The official numbers are in for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and they reflect the projected theme for the event, “One week—Endless Possibilities.” According to EAA CEO and chairman Jack Pelton, “We found ourselves revising our initial attendance estimate upward once all the final weekend’s numbers were in, including from a tremendous day on Saturday, July 26.” The total overall attendance is officially listed as approximately 704,000—up from last year’s record of 686,000.
More than 10,000 aircraft flew in to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh (KOSH) and other close-by airports, including 2,543 show airplanes. Those included 995 vintage aircraft, 910 homebuilts, 361 warbirds, 101 ultralight/light planes, 75 aerobatic aircraft, 74 seaplanes and amphibians, 18 rotorcraft, and nine balloons. At Wittman Regional Airport, the FAA tallied 16,246 aircraft operations between noon on July 17 and noon July 28, making KOSH the world’s busiest airport during that time frame.
On the financial side, the show’s visitors and 962 commercial exhibitors pumped an estimated $257 million into the local economy, while the EAA Aviation Foundation’s annual fundraiser attracted more than 1,000 people and raised $2.49 million to continue funding EAA’s mission of “growing participation in aviation.”
Pelton added, “This year’s success is a credit to our 6,000 volunteers, our staff members, and our partners as they continue to raise the bar on what’s possible as we bring the aviation world to Oshkosh. We’ll take a little time to enjoy this year’s accomplishments but will soon start planning for next year’s edition of The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration.”
EAA AirVenture 2026 runs from July 20-26.
I guess the Canadians did show up despite some of their threats to boycott the event…
The article states that more than 10,000 aircraft flew into Oshkosh for AirVenture and that there were 16,246 operations over eleven days. Since a takeoff or a landing is considered a single operation, it seems that there would have to have been at least 20,000 operations in arriving and departing aircraft alone. What am I missing?
Best guess is that they’re counting a lot of airplanes either arrived early (before noon July 17), left late (after noon July 28), or both. That would be as many as 1,927 aircraft, a little less than 20%.
Exactly, Mark. I’ve been attending every year for decades as a volunteer, showing up a week or more early and departing a couple of days after the show. My plane, and those of thousands of other volunteers who turn an otherwise sleepy airport into a world-class facility, hasn’t been counted in decades.
This year it was looking like we might have another Slosh-kosh event and we parked the largest group of early arrivals ever. The FAA numbers are from a rather narrow window of actual ops.
Bob, I noticed the same thing. But the 10,000 number was flights into KOSH and “other nearby airports”, while the operations count was OSH only.