KEY POINTS:
The promoter of a postponed Waikato air show has gone to ground as anxious sponsors and ticket holders demand answers.
Ken Ross, who failed to get resource consent for his Wings and Wheels over Waikato, has not been seen or heard from for days despite a number of
people wanting to hear from him.
Billed as one of the country's biggest air shows, the event was postponed this week and the show's website said new dates were yet to be confirmed.
The Herald understands sponsors have invested more than $250,000 and fans have spent more than $500,000 on tickets for the March 7 to 9 event.
But as of yesterday, both groups were still in the dark as to what was happening with their money and tickets.
Grant Hall of the Good Water Company, which pumped in $25,000 for the right to sell water at the event, said Mr Ross was proving a "pretty hard guy to track down".
"It's pretty devastating for a company like us," said Mr Hall.
The company plans to raise $1 million in five years for the Sir Peter Blake Trust and saw the air show as a "great opportunity" to market its bottled water.
Wellington ticket holder Tom Ludlow, who spent more than $600 on two gold passes for two days at the show and hundreds more on flights and accommodation, said the news was "a real disappointment".
The service technician and amateur photographer, who follows air shows around the country, was hoping to take his 83-year-old father along.
Mr Ludlow thought the no-show could harm the country's reputation with overseas aircraft enthusiasts.
The Herald yesterday visited two Hamilton addresses where Mr Ross is believed to have been living and working from, but the promoter was not at either of them.
Several Herald phone calls and an email to Mr Ross also went unanswered.
A neighbour at Mr Ross' Hamilton apartment said he'd seen several people show up at his door demanding to know what was going on.
"We started wondering why he was parking his car down the road and no longer in the driveway," he said.
But John Pringle, who is an event subcontractor, said he had spoken to Mr Ross in Auckland on Wednesday night and had been given assurances that ticket holders' money was in a trust account.
He said Mr Ross was about to send an email to ticket holders explaining how their tickets would still be honoured at any future shows, the first of which should happen "within the next 12 months".
Mr Pringle blamed a "vexatious use of the Resource Management Act" for the air show's problems and a hungry media who hadn't given Mr Ross a fair break.
Waipa District Council communications adviser Niki Davidson said the council had not officially been told of the postponement and was still trying to process the resource consents.
She said a number of staff had put in "quite a bit of effort" but a Monday morning deadline had been imposed.
Mr Ross was this week invited to a meeting at the council with affected parties but failed to show up.
INTO THIN AIR
* Sponsors and ticket holders have been searching in vain for airshow promoter Ken Ross
* The March 7-9 show has been postponed with no new date set
* Sponsors are understood to have invested more than $250,000
* Fans are thought to have paid more than $500,000 on tickets
