iwm.org.uk
WM Duxford Air Show Notice
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Tickets and Changes
Changes to 2016 Air Shows at IWM Duxford
After the sell-out success of last September’s Air Show we are pleased to announce that tickets are now on sale
for IWM Duxford’s May Air Show as well as the Flying Legends Air Show, organised by the Fighter Collection and
held at IWM Duxford. After new guidelines were introduced regarding Air Shows in September last year, IWM has worked alongside the various agencies and authorities to put in place a number of measures for all of our Air Shows held at IWM Duxford. These measures are being introduced for safety reasonsand also to help improve our visitors’ experiences on the day, following feedback.
In 2015, we introduced advance ticketing only, to help us manage and plan for the best visitor experience
possible, as well helping us to work effectively with Highways England (formerly the Highways Agency) and local
authorities on managing the number of people travelling to and from IWM Duxford.
We’ve continued our work with Highways England, the Police, AA and Civil Aviation Authority to do all that we can
to minimise the traffic on the road and congestion on the M11, A505 and surrounding roads on the
approach to IWM Duxford. This is important for both visitors to the Air Shows at IWM Duxford as well as local residents. We also
hope to minimise the time it takes visitors to enter and exit the car parks which we know has been a source of
frustration in the past. In addition queues or slow moving traffic on the M11 or A505 introduce a new safety risk
and may now result in the Air Show being paused or stopped altogether therefore we need to minimise the
possibility of this occurring.
Once again we encourage people to consider travelling by public transport to IWM Duxford or to take advantage
of the various park-and-ride options available. There are public transport alternatives and you can find out more
about these in our Planning Your Air Show Visit FAQ’s
on the IWM website.
To support the management of traffic and to provide an improved experience for all our visitors, there is now a
limit on car parking places available for the Air Show so everybody wishing to travel by car to an Air Show will now
need to book a car parking ticket in advance. Car parking spaces are limited and subject to availability, so if you
will be travelling by car we strongly advise you to book your car park ing ticket early along with your Air Show
tickets. In order to reflect the increased costs of event and traffic management we have introduced a £5 per car
charge for the car parking at IWM Duxford’s Air Shows. Like the Air Show tickets, car parking tickets
must be purchased in advance. This money will help support IWM in implementing the new safety measures and in
providing additional staff in and around the site to make our visitors’ experience of the day as pleasurable as
possible.
To find out more about
IWM Duxford Air Show tickets, you can visit our Air Show Tickets FAQ’s on the website.
The cost of parking will be included in the higher cost of tickets for Flying Legends, the Air Show organised and
produced by The Fighter Collection and held at IWM Duxford. However, car parking tickets will still need to be
obtained when booking for Flying Legends and there are still a limited number of spaces. The Fighter Collection
are supporting IWM Duxford with the additional safety and improvement costs.
At the end of each of the Air Shows, there will also now be greater opportu
nity to continue to experience some of the exhibitions around IWM Duxford, including the newly transformed American Air Museum (opening on 19 March). We hope that this will encourage visitors to stagger the times at which they leave, which will help to
manage some of the inevitable traffic congestion on the A505 and minimise the waiting time in car parks after
the Air Show. I hope that our visitors will understand and appreciate the reasons behind the changes we have made.
The whole of IWM Duxford, including all of our exhibitions, is open on air show days and it’s all included in your
admission ticket price. Even without 3-and a-half-hours of flying to enjoy, our museum offers a full day out
for the family with lots of things to see and do. You can explore our impressive exhibitions, let off steam in
the museum’s green open spaces or our playground, Activity Zone, enjoy a visit to our restaurant and cafes
or one of the many concessions and stalls on site, all before the flying starts.
IWM Duxford was built by the Royal Air Force in 1918 to help defend and protect Britain and played a major role
during the Second World War in the Battle of Britain. In 1943, the airfield was handed over to the United States
8th Air Force and became the headquarters of the 78th Fighter Group who provided air cover to the Allied Forces
on D-Day. Duxford’s history, buildings, working airfield and the stories they all tell are so important that the site is
now looked after by Imperial War Museums.Today, IWM Duxford welcomes around half a million visitors a year and over 60,000 children through education programmes. Everybody who buys a ticket to an IWM Duxford Air Show, everybody who visits throughout the year and everybody who becomes an IWM Friend is actively contributing to the continued care
and ongoing conservation of this wonderful centre of British Aviation History and the wider work of IWM.
Thank you for your
on-going support.
Graeme Etheridge
Interim Executive Director.
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Ends
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For further press information please contact:
Esther Blaine, PR Manager, IWM Duxford
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01223 499 320/ [email]eblaine@iwm.org.uk[/email]
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