THE Bournemouth Air Festival has attracted a major sponsor as the countdown continues to Thursday, August 18, and the start of the four-day air spectacular.

National Express, the UK’s largest coach operator, announced today that it had become an official sponsor of the Daily Echo-backed event.

Coaches from the company’s Bournemouth fleet will sport a special air festival livery, and customers will be offered a 50 per cent discount from June 1 to July 31.

Jonathan Pollard, the company’s head of business development, said: “The decision to become involved in the Bournemouth Air Festival was an easy one to make for National Express. “We serve the majority of the areas that people travel from to the festival, and the size of the audience makes this a hugely exciting and attractive prospect to us.

“We’re really proud to offer our customers the chance to visit such a fantastic event at half the usual cost, and are looking forward to this being the start of a great relationship with the Bournemouth Air Festival.”

This year’s festival could be the biggest yet, with the Red Arrows flying all three days, and two ‘dusk displays’ planned for Thursday, August 18, and Friday, August 19.

The backing of the coach giant, which links over 1,000 destinations, including major cities and airports across the country, and, serves more than 500 destinations across Europe and North Africa, was welcomed by air festival director, Jon Weaver.

“Having such a recognisable brand as National Express sponsoring the Air Festival is terrific,” he said. “They have a huge number of customers and are ideally placed to spread awareness of the event across the country.

“The 50 per cent travel discount is a superb offer and the more people who take advantage of that, the less congestion we get, so having National Express as a sponsor is a double win for us.”

Visit bournemouthair.co.uk for more information.