2025 English Riviera Airshow made £33,000 loss

Torbay’s record-breaking 2025 airshow made a loss of just over £33,000.

The loss comes on top of an allocation of £100,000 from Torbay Council for the show, which had an overall budget of £285,000.
The figures were discussed at a full meeting of the council, where Cllr Swithin Long (Lib Dem, Barton with Watcombe) asked if the ‘overspend’ would fall on the shoulders of local taxpayers.
The 2025 English Riviera Airshow brought record crowds to vantage points around the bay in June and featured aircraft ranging from the Red Arrows to wing-walkers and Royal Navy helicopters.
It is estimated the show generates around £5million for Torbay in terms of spending over the counter at local businesses. Tourism industry experts estimate that for every £1 invested in the show there is a return of £15 to the bay.
The English Riviera BID Company, which is one of the sponsors of the show, says the show provides a strong return on its investment.
The event had been losing hundreds of thousands of pounds in its earlier years, a situation the council said could not continue. In recent years more emphasis has been placed on corporate sponsorship.
Cllr Alan Tyerman (Con, Churston with Galmpton), the cabinet member for finance, said any overspend would be partly absorbed by the council’s revenue budget. An individual budget line may be overspent, he said, but this did not mean the council would be overspent as a whole at the end of the year.
“The important thing is that there is no deficit through council activities in the course of the year,” he added. “We have always found that that can be achieved.”