Great Georgia Airshow cancels 2012 edition

Print
E-mail

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Great Georgia Airshow, the annual fall event at Peachtree City’s Falcon Field, has been put on hiatus for 2012.

Enlarge photo

Rob Holland, in the Veteran Home Loans MX2 acrobatic plane, front, and Chris Avery, in a FG1D Corsair, flew past Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, as they prepared for The Great Georgia Air Show. The 2012 edition has been canceled.

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com Rob Holland, in the Veteran Home Loans MX2 acrobatic plane, front, and Chris Avery, in a FG1D Corsair, flew past Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, as they prepared for The Great Georgia Air Show. The 2012 edition has been canceled.

Photos: Scenes from 2008 airshow

More Atlanta area news »

In a prepared statement posted on the air show's Facebook page, organizers promised that the show would return in 2013. Held the second weekend of October, the event began in 1998 and in recent years has drawn a crowd of 25,000 over its three-day run.

The air show said its board decided to take a year off to conduct “a comprehensive review of all processes and put into place the level of volunteer effort, marketing, sponsorship and community support which would make the show a truly successful venture for all involved.”

Angie Faulise, director of the event, said in a phone interview Tuesday night with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the decision against holding a show this year was not a financial one. She noted that the 2011 show turned a profit.

However, Faulise said, "we really felt we needed this year to conduct a thorough review of our organization and our processes."

"We’ve had a strong, strong profit in the past," she said, "but in any organization, there is a typical life cycle. With an air show, it’s about 15 years. We just hosted our 14th annual show. The board of directors felt it was in our best interest to do the thorough review and ensure we’re in the best condition we can be to host a show in 2013 and particularly beyond 2013."

The event is a non-profit effort put on by the Kiwanis Club of Peachtree City and the Dixie Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, based at Falcon Field. Proceeds from the show support the Dixie Wing’s efforts to restore and maintain its World War II-era vintage aircraft.