A nearly full United flight from Chicago landed at Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport Thursday afternoon.
It was the first flight from the Windy City in nearly four years, and one local leaders know is greatly appreciated.
Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Lauren Sackett says the buzz was immediate when they ran an online giveaway of the flight poster.
“I can't tell you how many comments that were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a game changer for us. It's going to change my Beef-a-Rama plans.’ Like it was comment after comment of people that were really excited about the flight opportunities,” said Sackett.
Sackett says all the flights in and out of the airport are key for the tourism industry and area businesses to connect with suppliers and clients.
Minocqua Area Visitor’s Bureau President and CEO Krystal Westfahl emphasized that while it’s called the Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport, it is a Northwoods asset.
“We invest heavily in advertising out of this airport, because we know that the folks that are coming here are coming to the Northwoods for an experience, and they can get that in just about all of our communities,” said Westfahl.
Brad Kowieski is an airport commissioner. He says the airport as a whole has an economic impact over $35 million to the area and this new flight just adds to that.
“It's fantastic. We've got two airplanes here right now, one from Minneapolis and one from Chicago, and it's just really cool to see, because you can see people coming in to have a great Memorial Day weekend, and the planes are full going out, people getting to their destinations. It's just a fun time to be out here and see what's happening,” said Kowieski.
Kowieski emphasized it’s not just the people getting on and off the planes that are driving the economic impact.
There’s more than 100 people that have jobs tied to the airport.
“Whether it's directly with the airport, the TSA, the FAA, FedEx, Enterprise, Rent A Car, there's a whole industry out here that makes this machine go,” said Kowieski. “It creates jobs in the community, but it also helps people get to and from where they want to go.”
It’s not just the travelers, established businesses, and the tourism industry that benefits from the airport.
Oneida County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Tony Pharo says its crucial to bringing in new businesses.
“We see a lot of the manufacturers that are in contact with us to look about moving up here. The first thing they want to know, what's the transportation look like? Do you have an airport? What about rail? What about, you know, highway, boats, all that type of situation,” said Pharo.
The United Flight between Chicago and Rhinelander will run now through the end of September.
A second round trip flight is expected to run mid-June through Labor Day.
Delta still runs two flights a day between Rhinelander and Minneapolis.
