Kalispell Chamber angles for air show during 2013

The economic downturn in the Flathead led to a decision last June by officials at the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce not hold an air show here this summer.

In December 2009 Kalispell had been approved to host the Navy Blue Angels, among other air performance groups, for a show during the last weekend of July.

The Chamber needed to raise between $300,000 and $400,000 to host the air show, Kalispell Chamber President Joe Unterreiner said Tuesday.

As he and other Chamber personnel went out testing the market last spring and summer, it became apparent the business community couldn’t afford to make the necessary donations, he said.

So, in June 2010, the Navy was notified that Kalispell couldn’t host the show, allowing the show to go to another interested community.

Instead the Blue Angels will headline an air show in Great Falls July 30-31.

Chamber officials are applying to host an air show here in 2013, Unterreiner said.

Part of the process includes raising the money to pay for the show, he said. Among the costs the Chamber has to cover for an air show are rooms, cars and meals for the pilots as well as participants who provide the static displays. That’s about 125 people, he said.

The chamber also incurs marketing and advertising costs, costs for such things as tents, portable toilets and other equipment needed at the show. Fuel costs are a big part of the price tag, as is insurance, he said.

The chamber is committed to the idea of holding an air show in Kalispell, Unterreiner said. “But we need community support.”

Pilots like coming to Kalispell for air shows, he said, and the city is a popular site for air shows. But inadequate funding would result in diminished quality of the show, which is not what anyone wants to see, he said.