An international air show will once again take to the skies over Southwestern Ontario after skyrocketing premiums grounded it following 9/11.
“There’s something in the works,” said Mary Aziz-Stoetzer, a spokeswoman for organizers of the event. “Stay tuned.”
The airshow will see Snowbird and CF-18 Hornet demonstrations flown for thousands of spectators over two days in September. The show should rival the Toronto Labour Day event in size if not attendance.
An air show was once a summer mainstay for London but soaring insurance rates after the 9/11 terrorist attacks forced regional authorities to drop it. Other shows across North America suffered the same fate.
But aviation liability rates have now softened, say brokers, and that has made hosting air shows feasible in a way they haven’t been for the last 14 years.
For brokers serving smaller Canadian municipalities, the London about-face bodes well for the return of smaller shows involving more modest aircraft numbers.
Still, aviation rates may face new upward pressure in the new year, say analysts. They point to renewed terrorism fears springing from the downing of a Russian airliner this fall over Egypt.
Over 200 passengers were killed, but while Russian authorities argue the crash was the result of a terrorist attack, a preliminary investigation by Egyptian authorities hasn’t yet found evidence to back up the claim.
