For One Week a Year, This Tiny Wisconsin Airport Becomes the World’s Busiest

Every summer, the global aviation calendar hits pause for a seven-day blitz in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. During the last full week of July, Wittman Regional Airport—normally a quiet, four-runway facility with a longest strip of just over 8,000 feet—transforms into the busiest airport on Earth.

The catalyst is EAA AirVenture, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in convention, billed as the world’s greatest aviation celebration. In 2025, the event drew more than 700,000 visitors and generated 16,246 combined takeoffs and landings at Wittman, averaging roughly 108 aircraft operations every hour while the airport is open.

By comparison, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport—the planet’s busiest year-round hub—averaged fewer than 100 operations per hour across 2025, tallying 860,015 total movements. Wittman’s surge is concentrated in a single week, not spread across 365 days.

The airport’s short runways and modest infrastructure still host an extraordinary variety of aircraft, though the largest commercial jets rarely appear. Highlights for 2026 include the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, scheduled to debut with seven Hawk T1 jets as part of U.S.

Semiquincentennial celebrations. Beyond air shows and static displays, AirVenture offers hands-on experiences like flight demonstrations, ground exhibits, and outreach programs aimed at inspiring new generations of aviators.

The event’s scale turns a small-town airport into a temporary metropolis of aviation enthusiasts, proving that sheer volume of activity—not passenger counts—can temporarily rewrite the global rankings.