This hasn't just been an afternoon's rain, but three days of heavy, at times non-stop water coming from the sky, the car parks are absolutely trashed, and there are no alternatives available to them, flat usable fields are in rather short supply and the farmers in the area inflate their prices for RIAT to use them. There are no large expanses of concrete in the area for quite a few miles around, and I don't see a big storage yard of buses ready at a moment's notice to bring the punters in from a remote site.
Bear in mind that this is the first time an IAT/RIAT has been cancelled but not the first time that heavy rain has dogged the show. The difference was that the organisers could park the cars on the vast expanses of concrete that were available at Fairford but the USAF, now there is even more concrete available, but USAF insists that parking must be off-field, in the name of security, odd when at other events that the USAF participate still allow on-field parking, clearly questions need to be asked of our 'friends' across the pond.
RIAT made the right decision whether the moaners like it or not, fingers crossed for a show on Sunday, not looking likely though when more rain has fallen here today.