Organizers for the Rocky Mountain Airshow have cancelled this year’s event, one that created a traffic nightmare in Aurora in 2015.
Officials for the event have not said why the show, which was held at Aurora Reservoir at the end of May last year, is being nixed.
But the U.S. Navy Office of Community Outreach issued a press release this week saying the Blue Angels would not participate after Denver Navy Week was cancelled for 2016.
was a headache for people trying to get to the show off of East Quincy Avenue, east of E-470. People waited for up to three hours to get to the show and some were turned away altogether because of the traffic nightmare.
Quincy is a two-lane highway and saw 22,000 vehicles May 30 and 32,000 vehicles May 31. Gun Club Road, another access point to the area, is also two lanes.
Aurora city officials estimate it would cost $60 million to improve those roads.
The 2015 Rocky Mountain Airshow was the first time in 18 years that the Thunderbirds, a fighter jet team, participated in the event.
“The city of Aurora is disappointed that we were not able to finalize plans with the organizers of the Rocky Mountain Airshow for 2016 due to contract and scheduling issues,” the city said in a statement. “We are optimistic about the possibility of hosting exciting air shows at this beautiful site in the future.”
It was not clear when the Rocky Mountain Airshow would return to fly over the skies of Colorado. Organizers of the event did not return phone calls for comment.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or @cillescasdp
