APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — For 10 years, airplane passengers from far and wide have been landing in Appleton without ever actually entering the Appleton International Airport (ATW) commercial terminal.
Instead, these travelers fly into the Appleton Flight Center, an airfield that has been serving private and business aircrafts since 2013.
It is located south of the commercial airport and provides maintenance, power, fueling and hangar leases/rentals for private planes.
Nearly 12,000 private and business aircrafts landed at ATW through the first eight months of 2023 — a 13% increase from last year, according to airport officials.
This increase in private air travel has led to expansion plans, with the construction of a fourth hangar at the Flight Center.
“In this facility, when we thought about design, we really looked at three main principles: sustainability and innovation, growth and development and customer experience,” said Airport Director Abe Weber. “We’re excited to be able to work on all those three principles and expand them into the future.”
The Appleton Flight Center was built according to LEED guidelines and was also the first aviation building in the United States to meet the rigorous requirements for Net Zero Energy status.
This means the building provides as much renewable energy as it consumes each calendar year. Weber said the Flight Center runs on its own energy produced by solar cells and uses less than one-third the energy of a similar-sized building.
