Crowd figures from this year's Airventure at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, have once again set new records.
Approximately 640,000 people passed through the gates at Wittman field across the week-long event, a mark which is 6.8% higher than the record set only last year.
According to EAA CEO and Chairman Jack Pelton, the result is a credit to the Airventure team and the local community.
"What I’m most proud of this year is how our volunteers, staff, and the community joined to overcome the challenges resulting from the massive storms that hit the airport and campground just prior to opening day," Pelton said. "It took a true team effort to meet the additional demands on time and resources to provide services to our members and visitors.”
“EAA members and aviation enthusiasts attended in large numbers, and stayed throughout the week. On July 22, we thanked Oshkosh residents for 50 years of support with free opening-day tickets, and more than 8700 of them attended, which equates to 13% of the city’s population.
"Throughout the rest of the week, our efforts to create unique attractions and aviation highlights across the grounds were incredibly successful in creating only-in-Oshkosh moments.”
More than 10,000 aircraft arrived at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh and other airports in east-central Wisconsin. At Wittman alone, there were 16,807 aircraft operations in the 11-day period from 19-29 July, an average of approximately 127 movements per hour.
Of registered overseas visitors, Canada took the crown with 561, followed by Australia with 386 and South Africa with 177. In all, visitors came from 93 countries other than the USA to take in Airventure 2019.
Key Airventure 2019 Numbers
- 2758 planes on show
- 12,300 campsites
- 5500 volunteers contributing 250,000 hours
- 1500 presentations