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Date: 6/12/2015
CHICOPEE – Now that the dust has settled, the impacts of the Great New England Air Show are being seen.
For some businesses, the air show was a boon, but for others the traffic along Memorial Drive, the traffic created a challenge for businesses.
According to a statement by Budd Schuback, president of the Galaxy Community Council on its website, “It was arguably the most complicated and successful air show ever to take place at Westover.” The nonprofit support organization helps organize the show.
This edition of the air show proved to be a record-breaking. Lt. Col. James G. Bishop, chief of Public Affairs at Westover Air Reserve Base, told Reminder Publications, “We estimate that about 150,000 people came on Saturday and 225,000 came on Sunday. The air show was really a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of four major flying acts, any of which could have been the standalone headline act: the Canadian Snowbirds, the USAF F-22, the Canadian CF-18 and the Navy Blue Angels. Last air show, we had none of those. And last air show, about 200,000 total attended, fewer than the crowd on Sunday alone this year.”
Bishop said that a date for the next air show hasn’t been set as yet but it may not be for another three years. Next year, Barnes Air National Guard Base will host an air show.
Eileen Drumm, president of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, said the only complaint about the air show was the traffic, but noted that along the major highways signs warned of delays for motorists.
Holly Carroll, the general manager of the 99 Restaurant on Memorial Drive, did say that sales were down the weekend of the air show.
“There was too much traffic on the roads,” she said. “It was bumper-to-bumper for hours.”
If it had been raining, she said the restaurant would have had a good weekend. The “perfect weather” brought out more people to the air show and to Memorial Drive.
Laurie Richardson, the manager of the Hampton Inn, said the air show “always helps” in helping to fill the hotel. She noted the weekend of the air show was a “huge graduation week,” during which there was already “high demand on the entire region.”
“All of the surrounding hotels were in the same boat we were,” she said.