Been to every show since '79 at Greenham. In the old days at Fairford, most of the tarmac/concrete was used for aircraft parking, and cars were generally parked on the grass. The central-eastern taxiway area usually had a line of 8-12 tankers, including most of the then TDY KC-135's. The western loop often had the bigger transport stuff.
Then 9-11 happened, and all parking was moved off base. In theory this should have freed up the eastern loop for more aircraft. But then the 2008 washout occurred which has forced them to use some of the on-base tarmac for cars - particularly the western loop.
The flying display fighters used to park over on the ramp behind the big base hangars. viewing this from the public area was a PITA and the only real way to do it was from the open top photo busses. Originally these used to run all day long, but after the Mig crash in 1993 it was decided the busses must stop once the flying display started. This meant that spotters had to queue up to get into the show at the crack of dawn, then once the gates opened leg it to the photo bus departure point (eastern end) and hope you got in the queue in time for last departures at about 09:45. After the trip you could relax, get a bacon butty and have a kip in the grass. I don't think the ramp behind the hangars is used anymore - the flying stuff either is parked on the north east loop or southside where it's relatively easy to see it.
So nowadays, no north-side behind the hangar ramp, no western loop, and only partial use of the south eastern loop I think explains the reduced aircraft parking available.
I think I can hear a U2 with the senior citizen fit firing up.
