The event, open to the public from 1pm to 5pm, has been organised by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited in conjunction with the Museum of Islay Life.

Features of this year’s programme are aerobatic displays by a variety of visiting aircraft, a parachute jump by a display team, a simulated cliff rescue by HM Coastguard and a simulated vehicle rescue by Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service.

Visiting aircraft will include a Yak 52, a Beech 18 a Nanchang CJ-6, and an RAF Hawk while Islay Pipe Band will provide entertainment throughout the day.

Islay Airport station manager Andrew Lindsay said: “We’ve got an excellent programme lined up for this year’s open day and air show with a variety of aircraft due to fly into the island for the day. Last year’s show attracted many local residents and visitors to the island and we look forward a similar success on Sunday.”

HIAL has invested more than £3 million at Islay Airport in recent years, including the £2.1 million resurfacing of the airport’s two runways that was completed in December 2002 and the £750,000 terminal upgrade and extension completed in 2004.

In the year ending 31 March 2005, Islay Airport handled 22,145 passengers and 2,410 individual aircraft movements, including scheduled, charter, general aviation, military and air ambulance flights.

Islay received its first recorded flight in July 1928. Midland Scottish Air Ferries operated the island’s first scheduled flight on 16^th May 1933, arriving from Renfrew via Campbeltown. Two days earlier, on 14^th May 1933, the island’s first air ambulance flight, using a De Havilland Dragon aircraft, landed on the beach at the head of Lochindaal to collect a local fisherman suffering from abdominal pains.

The airport at Gelegadale opened for business in 1935 and was taken over by the RAF during World War Two. The hard runways that exist today at Islay originally date from 1940. The Avro Ansons of 48 Squadron, Beaufighter and Beaufort aircraft of 304 Ferry Training Unit used the new runways while flying boats of 119 Squadron landed in nearby Laggan Bay. By 1944 the airfield was under the control of Coastal Command and included three runways and six hangars. Personnel stationed there included 266 WAAF and 1,113 RAF servicemen.

Many different aircraft have used Islay Airport over the decades, ranging from a Hercules and a BAE 146 jet of the Royal Flight to the smallest microlights. Loganair now uses Saab 340s for scheduled flights to Glasgow and many charter aircraft from the UK and overseas land at the airport. Scottish Air Ambulance Service planes and helicopters are regular visitors along with a variety military and private aircraft.

The terminal building at Islay has also developed over the years and is now unrecognisable from the wooden hut that first welcomed passengers in 1935.