ORGANISERS of the Clacton Air Show are reassuring flight fans the event will take place later this year.

Doubts were raised after it was announced earlier this week that Southend Air Show would be cancelled due to budget constraints.

Tendring District Council (TDC), which runs the event, said it wants to make it clear the Clacton Air Show will be taking place on August 22 and 23.

Lowestoft revealed last year that it would not be having an air show in 2013 due to rising costs.

Alan Goggin, TDC’s cabinet member for tourism, said that due to hard work and careful budgeting the Clacton Air Show is getting to a point where it is close to breaking even and is sustainable.

“It is fair to say that due to the position that local authorities find themselves in and the very difficult financial times ahead we did have to look seriously at whether we could afford to stage an annual air show ourselves in its current format,” he said.

“We also commissioned a report to find out just how much it is worth to the local economy and discovered it brings in an extra £4million over the two days. It is therefore incredibly important to the District as a whole and we have strived to find ways of reducing costs, increasing revenue and running the event as near to break even as possible.”

Last year Clacton Air Show pulled in crowds over around 130,000 over the two days.

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