Council chiefs say that although "tens of thousands of people" did pay the charge to watch the four day airshow from the enclosure between Eastbourne Pier and the Western Lawns, the event is unlikely to have broken even - let alone made a profit for which the council had budgeted.
Eastbourne Borough Council leader David Tutt said on Tuesday morning, "From a flying point of view, it was a fantastic show and the flying displays were excellent. But in terms of the numbers of people who paid to get in, it was disappointing.
"I want to see the show continue and I hope there is a future for it but there will have to be a full review with all those involved. It is not sustainable for the cost to be met by council tax payers in the long run and we do need to find a sponsor."
Eastbourne Borough Council and tourism chiefs had been hoping for good weather and bumper ticket sales to help pull off the controversial gamble of charging for the event in a bid to turn around the £72,000 loss the show made last year.
But the council had to fork out for a specialist contractor to manage the admission gates, pay £55,000 for suitable fencing and was also hit with a £100,000 bill from Sussex Police for policing the event.
Figures showed the council needed to raise £450,000 in ticket sales to hit a budgeted profit of £191,000.
Advance ticket sales were disappointing and only 13,261 buy-one-get-one-free tickets were snapped up, generating just £33,152.50 for Airbourne coffers.
This was £8,097.50 less than the worst case scenario predicted for pre-Airbourne sales.
Council chiefs drew up an average, best and worst case scenario. Airbourne BOGOF sales were predicted as £101,250; the best BOGOF sales were £142,500 and the worst BOGOF sales were £41,250 - at least £8,000 more than the actual sales.
The decision to charge sparked outrage with many people refusing to pay and simply watching the show from the beaches, promenade and roads outside the enclosure.
Traders inside the enclosure were also furious and there was a "heated meeting" between them and the council's tourism chief Norman Kinnish on Thursday afternoon over the lack of people coming through the gates and poor trade. The traders were offered a discount but many have pledged not to return to Eastbourne next year.
Members of the Internet campaign group I'm Not Paying to Stand on my own Seafront! took advantage of a legal loophole and made their way on to the fenced off beaches at low tide.
There were also angry scenes between stewards who were brought in to marshal the event and people who did not want to pay.
Eastbourne Police Inspector Gary Keating said the event passed off peacefully.
He added, "It was a very safe and peaceful event and we were not called on to respond to any incidents."
The Gazette understands a number of people were let in for free after the flying displays were over and the Royal Air Force is also believed to have purchased a number of tickets and given them free of charge to 17-25-year-olds around Eastbourne as a gesture of goodwill to get them into the show and try to recruit them as this is their target age group.