Australia's largest annual air show, Wings over Illawarra (WOI), today became the latest air show to be canceled or postponed due to the spread of COVID19.
WOI was scheduled to go ahead at Shellharbour Airport 2-3 May.
Event organiser Bright Events issued the following statement this morning, stating that the show was being postponed to a later date rather than canceled completely.
"In the interests of Public Health and the directive of the Federal Government Wings Over Illawarra 2020 is being postponed," the announcement says.
"In an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 the Federal Government has made the decision to ban non-essential gatherings of more then 500 people.
"At this stage we have no idea on how long this ban will be in effect, and considering the risk to public health, along with the potential of travel bans being introduced, we feel it is in the best interests of the public and the future of the event to postpone the event until later in the year.
"We would like to emphasize that we are postponing the event and not canceling it.
"We have been in discussions with all our stakeholders over the weekend in an attempt to lock in a suitable date as soon as possible, and as you can imagine there are a number of parties that need to be consulted before dates can be released.
"We anticipate being in a position to announce the new dates within a couple of days, so please bear with us while we finalise all the details."
WOI regularly attracts thousands of visitors to the Illawarra region each year and is one of the largest events on the Australian aviation calendar.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of news that the Latrobe Valley Air Show scheduled for 5 April will not go ahead and the iconic Warbirds over Wanaka in NZ at Easter has also been called off.
Update 18 March 2020
Wings over Illawarra 2020 has been rescheduled for 7-8 November 2020.