More than a half million people visit EAA AirVenture

OSHKOSH, Wis. (WBAY) - After a week full of events, EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh has come to an end on Sunday.

There was a buzz in the air at the last day of AirVenture and plenty of people were out and about, enjoying the final air show. With visitors who have been coming for years, and many who were experiencing it for the first time.

“This is probably the best part, cause we didn’t really know what to expect, we’re not big plane people, but the air shows pretty cool,” said Kristin Pretz, a Markesan resident.

“It was the idea of bringing everybody back together to have this event to see everybody once again and see just an amazing collection of airplanes and people, and activities throughout the entire 7 days,” said Dick Knapiniski, EAA Communications Director.

The Fly Market at AirVenture had a huge variety of aviation-related and non-aviation items. Vendors who sell everything from aircraft models, to aircraft parts for planes and collectibles, say they were more than ready to be back in business again.

“It was difficult, of course we missed, you know, seeing everybody, income of course wasn’t here from it,” said Diana Sitaras, owner of DFW Airparts.

“Most of everything we do is online, this is the only time were just outside our warehouse,” said Van Sitaras, owner of DFW Airparts.

Knapinski said a total of 608,000 people were in attendance this year.

“We’ve only had 3 or 4 years that have been over 600,000 total attendance and those have all been since 2013, so it is a big year. We’ve talked about the wait is over, come on back to Oshkosh to Airventure and certainly was, and the wait was worth it,” said Knapinski.

Despite being on hiatus last year, vendors and visitors say it was a successful year and are already making plans to attend next year.

“This was definitely needed, I mean I think everybody, I do this full-time, so I travel the country, and it just seems like everybody really wants to get out. So, it seems like all the vendors tend to be a little bit more happier than normal,” said Charles Merchant, employee at Wood Art USA.

Officials say they’re looking forward to an even better 2022.