mélanie became the first British Open Aerobatics Unlimited Champion at the inaugural event at the same airfield the following month.

 

The irrepressible Richard Goodwin will add more aerobatic magic as will the Aerosuperbatics Wingwalkers and Team Raven.

 

The RAF are giving great support with the Typhoon, Grob Tutor and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight trio, including the Lancaster.

 

More details of the show will be here when announced.

 

The show in earlier years

 

Following cancellation in 2021, the Southport Airshow was back with a July show for 2022 but moved to September for 2023. In 2024 the show went back to mid-July. There is another change for 2025, which has a new August date.

 

Unfortunately, the 2023 show didn't get off to a very good start. The Red Arrows were due to display first on Saturday. However, a brief but heavy shower at their host airport, Blackpool, caused the cancellation of the display, replaced later in the afternoon by a flypast. See the pink box for reasons why this kind of weather interlude, even a brief one, can prevent a display.

 

Because the Red Arrows were due to be the first display on Saturday, quite a large number of would-be visitors would have missed them anyway because of traffic issues in the area. Conditions meant that the beach could not be used for car parking, so motorists had to be diverted elsewhere. This, and the heavy traffic associated with events of this kind, caused massive congestion and huge delays - some people reported delays of around three hours. Others said that they abandoned their visit to the show altogether.

The traffic and parking issues; cancellation of the Red Arrows - a star attraction for many; general difficulty and huge delays gaining access to the viewing area; the condition of the beach; lack of facilities; lack of a public address system in some areas and consequently poor communication to the audience and long gaps between displays, combined to cause considerable disquiet especially on Saturday.

 

The schedule for Sunday was updated and the timings were much tighter, but there were still gaps where a few displays were cancelled or shortened. By and large, there were far fewer issues on Sunday, possibly because visitor numbers were lower than on Saturday. The lower Sunday numbers may be because the Red Arrows were expected on Saturday but not Sunday and because the weather forecast for Sunday was poor.

 

On the positive side, the RAF Typhoon display was very well received, as it has been everywhere, and the Chinook, Bronco and Team Raven displays were also very popular.

Credit, too, to the model airplane pilots in 2023. It was not what most of the crowd came to see, and there was some upset that models dominated much of both days, but at least the pilots did arrive, fly, and provide entertainment, even if their efforts were not universally appreciated by the crowd.

 

The local authority's response to complaints immediately after the 2023 show was largely defensive. However, they later accepted that improvements could be made and made several changes.

 

The 2024 show was much improved on the 2023 show, indicating that the organisers had probably learnt lessons from the 2024 experience. Hopefully the improved organisation will extend into 2025.

 

Southport Airshow

 

COACH FARE ONLY

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The majority of trips return from destination between 16:30 and 17:30. The driver will inform you of the exact time on the day, dependant on outward travel times. Whilst we do not guarantee a W/C on board most of our excursion fleet do have toilet facilities. For your comfort we allocate seating at time of booking, however reserve the right to alter or amend your seat allocation for utilisation purposes.

 

Our Pick-ups are as follows:

 

• Wetherby – Wetherby Whaler

• Knaresborough – York Place Car / Coach Park

• Starbeck – Methodist Church

• Knaresborough Road – Former Harrow Pub

• Kings Road – Betfred

• Harrogate – St Marys Walk (Montpellier)