HILL AIR FORCE BASE — Last week’s news that the 2020 air show at Hill Air Force Base had been canceled wasn’t just a downer for aviation enthusiasts — it will also put a significant dent into Northern Utah’s economy.

On April 3, base officials announced that the 2020 Warriors Over the Wasatch Air and Space Show, which has been scheduled for June 27 and 28, would be canceled due to growing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Col. Jon Eberlan, commander of Hill’s 75th Air Base Wing, said while disappointing, the decision to cancel the show was necessary to protect the public health. Eberlan said base officials are planning to bring the show back in 2022.

The show is typically held every other year, and it’s one of the largest aerial demonstrations in the country. It’s the largest single event in Utah, with regular attendees traveling from all over the western United States and Canada. During the show, the normally secure base opens its gates to the public and tens of thousands of visitors converge on the installation’s flight line. During the 2018 show, base officials estimated more than 565,000 visitors attended the two-day performance — a number that was about 15,000 more than the show’s previous attendance record of 550,000.

Kevin Ireland, executive director of the Utah Air Show Foundation, said the show’s overall economic impact in recent years has been more than $50 million.

“We pull from about a six state area and Canada,” Ireland said. “People plan their vacations around this air show. And that’s people coming from out of town, visiting our hotels, our restaurants.”

The Utah Legislature typically appropriates $200,000 for the show every time it is held. According to legislative documents from the 2019 General Session, the show costs about $700,000 to put on. The documents also confirm Ireland’s $50 million economic impact estimate.

Sara Toliver, president of Visit Ogden, Northern Utah’s foremost convention and visitors bureau, said since the event is free, it’s hard to track exactly how many visitors come to the area and patronize local hotels, restaurants and other businesses, but the number is significant.

“We work with the organizers to arrange rooms for the pilots, and that alone is very impactful for our community” Toliver said. “The show is incredibly important to our Wasatch Front community and to Hill. It’s important for our communities to have an opportunity to visit the base, and yes, be entertained, but also have an opportunity to learn about the critical missions and great work the base accomplishes and how important having them here is to our community.”

Ireland said the cancelation, which he noted will also impact Air Force recruitment efforts, couldn’t be avoided. There are many moving parts involved with the planning, Ireland said, and not being able to hold the meeting amid national social distancing measures made the effort a logistical impossibility.

“It’s not just about the two days in June,” Ireland said. “People have asked, ‘It’s not until June, why make the decision now?’ But what people don’t understand is the tremendous amount of planning that goes into it. And right now, we’re not able to do that.”

Ireland also said holding the show in 2021 wouldn’t work because big name performers like the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels schedule shows in two-year increments.

Meanwhile the Air Show Foundation is giving back contributions already made for this year’s show, some of which, Ireland said, had already been spent.

“It’s definitely a tough situation,” he said. “(The pandemic) has hit the foundation like a lot of other businesses out there.”