GREEN BAY (NBC26) — EAA Airventure brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to Oshkosh, but the excitement for aviation spreads across the entire state.
Jet Air Group in Green Bay is a Fixed Base Operator that serves private pilots and airplanes.
“We’re excited to have all the aircraft visiting us; it’s really a fun week," Jet Air operations manager Dylan Masse says.
Despite being more than 40 miles north of Oshkosh, EAA Airventure brings a boom for business
“We get a ton of extra traffic," Masse says. "We got extra staff here. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, is what I always tell our guys.”
Masse says Airventure attendees will fly into Jet Air, then drive to Oshkosh.
“At a facility like this, you don’t have to deal with as much of the traffic," he says. “We set them up with hotels, we set them up with rental cars."
Other Green Bay aviation companies also jump on the EAA train, including Aeroguard Detail, which is based out of a hangar at Jet Air, but services aircraft across the state.
“Anything from washing aircraft to buffing, polishing, we have a number of different services, interior and exterior," owner and military veteran Mark Swenty says.
Swenty says EAA is their busiest week for general aviation detailing.
“To be able to be this close to Oshkosh is amazing," he says. "It’s an easy way to promote our business.”
Other than a business driver, pilots in Green Bay feel the excitement of EAA.
“It’s also cool to just sort of stand out on the ramp and watch all the planes that are coming in," Trisha Labrosse, chief assistant for Green Bay Pilotsmith, says. "It’s a pretty big event in the world of aviation.”
“The energy from our team is very ecstatic; they look forward to it," Masse says. "We get some interesting aircraft in here that you don’t see all of the time, and people are out with their phones taking pictures and getting excited about it.”
A study from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh found $171 million of direct spending across the Fox Valley, and $76 million of direct spending in Fond du Lac, Calumet, Outagamie and Brown.
