The organizers of the annual Atlantic City Airshow surprised many last week when they announced the 2024 show had been canceled, only a month before it was to take place.
The Greater Atlantic City Chamber, Visit AC and the South Jersey Transportation Authority, the three major organizers of the event, issued a terse news release announcing the cancellation. The reason given was “the withdrawal of a major act.”
While the reasons for the cancellation have been questioned by some, the reality is: Losing the show will hurt Atlantic City and the military.
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Smalls has estimated in the past that the airshow generates an approximately $50 million windfall for the local economy. He said about 485,000 people trekked to Atlantic City for the 2023 show.
In 2019, the Atlantic City Chamber commissioned a study of the economic impact of the Atlantic City Airshow. The study calculated the direct spend of the 174,960 nonlocal attendees that year to be $27.4 million and the total spend for activities related to the air show to be $72 million.
Among the study’s conclusions, the airshow accounted for 23,098 room nights at hotels, $2.9 million generated in tax revenue and 668 jobs directly supported.
The other big loser is the military.
The armed forces consider airshows an effective recruiting tool, and this is not a good time for the military to lose effective recruitment tools.
Last December, Ashish Vazirani, the Department of Defense’s acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness, testified before Congress that the military services had missed its collective recruiting goals by 41,000.
That is why airshows continue across the nation, including the one hosted biannually at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Airshows draw not only potential airmen and -women, but also students interested in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
At the last Joint Base airshow, in May 2023, dozens of students from area high schools were treated to a variety of STEM-related technological demonstrations.
The benefits of the Atlantic City Airshow are tangible and important.
It is incumbent on all the players involved to get the show back on the calendar for 2025, even if that means moving the show to a weekend to accommodate the big-time airshow performers.
Making such a move will not be logistically easy, but the revenue numbers suggest it may be worth the effort.
