RIAT 2019

All you'll ever need to know about the UK's biggest airshow
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pbeardmore
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pbeardmore »

with the price hike they can sacrifice attendance on Friday and still bring in the same money, have not done the exact maths but I guessing if four out of ten people stay away compared to 2018, they are still looking at roughly the same income.

With a 2 year gap, how many punters will remember what they paid 2 years ago? and, there is no actual price rise from last year to nudge their memories.
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Brevet Cable
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Brevet Cable »

Being a cynic - as usual - I'd say there's a simple reason for them continuing to do the Friday, namely because everything ( apart from some of the aircraft ) is already there.
The military personnel, the Air Cadets, the portaloos, the catering outlets, the tat-stalls.....you name it, it's already there and - if needed - paid for.
By opening the showground on the Friday they get money from the punters, they can charge an extra day ( or part of ) for stall/space rental to the businesses there.d by not having the showground open for the full day they don't need to bother with an extra arrivals day.
It's pretty much a no-lose situation for them.
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harkins
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by harkins »

aviodromefriend wrote:
harkins wrote:and will still be the best airshow you'll see in Europe all year (weather depending).
Zeltweg, with a bit of luck Volkel, Sanicole...

We hear this every year. This year Radom and Kleine Brogel were going to make RIAT wish it had never been born and by the time they'd suffered their own string of cancellations and indifferent weather nobody could argue that despite its own issues that RIAT wasn't head and shoulders above everything else.

I'm more than capable and fine with critising RIAT, but even in a bad year it's the best airshow there is.

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Wissam24
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Wissam24 »

harkins wrote:
aviodromefriend wrote:
harkins wrote:and will still be the best airshow you'll see in Europe all year (weather depending).
Zeltweg, with a bit of luck Volkel, Sanicole...

We hear this every year. This year Radom and Kleine Brogel were going to make RIAT wish it had never been born and by the time they'd suffered their own string of cancellations and indifferent weather nobody could argue that despite its own issues that RIAT wasn't head and shoulders above everything else.

I'm more than capable and fine with critising RIAT, but even in a bad year it's the best airshow there is.


Spot on.
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boff180
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by boff180 »

Super Earlybird for Saturday is already 50% sold.

frank
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by frank »

Wissam24 wrote:
harkins wrote:
aviodromefriend wrote:
harkins wrote:and will still be the best airshow you'll see in Europe all year (weather depending).
Zeltweg, with a bit of luck Volkel, Sanicole...

We hear this every year. This year Radom and Kleine Brogel were going to make RIAT wish it had never been born and by the time they'd suffered their own string of cancellations and indifferent weather nobody could argue that despite its own issues that RIAT wasn't head and shoulders above everything else.

I'm more than capable and fine with critising RIAT, but even in a bad year it's the best airshow there is.


Spot on.


Having done three of the above (RIAT, Sanicole and Zeltweg) I have to agree with the last two comments. Zeltweg is different but just doesn't have the scale of RIAT, Sanicole is much much smaller with very limited static. We just take RIAT for granted because we go there every year IMHO.

Airshowhammer

Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Airshowhammer »

boff180 wrote:Super Earlybird for Saturday is already 50% sold.


Absolutley ridiculous. I’ve only just got over the last show! :mad:

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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Flare Path »

boff180 wrote:Super Earlybird for Saturday is already 50% sold.


:lol:

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rockfordstone
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by rockfordstone »

Airshowhammer wrote:
boff180 wrote:Super Earlybird for Saturday is already 50% sold.


Absolutley ridiculous. I’ve only just got over the last show! :mad:


i'm going to pick up mine today as well. taking my brother along for his first RIAT next year so saving 10 quid a day makes sense to me.
i know nothing has been announced, but i would be very surprised if i get there and it turns out to be "Kris Kris Tofferson!"

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pbeardmore
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pbeardmore »

Interesting re the Saturday ticket figures. Does this show that, despite all the stuff/excitement/guesswork on forums like this, the actual content is not that important and many punters are willing to "take a punt"?
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by rockfordstone »

pbeardmore wrote:Interesting re the Saturday ticket figures. Does this show that, despite all the stuff/excitement/guesswork on forums like this, the actual content is not that important and many punters are willing to "take a punt"?

i think based on recent years you can safely take a punt on it.
for me it is unlike the normal duxford shows i go to and even if we don't get a b2 flypast, you can safely assume you are going to get some good fast jets rather than a tiger moth formation.
yes i like to see some real stars in the show, but regardless the package is great

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Brevet Cable
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Brevet Cable »

Just as much a leap of faith as those who renew their FRIAT at the airshow every year.
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Wrexham Mackem
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Wrexham Mackem »

To be honest, its not that much of a leap of faith. What you will get is a world class event, and a quality international airshow. Individual participants vary the flavour every year, but RIAT is still RIAT.

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Adie1980
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Adie1980 »

pbeardmore wrote:Interesting re the Saturday ticket figures. Does this show that, despite all the stuff/excitement/guesswork on forums like this, the actual content is not that important and many punters are willing to "take a punt"?


Or maybe the number of Super Earlybird tickets available have been drastically reduced, thereby forcing loyal attendees into two options:

a). Buy now
b). Wait until next year and pay full price

For years I have bought Super Earlybird tickets at the end of January, Christmas was done & dusted and I knew better what my plans were for the year and whether I could do just one day of RIAT or maybe a couple. I usually ended up doing the Friday + Saturday which has been great value for the last few years.

