A RECORD number of visitors is expected at this weekend's Royal International Air Tattoo.

The airshow, which takes place from Friday, July 13 to Sunday, July 15 at RAF Fairford, has already sold out for the Saturday.

In 2017, 160,000 people visited the sold out airshow but this year the capacity on the Friday has been increased to meet demand as the nation gears up to celebrate 100 years of the RAF at a series of high-profile official national events taking place next month.

Highlights at the airshow will be a massed RAF100 flypast, a royal review and parade by the Queen’s Colour Squadron on the Friday plus a series of unique aerial set pieces over the weekend.

Adding an ‘international’ flavour to the RAF’s centenary celebrations will be more than 25 nations, including Ukraine, Canada, Australia, Romania, Greece, Oman and the US who are all sending military aircraft to take part.

Head of Air Tattoo Marketing Helen Webb said it was clear the public were excited by the opportunity to being part of the RAF’s centenary celebrations and this has led to a record demand for tickets to the three-day event.said: “Whilst every Air Tattoo is special, it’s not every day that we get the chance to stage such an important national salute. As a result, we’ve made the Friday a full public day, for this year only, and extended our free child ticket policy to include all accompanied under-18s.

“It’s a testament to the Air Tattoo’s reputation that we’ve already sold out on the Saturday, and only have a limited number of tickets remaining for the Friday and Sunday despite the fact we’ve still to formally announce details about the flypast as well as our other exciting plans for the show.”

The Air Tattoo is staged annually in support of the RAF Charitable Trust.

A limited number of Friday and Sunday tickets and enclosure options are available. For airshow information and ticket details, visit airtattoo.com.