JERSEY’S International Air Display has been booked into the 2023 calendar by organisers, in spite of climate fears that have contributed to the cancellation one of the UK’s biggest airshows.
Organiser Mike Higgins confirmed that next year’s Jersey event would take place on Thursday 14 September, and that the intention was to revert to a ‘full’ display following scaled-down shows over the past two years and a Covid-enforced cancellation in 2020.
One display that will not be running in 2023 is the Sunderland International Airshow, with Sunderland City Council having confirmed that there were ‘no future plans’ to stage the event, citing reasons including an intention to make the city carbon neutral by 2040.
The Sunderland event took place annually between 1989 and 2019, attracting around two million spectators at the peak of its popularity.
With around ten-and-a-half months until the 2023 Jersey International Air Display, Mr Higgins said that he would be working hard to make it a success.
The former St Helier Deputy, who stood down from politics in June, said he was planning a concerted campaign to promote the event to both businesses and individuals in a bid to attract the necessary financial backing.
He said: ‘We’ve had three bad years, including the cancellation in 2020, but the intention for 2023 is to have a full air display, which will include static displays at the Airport and West Park.’
In the build-up to this year’s show, organisers called on Island businesses to recognise the benefits the air display brought to the Island, particularly in making the week of the event one of the busiest of the year in terms of the visitor economy.
Mr Higgins said he was concerned to hear about the cancellation of the Sunderland airshow, but also defended his event in the light of objections by climate campaigners.
‘I want to save the planet as well and my record as a States Member backs that up,’ he said.
‘However, the overall contribution [to emissions] of the event is quite low and I think that individuals using long-haul flights to go on holiday has a far greater impact.’
The aviation industry was evolving, Mr Higgins added, and he said that he hoped aircraft powered by electricity and hydrogen would form part of future displays. He also emphasised the historic significance of having planes such as the Spitfire and the Lancaster bomber involved in the show.
But a leading environmentalist has criticised the fact that Jersey still holds an air display.
Nigel Jones, of campaign group Jersey in Transition, said: ‘I think it’s an anachronism and that we are in danger of living in the past. I don’t think Jersey should be looking to carve out a niche of being the most backward place in Britain, somewhere that hasn’t moved with the times.
‘It’s not only the emissions resulting from planes in getting here, and during the display, but it’s also the glorification of these flying machines and harking back to the last century, to a feeling of supremacy that I would argue has done more harm than good.’
