Thank you, Canada.
With the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels potentially grounded for Fleet Week due to the shutdown of the federal government, San Francisco businesses and visitors are turning their hopeful eyes north.
The Canadian Snowbirds, a team of pilots who similarly perform aerial acrobatics, will be “returning for the first time since 2017,” said David Cruise, a spokesperson for SF Fleet Week, which starts Sunday and runs to Oct. 13.
The Snowbirds’ 30-minute performances (opens in new tab) will feature nine jets executing “dramatic formation changes, breathtaking splits, bursts, and rolls over the waterfront,” said Captain Phil Rochon, the team’s public affairs officer. “Fleet Week offers an ideal stage to highlight the skill, professionalism, and teamwork of the Canadian Armed Forces, while celebrating the strong and enduring ties between our militaries.”
The Patriots Jet Team (opens in new tab), a group of volunteer civilian pilots, will also take to the skies. “The show is going to go on,” said member Cory Lovell. The team will be flying its jets as well as its aerobatic airplanes (opens in new tab), which some people refer to as “flippy floppy” for the way they tumble and roll across the sky.
“There’s going to be people that are happy about [the Blue Angels cancellation], because there’s less noise, and then there will be other people that will be unhappy that they aren’t coming. But there’s still going to be airplanes out there flying, and the weather is supposed to be great.”
The likely diminishment of the air show hurts, Lovell says, but he believes the celebration will offer plenty of entertainment.
“People are in town, so whether they see five hours of an air show, or two and a half hours of an air show, people are still going to show up,” he said.
Small businesses hope so. Fleet Week typically injects about $10 million into the local economy in the form of hotel bookings, watch parties at bars and restaurants, and hot, drunken sailors who tip well.
Pete Sittnick, managing partner of Waterbar and Epic Steak on the Embarcadero, said Fleet Week weekend always drives a surge in sales, as locals and tourists flock to sit bayside to watch the jets. Sailors and Marines stop by too, prompting other patrons to treat them to rounds of oysters or drinks to thank them for their service.
“It’s definitely an economic help for us,” he said. “There’s a special energy and excitement, and it drives business.”
There will “certainly be sadness” that the Blue Angels aren’t performing, he added, but he’s thankful that the show will go on: “We’re grateful that there are still service people and airmen that will go up there and perform.”
Brian O’Rourke, corps planner for the U.S. Navy, noted that SF has “a well-deserved reputation with sailors and Marines as a favorite port visit.”
He added that if the seamen and pilots are kept from the city this year, they will begin planning for Fleet Week 2026 as soon as November.