St. Thomas air parade postponed to May 15

St. Thomas Air Fest Salute to All Essential Workers, a parade of planes over that city, has been postponed until Saturday, May 15.

The event, featuring a Royal Canadian Air Force C-130H and a variety of other aircraft, had been planned for this Saturday, April 10.

In a statement, the Air Fest board said, “For the health and safety of our pilots, volunteers and the general public, we have decided to postpone our event.”

“While we remain confident that the ‘salute’ is a safe event for all involved, it would be a disservice to the essential workers that we are honouring if we were to proceed with the event during a stay-at-home order. We are at a critical moment of the pandemic. There is a record number of ICU cases across the province and cases continue to rise. In postponing this event until after the end of the stay-at-home order we are not only encouraging everyone to remain safe, but also supporting the efforts of all our essential workers.”

Many of the aircraft to have been featured on April 11 had already confirmed their willingness to fly on May 15 instead, including the RCAF Hercules, the statement noted.