EAA Fly-In Attendance Up In 2017

According to the Experimental Aircraft Association, 590,000 people attended this year’s Airventure fly-in in Oshkosh.

EAA spokesman Dick Knapinski says some special attractions this year and good weather for most of the seven days of the convention boosted attendance 5 percent over last year. The Navy’s Blue Angels and Apollo astronauts reunion were a couple of the features at this year’s event.

Knapinski added that more than 70 percent of attendees came from outside of Wisconsin, “so it’s not just simply Wisconsin residents exchanging money with each other.” Instead, Knapinski said, “it’s new tourism dollars coming in.”

Knapinski cited a study from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh that showed the annual air show brings in up to $110 million to the state as a whole.

During the fly-in, Oshkosh’s normally sleepy Wittman Field becomes the country’s busiest air control tower. Knapinski said 10,000 planes landed at Wittman and at nearby airports in Appleton and Fond du Lac, which also benefited from the traffic.

“They’re selling fuel and so forth and it helps those airports,” he said, adding that other businesses like hotels also see a boost.

Besides the astronauts and Blue Angels, an appearance by comic book legend Stan Lee was also a draw, Knapinski. Lee was promoting a new character called Aviore as a way to promote the EAA’s Young Eagles program to get kids interested in aviation.