ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Seven additional round trip flights have already been added in and out of Green Bay and Appleton for the days before and after the NFL Draft and the extra flights aren’t just for people who want to be here for the biggest event our area has ever seen.
A record 775,000 people attended this year’s NFL Draft in Detroit. Austin Straubel International Airport is planning as if Green Bay’s draft April 24th-26th will see similar crowds.
“It looked like Detroit had roughly 65,000 additional people that went through their airport that week,” said Susan Levitte, marketing and communications manager for Austin Straubel. “We’re planning for 65,000 to 100,000 or more.”
The airport expects it could be the busiest week it has ever seen.
“A busy week for us is about 10,000 passengers so 65,000 is exponentially more,” said Levitte.
Delta has the largest share of flights out of Austin Straubel and has added 50% more seats with extra flights to get ahead of demand. It’s already seeing a 25% uptick in demand compared to a normal late April week.
“We anticipate the demand is going to continue to increase and it will be much larger than 25%,” said David Hart, managing director of domestic network planning for Delta.
With draft organizers anticipating people staying in hotels as far away as Milwaukee and Madison, Delta says it could look to add extra flights to those locations as well.
“This is going to be an evolving, very fluid situation,” said Hart. “So, if we see demand continue, we will not hesitate to invest.”
That includes flights for people perhaps renting out their homes and looking to get out of Green Bay. Delta says it will announce a new flight at the end of this week for people who fall into that category.
Austin Straubel says it’s been planning two years for the extra activity.
“I know Delta and a few of the other airlines that we have here are pulling staff from other areas in the state,” said Levitte. “We’ve encouraged all our vendors to think about that ahead of time because of course housing is always going to be a problem.”
That could mean pulling staff from nearby airports for the day like Wausau or even Milwaukee.
The airport is also planning for rental vehicles. It has been told to have 50,000 available. Plans are still being made for where to put them all, according to Levitte.
Airport officials for both Green Bay and Appleton say they expect more new flights for the week of the draft to be added over the next few weeks.
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