GREENVILLE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Thanksgiving travel is nothing new for Wisconsinites.
“Just got a new car, going to be taking some travels too for some time off and probably head up to Michigan to our land up there,” Elizabeth Garbers of Neenah said.
For Garbers, that means heading north for the long weekend. She’s one of over 960,000 in the state who will be taking to the road for the holiday. With more people driving this year, the same can also be said about those catching a flight.
“We’re going to see about 12% more passengers get on a plane here in 2023 than we did in 2022,” International Airport Air Service and Business Development Manager Jesse Funk said. “That’s the Sunday through the following Sunday.”
With 16 domestic destinations, Appleton International Airport is flexing its muscles this holiday season. AAA forecasts over one million Wisconsinites will travel for Thanksgiving.
In fact, according to AAA, more than 113,000 Wisconsinites are expected to travel by air. That’s a new record.
“Those eight days and we’ve seen that kind of spread out over the years especially since 2020,” Funk said.
Funk said they’re gearing up for the increased number of passengers.
“We started adding concrete out to the ramp to accommodate the larger aircraft. If we have more aircraft, larger seats, that’s part of the increase. We’ve worked with our airline partners to help them operationally — things like adding ambassadors. So people that can help our passengers with wheelchairs or directions or things like that.”
So what’s behind the increase? Funk says there’s no way to know for sure, but there are some ideas.
“We’ve had tremendous community support for our routes. As the community supports the Appleton airport, the airlines turn around and support the community. They grow flights, they add flights with more seats, things like that. They missed time in the early 2020s so they’re back to doing that and they’re valuing that time and they want to see people face to face.”
Comments