Virginia Regional Festival of Flight Shelved for One Year

February 18, 2015 – The annual Virginia Regional Festival of Flight scheduled to take place May 30-31 at Suffolk Executive Airport has been canceled by the Virginia Aviation Council. In a February 13 announcement, the council decided to forgo holding the 2015 event “so that it can be refocused to encourage additional participation and new activities.”

Randall Burdette, executive director of the Virginia Department of Aviation, and Ray Batton, president of the Virginia Aviation Council, plan to invite more aviation-oriented organizations to participate in the planning process, set to begin this spring. The aim is to identify ways to grow and re-brand the event for 2016, while developing opportunities to attract young people to flying and providing information about careers in aviation.

The non-profit Virginia Aviation Council was formed in 1996 and organized the first Virginia regional fly-in the following year at Dinwiddie County Airport. The event has been held continuously since then with the exception of 2004 due to Hurricane Ivan, and 2007, the year it announced its move to Suffolk.