Eastbourne Borough Council has brought in an admission charge for the four-day airshow for the first time ever in a bid to boost the council coffers, but figures seen by the Herald this week reveal it needs to raise £450,000 in ticket sales to hit a budgeted profit of £191,000.
Tickets are £5 per person per day and spectators will go into a fenced-off enclosure on the seafront between Eastbourne Pier and the Western Lawns.
But the council has had to fork out £55,000 for suitable fencing and hiring equipment, pay for a specialist contractor to manage the admissions gates and has also been hit with a £100,000 bill from Sussex Police for policing the event and £10,000 for ambulance hire. In all this year's airshow is costing £250,000 more to stage than last year's event.
The council needs to hit ticket sales targets to make a profit and is hoping good weather and record attendances will help it achieve that goal.
There has been ongoing controversy since the council first announced it would charge for the airshow in a bid to turn around a £70,000 loss from last year
The 2007 event cost the council almost £320,000 to put on but brought in revenue of only £250,000, resulting in a loss of £72,000.
Council chiefs argued council taxpayers should not have to meet the cost - and losses - of staging the airshow and a £5 per day charge would be implemented for the first time this year. Residents can buy two tickets for that price using a coupon in the Herald.
In the show's budget, council chiefs estimated this year's Airbourne would cost a similar amount to last year to stage but were then hit with an unexpected bill of £100,000 from the police force, which says that because the event is now a commercial money-making venture for
the council, it will not provide its services for free.
The council also underestimated the cost of fencing and a budgeted cost of £31,000 is in reality now costing £55,000.
It was also revealed this week that councillors on Eastbourne Borough Council have been offered two free tickets to visit the airshow on the day of their choice. Many have said they would not be taking up the offer.
An online Internet group called I'm Not Paying to Stand on my own Seafront! set up on Facebook now has more than 2,000 members and as well as collecting signatures from residents who do not want to pay to watch the airshow will stage a second gathering on Sunday on the Wish Tower slopes at 2.30pm.