DAYTON — Roughly 85,000 people are believed to have been at the 49th annual CenterPoint Energy Dayton Air Show this weekend, breaking last year’s attendance record.
Show organizers made the announcement Monday, saying while they don’t have official attendance numbers yet, they believe approximately 85,000 were in attendance. Last year, the air show set an attendance record with 83,000 people.
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Scott Buchanan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the United States Air and Trade Show, added that among changes made to this year’s show, the difference in parking and traffic flow helped.
“We’ll know at the latter part of the week here what our exact number is, but I’m safe in saying I think [85,000] is probably a good number for this year,” Kevin Franklin, Executive Director of the CenterPoint Energy Dayton Air Show, told News Center 7′s John Bedell.
“The investment we made with the new entrance for our general admission lot and the three-lane entrance made a huge difference,” Buchanan said.
Now organizers will look to next year’s show which will mark its 50th anniversary.
“We want to do it right. We want to make it bigger, better. We did pretty well this year, so I’m going to have trouble topping the show, but I want to try my best,” Franklin said.
This year’s show was headlined by the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. The United States Navy Blue Angels are already confirmed for next year’s show, but Bedell asked if fans could possibly see more than one jet team, something that hasn’t happened since 2003.
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“That is something that is in the works. We’ve got our applications out there for the show. We do have, right now, interest in a couple other jet teams,” Franklin said.
While he couldn’t give specifics, Franklin said organizers expect to have answers in the fall.
Next year’s show moves back to June and will be June 22-23. Organizers are looking forward to planning and honoring the heritage of flight in Dayton during the 50th-anniversary show.
“I want to get back to the, you haven’t seen it lately, but get back to the saying that ‘Dayton means air show’ because I think it really does,” Franklin said. “And it’s just a great event and we just want to keep it going.”