Red Arrows air show for Volvo week is shot down

By Dara Bradley

High-hopes that the world famous Red Arrow jets would be returning to the skies of Salthill for the finale of the Volvo Ocean Race have been shot down.

The organisers of this Summer’s Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Galway confirmed to the Sentinel that the RAF (Royal Air Force) will not be performing their aerobatic display over Galway Bay. The Red Arrows wowed tens of thousands of spectators who lined the Promenade in Salthill during the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race – it was one of the highlights of the two-weeks Galway leg of the yacht race stopover.

The Red Arrows had again been requested to perform an aerobatic display as part of this Summer’s Ocean Race and they initially said yes but have since informed the organisers that it will not be possible this year.

It is understood the show will not go ahead because of ‘operational reasons’ – the RAF is understood to be reducing the number of performances it puts on this year because of a shortage in pilots that are trained to do the displays.

The organisers of the Volvo Race have also scotched rumours that another international airforce, other than the RAF, was being lined up to replace the Red Arrows.

John Killeen of Let’s Do It Galway confirmed that the Red Arrow show has been removed from the Volvo Race programme for this year. “There was a proposal that we would have the Red Arrows in Galway during the Volvo finale; that proposal was never finalised. There will be no air show as part of the Volvo Race this year.

“We’d asked them to be involved and they’ve not confirmed one way or the other but it is my belief that it (Galway) is not part of the RAF’s schedule. It is not part of our programme . . . it has been taken out of the programme,” he said.

Asked was an airshow by an airforce from a different country being lined-up to take over from the RAF, Mr Killeen said: “There have been lots of proposals and lots of ideas about a lot of things . . . but there will be no airshow as part of Volvo Race schedule.”

The Galway Alliance Against War issued a statement last week saying that the RAF and, what it called another “war outfit”, was lined up for an airshow in the Volvo Race.

Mr Killeen yesterday clarified that that would not be the case and he stressed the decision not to go ahead with the aerobatic show was unrelated to the media statement by GAAW.