The show — the Hawaii Airshow Invitational — will go on, just not this year.
Founder, president and CEO Terri Thomas-Mahoney said the timing required to get the permits for the 2012 show, combined with the need to secure additional sponsors, just didn’t work out this year. But the show will return in 2013.
“We had four months to pull up any kind of funding,” she said, adding she needed about $100,000 in sponsorships. “Everything that allowed the show to go was privately funded last year.”
About 8,000 people attended the inaugural event in May 2011, she said. Similarly sized, new airshows on the mainland might attract about 10,000 attendees, so the Kona show came close. She had no attendance expectations for the show, she added.
“It was an absolutely stellar show on all levels,” Thomas-Mahoney said.
The show’s website, hawaii-airshow.com, got about 2,000 new hits last month, which Thomas-Mahoney said is a sign of community interest for a new show. Information about becoming a sponsor, and Thomas-Mahoney’s contact information, is also available on the site. So far, she’s converted about 75 percent of the potential 2012 sponsors into 2013 sponsors.