I just can't help but feel cynical at the way ticketing is being approached this year? Last year was the first time I've booked tickets before Christmas (purely because of the RAF100 hype) but it seems like we're getting a bit taken advantage of with £47 for half an airshow (Friday) and threats of Super Earlybird sellouts in early October.

Anyone else feel the same, or is it just me? :dunno:

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pbeardmore
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pbeardmore »

Very fair point, do they actually publish the numbers of tickets in each tranche? "Half sold out" - half of what?. So either more people are buying tickets earlier or they have effectively put prices up for some people by reducing the amount of early bird tickets on sale.

Their business model re ticekt sales is now so complex compared to "the old days" that its hard to see what the actual trends are and see through the potential spin.
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Brevet Cable
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Brevet Cable »

....its hard to see what the actual trends are and see through the potential spin.

Cynics like me would say that's their intention.
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by MiG_Eater »

Wrexham Mackem wrote:To be honest, its not that much of a leap of faith. What you will get is a world class event, and a quality international airshow. Individual participants vary the flavour every year, but RIAT is still RIAT.


Yep!

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pbeardmore
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pbeardmore »

Considering the low inflation rate and the fact that the ticketing system seems to be fully automated, from an income perspective. I'm not exactly sure what the early bird offer achieves from their point of view. How many of the early bird customers would pay full price if they had to?

Do other events (Grand Prix, Test Cricket) have these schemes ? I have not seen them.
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clearstone
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by clearstone »

The current structure means that each day of the event (if sold out) achieves the same amount of income . Other events do/have used similar sales tactics and split tickets 25% Super Earlybird, 25% Earlybird, 50% Full Price.

The purpose of the differing earlybird rates to is encourage sales over a longer time aiding the cashflow rather than all the sales being last minute.

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pbeardmore
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pbeardmore »

But with bank rates and inflation so low, it's cheaper to borrow the cash (RIAT would have a good credit rating) for 6 months rather than lop £10 off the price of some tickets, £57 to £47 is a huge percentage compared to a business loan.
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pb643
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pb643 »

Just caught up on this thread.

So to summarise DBH are taking the urine in a big way for Friday tickets?!?

I think my unbroken record of IAT/ATI/RIAT attendances since 1989 will not continue into 2019.

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Brevet Cable
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Brevet Cable »

clearstone wrote:...split tickets 25% Super Earlybird, 25% Earlybird, 50% Full Price.
The purpose of the differing earlybird rates to is encourage sales over a longer time aiding the cashflow rather than all the sales being last minute.

Except nowhere is it mentioned by DBH what the percentage is.
To my mind it's scaremongering in order to con people into believing they have to rush out & buy their tickets ASAP or risk being too late ( and this year it's working )
RIAT isn't like a lot of other events, they don't sell all the tickets within an hour of them being released.

This year I bought my tickets early, simply because being the RAF100 I expected DBH to pull out all the stops.
Next year I'll be leaving it a lot later, at least until they've started announcing what aircraft are participating......the only problem is that Kempsford normally starts taking bookings in February.
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pbeardmore
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pbeardmore »

"To my mind it's scaremongering"

But why do this when, in order to do it, you have to cut £10 off the price of a ticket? A quick google shows a small business can borrow at 8.6 % APR (Santander) so I thinkl you are looking at around £2 interest over 6 months. RIAT would be able to get a better deal Im sure. So why sacrifice £10 for the cash flow when £2 is an option?

The other possibility is that there are people who wont actually buy the tickets at full price (I dont beleive this) and so they have to reduce the price in order to sell to this niche market.
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Brevet Cable
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by Brevet Cable »

pbeardmore wrote:But why do this when, in order to do it, you have to cut £10 off the price of a ticket?

Because as I posted, nowhere does DBH say what percentage of tickets is Super-earlybird, Earlybird & full-price nor do they say how many tickets in total are available for each day.
Remember, it's not like it used to be where all the tickets sold before a certain date were discounted -- there are a limited number of each these days.
If the number of tickets which are SE is 25% ( as 'clearstone' speculates ) then 50% of that is only 12.5% of the overall number of tickets available for the Saturday.
What is more likely to get people to rush out and buy tickets - a headline-grabber of "50% of Super-earlybird tickets sold" or "Just over 10% of tickets sold"?

If they sell all the Saturday tickets early by doing this, there's a chance that people will opt for the Sunday tickets instead ( which don't usually sell out )

But then, I'm a cynic.
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pbeardmore
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Re: RIAT 2019

Post by pbeardmore »

Indeed, perhaps Im not explaining this well,

even if a small percantage of tickets are at the super early bird price (the percentage is not the point, the profit margin on each ticekt is the point), what is the financial justification of doing this? when the maths show that its cheaper to borrow money on a temp loan and sell all of the tickets at full price. And this is on the basis that they do have a cash flow issue and dont have the financial reserves to wait a few months for the ticket sales to pick up.

Im struggling to find any similar event that has such a pricing strategy. Especially one where, on the Saturday at least, they actually sell out. When you have an event with a record of selling out (therefore demand is greater than supply), lopping £10 off some of the tickets seems really strange from their persepctive. Dont get me wrong, great for us punters but strange IMHO
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