The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has canceled its Rochester, New York, fly-in due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The fly-in was scheduled to take place Sept. 11-12 at Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC). According to AOPA, it will be issuing full refunds to everyone registered for the fly-in.
“As we have anticipated the reopening of most activities following the early COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, our AOPA events team has worked hard to maintain the viability of our Rochester fly-in with the hopes that it could be our first big event of this unique year,” said AOPA President Mark Baker. “This decision was not taken lightly, and it was made in close coordination with all event partners, including Monroe County executives, local and state health departments, and airport/ATC management.”
Baker said factors that went into the decision included current constraints on large-scale events in New York State along with COVID-19-related staffing issues and slowdowns. As previously reported by AVweb, also AOPA postponed its Casper, Wyoming, fly-in until next year and canceled its San Marcos, Texas, fly-in due to COVID-19 concerns. The San Marcos fly-in was originally scheduled for May 29-30 and the Casper event for June 19-20.
New York has recorded over 409K cases and 31k deaths. Cancelling is good ADM AOPA.
Another airshow scratched — certainly disappointing but, as they say in NY, whaddaya gonna do?