THOUSANDS of Islanders and visitors will pack the south coast today for one of the highlights of the calendar – the Jersey International Air Display.

Clear and sunny skies are forecast and the Falcons parachute team will kick off the event by dropping out of a Dakota at 12.45. The action will finish at around 5 pm with the crowd’s favourites, the Red Arrows. For event organiser Mike Higgins, today represents the culmination of a year’s hard work. He said: ‘Everything seems to have gone to plan so far, but you can never tell until it starts. ‘Unfortunately we have lost the Flybe Embraer E195. It won’t be used in the display because it now has to be used to fly passengers, because one of their planes was grounded yesterday. ‘This year’s display will cater for everyone. We have parachutes, helicopters, jets, old war birds and passenger planes. This morning I was told that we have more airliners taking part than any other display since 1985.’