Airshow victim of its own success

The fallout has already begun over the traffic chaos from the Royal New Zealand Airforce 75th Anniversary Airshow held at Ohakea over the weekend - but it would be a shame if these concerns overshadowed what was clearly an enormously successful event.

The show combined static and aerial displays, utilising air forces from five different countries, and saw tens of thousands of people head to Ohakea, in the process causing traffic gridlock stretching for kilometres along State Highway 3 and State Highway 1, and huge delays for motorists.

The delays prompted some people to get out of their vehicles and walk to the airbase, while others just gave up and turned around.

The defence force has since promised to offer refunds to those people who bought tickets, but were unable to make it to the show.

It would be easy to criticise the airshow organisers in the wake of the traffic problems caused by the show.

But perhaps it would be better to congratulate them on staging a successful event, albeit one which became a victim of its own success.

Ohakea is not the easiest place to organise vehicle access to, so it's questionable whether there was much more organisers could have done.

Perhaps running buses to ferry patrons to and from the base might be an option for any future airshows.

In recent years there's been doubt about the future of this country's armed forces, as our role in world affairs became firmly focused on peacekeeping duties. But regardless of where our military now fits in the bigger global picture, the turnout to the airshow over the weekend goes to prove that the air force, and most likely the rest of our military forces, still hold a special place in the hearts of many New Zealanders.

We're unlikely to see a show of this scale again for some time - logic would suggest perhaps 25 years.

Lessons will undoubtedly have been learned to ensure that any other events held at Ohakea, even those on a smaller scale, will be less likely to lead to the same sort of problems as occurred over the weekend.

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