EAA AirVenture Oshkosh - Attendance

Attendance

It is estimated that 10,000–15,000 aircraft visit Wittman Field each year during the fly-in. Attendance is estimated between 800,000 to 1,000,000, which is computed by multiplying the number of tickets sold times the number of estimated daily visits by each ticket holder. This technique allows for one person who buys a weeklong pass to count as a separate person each day, which does properly account for each person's actual use of the grounds and facilities, but adds complexity to making a final attendance estimate. The EAA estimates and Oshkosh Northwestern reports the actual number of attendees is most likely between 300,000-500,000 separate people, which would still leave AirVenture as the biggest civilian airshow in the United States.

People arrive by both air and ground transport. Nearby two-way roads are repatterned to resemble a one-way circuit, with traffic either turning off to park in adjacent lots, or keeping on the road to leave (or re-enter the area again.) The large number of aircraft arrivals and departures during the fly-in week officially makes the Wittman Field FAA Control Tower the "busiest in the world" for that week. To accommodate the huge flow of aircraft around the airport and the nearby airspace, a special NOTAM is published each year, choreographing the normal and emergency (if need be) procedures to follow.

In 2002, an Air Atlanta Icelandic Boeing 747 brought an almost full load of Icelanders. The occupants of this single airplane represented about one of every 500 Icelanders or 0.2% of the population of Iceland.

Hotels, dormitories, and many private guest rooms in the region are almost always filled to capacity during the fly-in. There is also a Hilton Hotel located directly on the airport grounds. However, the large majority of visitors camp, either under the wing of their airplane, in a recreational vehicle, or next to their car.

More than 4,000 volunteers contribute approximately 250,000 hours before, during and after the event. These volunteers are primarily EAA members, but also include a significant number of local volunteers as well as attendees who can volunteer on the spot. Civil Air Patrol cadets and senior officers who attend National Blue Beret are found on base July 18-August 2, and work many aspects of the airshow; including, but not limited to: flight line marshalling, war bird security, and Emergency Services. During the airshow, cadets and senior officers contribute more than 2,000 hours marshalling aircraft for runway 9/27. Police Explorers from southern Wisconsin operate traffic control at the airshow's busiest parking lots. Aviation Explorers have a campsite next to the Civil Air Patrol compound. They volunteer in several areas during the week including flightline security, crowd control, custom (homebuilt) aircraft parking, and marshalling aircraft on two of the airport's busiest taxiways during the week, "Papa" and "The Ditch", both of which run parallel to runway 18/36.

Approximately 1,100 portable toilets are supplied for the event, and EAA estimates that more than 2 million sheets of toilet paper are used.