Organizers say airshow draws more than 7,000

MOSES LAKE — More than 7,000 people attended this year’s Moses Lake Airshow — many of them from far outside the area — and hotels across Moses Lake were sold out during the air show weekend, but event organizers don’t know yet whether this year’s air show broke even or made money.

“Right now we’re getting our money back,” airshow organizer Terry Quick told Port of Moses Lake commissioners during a regular meeting Monday morning. “We pay our bills and hopefully there’ll be a little leftover to start for next year.”

Those bills so far have exceeded $100,000, Quick said, including $37,700 in complimentary tickets given away, $15,500 for onsite communications, $13,000 for local marketing, an estimated $12,000 for fuel, $9,200 to buy local hotel rooms for performers and their staff, $9,200 for catering, $8,150 for security, and $4,200 for rental cars.

“And I'm still waiting for bills for three of my hotels. So that number is going to go up significantly,” he said.

However, Quick said the air show is proving to be a tourist draw to the region, and 7,098 people attended this year’s event. Since all the show’s tickets this year were sold online, Quick said show organizers were able to track who bought them, roughly 42% of all tickets were purchased by people living at least 50 miles away from Moses Lake — including employees of the air show’s two main sponsors, Seattle-based Boeing and Richland-based Gesa Credit Union.

“Locally in Grant County, only 20% of the tickets purchased were local. So clearly, we're far exceeding what we expected. I mean, we knew we were drawing people from out of town, but not to that extent,” Quick said.

Quick told commissioners that it’s difficult to measure the knock-on effects of the air show — money spent on hotel rooms, restaurants and other local amenities by visitors who came to see the planes — but noted that some hotel rooms that weekend were being booked for $230 per night and reportedly sold out because it was an airshow weekend.

“The main reason that we started this airshow was the port had an interest in creating economic impact in the community, which basically gets down to tourism, and the tourism impact on this particular show,” he said.

The Moses Lake Airshow was first held in 2019 and has been held every year since except for 2020 when it was canceled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Port of Moses Lake, which hosts the airshow but does not organize it, will continue to support the show but commissioners expressed concern over the show’s ability to finance itself in the future.

“How long do we support this?” asked Commissioner David “Kent” Jones. “How long is it supposed to take to become self-sustaining?”

While no one had any answers, Port of Moses Lake Finance Director Kim DeTrolio made a suggestion.

“Five to seven years,” she said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.