OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — EAA AirVenture is over.
It was the first time the event has been held since 2019 after the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the 2020 event.
CEO Jack Pelton says it went very well.
“24 months is a long time to not do something that is as big and as complicated, and has as many moving pieces as this has,” EAA CEO Jack Pelton said. “Certainly coming off the pandemic year, we had a lot of challenges this year. Probably one of the things I’m most proud of is that we put in place a lot of plans for things like weather, and things like parking and what would happen if we did have events that came up and I think that the team here at EAA executed it flawlessly, especially when you look at Wednesday night.”
EAA visitor Phil Klump was happy to return to EAA after last year’s event was canceled.
“It’s refreshing that things are getting back to normal,” Klump said.
Klump has been coming to the event for at least 25 years.
“My dad used to be a private pilot in St. Louis and we flew in. Then when he sold the plane, we motorcycled up several years,” Klump said.
EAA is closing out 2021 with 608,000 people in attendance.
Visit Oshkosh Executive Director Amy Albright says EAA has a major impact on the area’s economy.
“Pretty much every hotel room in the surrounding areas is full, our restaurants have been packed, the fuel that is sold this week, the groceries, the landscaping that is put in out here, I mean you name it,” Albright said,
Albright, and the other 600,000 attending fans are happy to be back.
Pelton says the event had almost 17,000 planes on the ground.
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