Success by the Numbers

As EAA’s AirVenture 2023 and the entirety of the delights, enlightenments, thrills, successes, tragedies, and camaraderie associated therewith recede slowly into memory, the event’s organizers invite one and all to look a final time upon and take pride in their contributions to the most recent iteration of aviation’s greatest yearly spectacle.

Speaking to the subject of AirVenture 2023, EAA CEO and chairman Jack Pelton set forth: “There was so much going on during the week that encompassed the entire world of flight, from the presence of the U.S. Air Force Training Command and NASA, to magnificent aircraft restorations and exciting new flying technology. Oshkosh was again the place that brought the aviation world together.”

AirVenture 2023 drew a record attendance of some 677,000 visitors—surpassing the previous record-high mark of 650,000 set in 2022.

“We had record-setting totals of campers, exhibitors, volunteers, and more,” Mr. Pelton enthused. “It was also a challenging year at times with weather, logistics, and other factors, which makes me even more proud of the efforts by our volunteers and staff to organize an outstanding event.”

Over AirVenture 2023’s duration, upwards of ten-thousand fixed and rotary wing contraptions of every conceivable design and derivation descended upon Oshkosh, Wisconsin’s Wittman Regional Airport (OSH)—which recorded 21,883 aircraft operations over the 11-day period spanning 20 through 30 July. The figure denotes an hourly average of 148 takeoffs and landings during the airport's operational intervals.

AirVenture 2023 attendees alternately admired and marveled at a total of 3,365 show-planes comprising: a record 1,497 registered vintage aircraft, 1,067 home-built machines, 380 warbirds (three-percent more than the previous year), 194 ultralights, 134 seaplanes and amphibians, 52 aerobatic aircraft, and 41 rotorcraft.

An estimated forty-thousand visitors occupied more than 13,000 aircraft and drive-in camping sites throughout AirVenture 2023, and north of 5,500 volunteers joyfully contributed in excess of 250,000 to the event’s resounding success.

Throughout the week, a record 848 commercial exhibitors hosted more than 1,400 engaging and informative forums, workshops, discussions, and presentations.

Oshkosh glittered cosmopolitan in 2023 as 2,372 international attendees representing a record-tying 93 nations registered at the International Visitors Tent. Insomuch as many international showgoers do not so register, the actual total number of foreign AirVenture 2023 attendees is likely far higher.

The EAA Aviation Foundation’s annual fundraising event, which supports the organization’s aviation education programs, attracted more than one-thousand individuals and raised upwards of $2-million.

AirVenture 2023 was covered by 863 onsite media representatives hailing from all six of the world’s habitable continents. An Antarctic delegation has yet to be received in Oshkosh.

All told, AirVenture is estimated to infuse $170-million into the economies of Wisconsin’s Winnebago, Outagamie, Fond du Lac, Calumet, and Brown counties.

Looking to AirVenture’s future, Mr. Pelton confided: “We’ll start planning for EAA AirVenture 2024 a little later in August, but we are already looking at a number of big activities, including the one-hundredth anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Plenty of ideas have also been forwarded to us from EAA members and others that will be part of the planning for 2024.”

FMI: www.eaa.org/airventure