THE FOYNES AIR Show has been cancelled due to the unavailability of a main sponsor, its organisers have announced today. 

The Limerick air show, which began in 2014 and included acts and aircraft, formed part of the Irish Aviation Authority’s (IAA) Aviation Ireland weekend, along with the Bray Air Display.

In December 2018, however, the IAA wrote to the show’s organising committee to say that the authority had reviewed its policy on Corporate Social Responsibility and had decided to focus its CSR activities in a different area, namely “targeted education and awareness programmes and opportunities”. 

As a result it would not be in a position to be a major supporter for this year’s air show but said that it would be disappointed if the event was unable to go ahead.

In a statement today, Foynes Air Show Festival Director Margaret O’Shaughnessy said; “We are extremely disappointed that the Foynes Air Show cannot go ahead this year.”

“Despite our best efforts, we were unsuccessful in identifying a new main sponsor in the short timespan open to us since the announcement in mid-December that the IAA was concentrating its CSR elsewhere.”

O’Shaughnessy has said that the event, which relied primarily on major private sponsorship, attracted tens of thousands of visitors each year and was estimated to be worth more than €750,000 to the local economy. 

There was, however, “a huge financial cost” to organising the air show each year, including grounds costs of over €100,000.

“We are bitterly disappointed that the air show is not going ahead this year, but we remain eternally grateful for the support we received over the last five shows.”