Held on the golden sands of Surfers Paradise, the inaugural Pacific Airshow Gold Coast took place in front of sell-out crowds between 18 and 20 August.
The airshow is a sister to the Pacific Airshow at Huntington Beach in Southern California, run by the organisers of the US event, Code Four, and the Australian show was launched in April 2022.
The 2021 US event was seen by more than three million people and the show is the only event in the US to win the US Air Force Show Site of the Year, in 2018 and 2019.
In an exclusive interview with ADM on the eve of the three-day event on the Gold Coast, Code Four Chief Executive Officer Kevin Elliott said that while the current contract with the City of Gold Coast is for five years, he wants it to remain there in the future.
“It makes no sense to build something for five years and then just let it go. I’m fully committed to the Gold Coast and I hope this event remains here in perpetuity,” he explained.
“This is more than about aeroplanes, it’s about community: we’re helping to elevate the aviation community. It’s very well positioned, with South East Queensland becoming an aviation hub.”
Although the inaugural show in Australia did not attract the number of military participants that its sister event in the US does, it nevertheless saw participation from the RAAF ‘Roulettes’ aerobatic team, a spectacular flare-drop from a 37 Sqn C-130J-30 Hercules, a flypast from a 36 Sqn C-17A Globemaster III and a dynamic handling display from a 1 Sqn F/A-18F Super Hornet.
Overseas participation included the US Air Force KC-135 Demonstration Team, a C-17A and an MV-228 Osprey from the US Marine Corps, as well as a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-150 Polaris multi-role tanker transport – a precursor to the RAAF’s KC-30A MRTT.
But Elliott said that the event was more than an airshow, with the fostering of Defence recruitment and the local aviation industry as key goals.
“Recruiting is a huge element of this, it’s a major pillar of the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) - we look forward to becoming a major partner to Defence when it comes to recruiting. I think this will become a major tool for that, as it is in the United States, and we’re fully committed to helping them to tackle that further,” he said.
“We also see this as being a great forum for diplomacy, because this is a place where those relationships can be reinforced in somewhat of an informal manner – inviting international participants and allied nations to come and participate in one of the most publicly visible forums on the entire planet, in a place where everyone wants to come to anyway.”