Wales Airshow 2017 review

RAF Eurofighter Typhoon (Image: Aviation Media Agency)
RAF Eurofighter Typhoon (Image: Aviation Media Agency)

Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd July 2017 saw the annual Wales Airshow take place in Swansea Bay.

The event attracts around 200,o00 visitors to the area for the 2-day long event which sees displays from the Red Arrows and other top aircraft displays.

As with all airshows, weather is an important part of the success and this year saw Swansea blessed with sunshine across the whole weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday saw dynamic flying displays over Swansea Bay with highlights including the RAF Red Arrows, Lauren Richardson in her Pitts Special, Norwegian Air Force Historic Flight and their Mig 15 and Vampire’s through to demonstrations from the Coastguard and the RNLI.

Unfortunately some cloud on Saturday saw the Red Arrows having to fly their flat display but crowds were treated to the full blue sky display on the Sunday.

Other aircraft displaying included the Chinook helicopter and Typhoon from the RAF, a privately owned BAe Strikemaster and even a Gyrocopter.

All displays combined to provide 5 hours of flying entertainment on both days.

As with previous years there was also plenty to do on the ground with most of the display teams having ground stands along with traders and amusements.

Unfortunately one aspect did slightly dampen spirits and that was the apparent lack of traffic management. Routes in to the event were poorly signposted, especially for the premier parking and traffic leaving the event was all sent in one direction causing chaos at junctions where filtering was required. Something that definitely needs to be looked at for next years event!

Overall the event was popular with good crowds amongst the stands and a very busy beach soaking upon the flying along with the South Wales sunshine.