Outgamie County Airport Traffic May Be Taking Off Again

Posted Nov. 16, 2003

Outagamie County Airport Traffic May Be Taking Off Again
October numbers up; first increase since January

Appleton Post Crescent, WI


GREENVILLE — The skies appear to be clearing over Outagamie County
Regional Airport.

In October, the airport witnessed its first year-to-year monthly increase
in paid passenger traffic since January.

The state’s fourth busiest airport boarded 23,983 paid passengers last
month, 3.3 percent more than in October 2002, Airport Director Jeff Mulder
said Friday.

In September, after a series of dismal monthly totals, the airport came
within 31 paid passengers of matching the monthly mark of the previous
year.

The sputtering regional economy was largely to blame for the drop in
traffic in the past year, with corporations scaling back travel budgets
amid broader efforts to slash costs, Mulder said.

“It’s true we are much more dependent on business travel than most
airports,” he said. “Our ratio is probably 75 percent (business) to 25
percent (recreation).”

Hurley Wilbourne, owner of Carlson Wagonlit Travel of Appleton, said the
local airport’s positive recent performance reflects a more competitive
market for business travelers throughout the airline industry.

“We do some smaller corporate accounts and they do seem to be more willing
to spend on travel now that the costs are becoming reasonable,” Wilbourne
said.

Mulder said feedback from corporate travel buyers in spring foreshadowed
what became “a long, dry summer” at the airport.

“Our numbers are coming back up now, so they seem to be willing to start
spending on travel again,” Mulder said.

The airport boarded 205,498 passengers through the first 10 months of
2003. That’s 4.26 percent fewer than the 214,646 paid passengers the
airport boarded in the comparable period of 2002.


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