FOND DU LAC COUNTY (NBC 26) — The Fond du Lac County Airport is planning to expand with new projects in the coming years, airport manager Bryan Linger said.
- The county is developing plans to create infrastructure that will allow companies to build commercial hangars at the airport.
- A new taxiway would allow access to 20 acres of land.
- Fond du Lac's EAA chapter president says this could help attract more pilots during AirVenture.
"That's our goal, is to get more business here,” Linger said.
Linger said the county recognized a need at the airport.
"We ran out of commercial hangar area for development here,” linger said.
Linger said they're developing plans to build a roughly 2500 foot taxiway that will allow planes to access 20 acres of land that’s currently an empty field.
He said the goal is to create infrastructure that will allow companies to build commercial hangars.
Linger said some of the money from fuel sold at the airport goes back to the county, so more planes would be beneficial for the area economically.
Linger said they don't know how much it will cost yet, but they're looking to fund the project with a combination of state, federal, and county money.
Fond du Lac's EAA Chapter President Larry Wunch said an expansion could draw more planes to the airport during AirVenture.
"Sometimes when you want to land your plane at Oshkosh [during AirVenture], you have to get in a line that's about 50 miles away.... but if you come here at Fond du Lac, you can fly right in and land," Wunch said.
Wunch said the airport saw about 240 EAA pilots last year, and they hope to keep increasing that.
He said one day, he’d like to see EAA take advantage of the additional space in Fond du Lac.
"An alternative for eaa in the future might be to build another hangar, maybe just down the road here at Fond du Lac," Wunch said. "So that's something that I'm going to kind of throw around up there."
Linger said they hope to have the final plans for expansion finished by the end of the year, and begin development in 2025.
