RIAT 2020 Cancelled

[Alf]

I asked and received the following…


Thank you for raising your concerns in respect of coronavirus and its potential impact upon RIAT 2020. As you will know, the World Health Organization has declared the illness a pandemic and the Chief Medical Officer raised the risk to the UK from moderate to high on March 12. We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops and react accordingly to any advice or directives given. As things stand, we are still working hard to deliver a fantastic airshow in July.

Many thanks

Customer Services Advisor
ROYAL AIR FORCE Charitable Trust Enterprises
www.airtattoo.com

[red leader]

I can't see it happening. Too many factors against it. Uncertainty. Foreign pilots travelling,lack of emergency cover. They will have to cancel it because there are too many unknowns. Crowds of 180000 from all over the globe.....no way is that gonna happen!
The best you can plan for now is a 2021 show.

[Tiger 1]

Droptank...

Well done Sir... Could not have put it any better.

Alf...

Many thanks for information you have gained from DBH.

As I now see it, following this... we all now can make are own decisions and it is quite simple.

( A )... If you believe there is no chance of RIAT taking place then cancel before the 20th of June.

( B ) If your opinion is more optimistic... take a chance and stick with it the show goes ahead.

It's that simple now I believe... I have made my choice... Good luck guys on which ever choice you make.

Regards.

T1

[raptor76]

Lets put this into perspective at present cosford, yeovilton and Farnborough are still going ahead, so in terms of cosford and yeovilton wouldn't they cancel first and as far as Farnborough is concerned with the planning that takes and as the British and the world's aerospace companies attend this airshow it would also have to cancel before Riat. On top of that and please bear in mind i am an optimist i fully believe Riat will still go ahead.

[ChrisCwmbran]

Lets put this into perspective at present cosford, yeovilton and Farnborough are still going ahead, so in terms of cosford and yeovilton wouldn't they cancel first and as far as Farnborough is concerned with the planning that takes and as the British and the world's aerospace companies attend this airshow it would also have to cancel before Riat. On top of that and please bear in mind i am an optimist i fully believe Riat will still go ahead.

I would actually suggest that all of them will definitely be cancelled if nothing else because of the lack of availability of any emergency services support. No police to support traffic control would on it's own I suspect make them non-viable.

[Precinct7]

Lets put this into perspective at present cosford, yeovilton and Farnborough are still going ahead, so in terms of cosford and yeovilton wouldn't they cancel first and as far as Farnborough is concerned with the planning that takes and as the British and the world's aerospace companies attend this airshow it would also have to cancel before Riat. On top of that and please bear in mind i am an optimist i fully believe Riat will still go ahead.

and also ILA Berlin in May is still on

[Headancer]

The fact that another airshow hasnt yet cancelled is not exactly a reasonable benchmark is it now.

I hate to say it but there will not be any airshows this year.

The wider issue for me is whether it survives for next year.
I don't see how you can pay staff to do nothing for a year+.

[Headancer]

Just to back up my concerns

Have a look at the 2018 2019 accounts.

Full time staff employed 43

Income is circa 13m

Expenditure 11.4m

The difference is only 1.6 m ( but of this donations, which are actually counted as income were 1.25m)

In effect if you did nothing and had a couple of trustees sat taking money on min wage in an empty office you would seeminly still generate voluntary donations of 1.25m

Even if the 43 staff are only earning say £17k average which is pretty low
You have fixed payroll expenses of 73k I suspect it's actually nearer £1m.

Without the show that number of staff is simply unsustainable.

[AyrForce1]

I don't see how you can pay staff to do nothing for a year+.

Oh I know a few councils in Scotland that are quite adept at that.

[Blackcat1]

Same down here Ayrforce1

[Tiger 1]

Duxford May Show now cancelled... Only a matter of time for RIAT and Cosford to follow I would say... can't see any shows taking place to be fair.

T1

[James Cutting]

All IWM sites closed for the foreseeable future, see thread: viewtopic.php?f=338&t=185292 & now longer able to buy May show tickets.

[Droptank]

..steady James, you're drifitng "off topic"...ha ha ha...

Headancer's point is sad but true and overlooked by most in consideration of the effect on 2020 and beyond.

However, a number of staff would need to be retained to account for all the madness of ticket refunds which
will probably drag on into Autumn....more costs without associated value.

Do you think the government would bail RIAT out in line with the statement today?...hope so.

I can see why RIAT are reluctant to offer any statement as they must literally be praying that the cancellation
of 2020 is avoided but they need to say something soon in my opinion as they must be approaching critical timings
on so many elements of putting the show on.

Worrying times for the airshow fraternity and aviation in general to be honest!...but the nation's health is certainly
more important.

Droptank.

[adimale1981]

I don't get the need to wish for cancellation of the show, in March? I'd expect the organisers, as I would glastonbury and the F1 to give as much time as possible to make the right decision, so why the haste today? No news is good news, so let's keep it that way and stop this constant nonsense of second guessing people who know far, far more than anyone on the outside, and can provide care/facilities which could support a medium size town...

The update was that there's no update, I don't care about the other shows, who I'm sorry, are not in the same universe of organisational planning. Look to glasto or the F1, not little flyins organised by those unfortunately more vulnerable.

Now, no one is stopping you from cancelling, but stop with the need to look at ruining it for the majority by trying to sound clever.

Let's get back to aviation, announcements and anticipation, there's enough unnecessary bad news being posted about the world to take away a small element of something to look forward to that's 18 weeks away (not 6).

P. S. The staff don't just work one year to the next, it's a little bit bigger than that... Maybe you didn't notice, but I'm not sure an event that size happens in a 9 month organisational cycle from tickets going on sale....and there's other events they do too... So they're not going to be twiddling their thumbs. Think some research is needed by a few people.

Rant over.

[Nighthawke]

Finally someone with a sensible view and the will to type it out. Thank you.

[bizfreeq]

At last, well said!

[Red Dragon]

Absolutely spot on "adimale1981", very well said!

Now to continue on a positive note, Sanicole have announced the Finnish Air Force Hornet display, so hopefully it will pop up on the RIAT update tomorrow

[pg1610]

I don't get the need to wish for cancellation of the show, in March? I'd expect the organisers, as I would glastonbury and the F1 to give as much time as possible to make the right decision,

Glastonbury canx

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainmen ... um=custom7

[the concerned]

With the virus being much more widespread by summer there is no way the emergency services will be able to provide the number of staff to enable the show to be viable.

[slogen51]

Try and keep it aviation related

We are all well aware of the current situation but none of us know what the next few months will have in store. There is nothing to be gained in speculation - the show will go ahead in July or it won't!