Definately an excuse. The Sunderland Airshow had been in decline for a number of years before the universal covid/climate change excuse. During the 2019 airshow, a BAC Strikemaster burst at tyre on landing at Newcastle airport which caused a number of diversions on a peak weekend at the end of July.
Having said that, I have some very fond memories of the Sunderland Airshow which formed part of my childhood. Some of my recollections from past shows include:
B52 Flypast
F117A Flypast
Concorde Flypast
Sea Harrier and GR7 Duo
SU27 Anatoli Kovatur
SU26 Sventlana and Nikolia Timofeev
Jaguar
Tornado F3
Tornado GR1/4 then Role demo
Hawk
Tucano
Nimrod
BBMF
Red Arrows
RAF Falcons + Hercules Flypast
Red Devils
Black Cats Lynx
Blue Eagles 4× Gazelles 1x Lynx
Typhoon
Sea King SAR Demo
Chinook
Merlin
Belgian F16
Dutch F16
Danish F16
Patroulle Chysteline Fouga Magister trio
Dutch F27 shutting down an engine
Dutch PC-7
Belgian Fouga Magister
Catalina
B-17
Gill Air ATR
Eastern J41
DHL 757
Blenheim/Lysander Duo
Meteor/Vampire Duo
Vulcan- Boring
Royal Jordanian Falcons
Miss Demeanour Hunter F58
Fairey Swordfish
Fairey Firefly
Hawker Sea Fury
Hawker Sea Hawk
Will Curtis SU26
Nanchang CJ6
Christen Eagle
Newcastle Aero Club
Utterly Butterly Wing Walkers
Saab Drakken
Strikemaster Pair
Jet Provost Pair
Glider team (Guy Westgate)
Matadores 2x SU26
Mig 15
F-86 Sabre
Norwegian Vampire pair
Swiss PC-7 Team
Swedish Saab 105
P-40 Peter Teichman
Air Ambulance twin squirrel operating from arena
All in all, some impressive line ups over the years. Anyone got any more to add to the list?