ASHWAUBENON, Wis. — It’s still largely business as usual at Jet Air Group at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport.
That will soon change.
CEO Alan Timmerman said Jet Air’s 71-person staff will be working around the clock Tuesday through Saturday for the NFL Draft.
“We going 24/7, which normally we don’t do,” he said. “We’re going to have planes coming in late at night, people leaving after concerts, things like that. We’re just trying to prepare for everything. Which you can’t — you can’t anticipate everything — but we’re trying our best.”
Regular business will also continue through the event week.
“Some of our maintenance people are actually going to work out on the line helping aircraft come in and out. Fueling and things like that,” Timmerman said. “Some of our cleaning people who do cleaning for the airlines, after they’re done cleaning, they’re going to come here and work and help with the transient aircraft.”
Avflight, another private provider at the airport, is bringing in additional staff to help.
“We’ve got a great staff here in Green Bay and we’re bringing in some team members from some of our other locations,” said Darin Everett, senior regional manager for Avflight. “Some with experience at last year’s draft in Detroit, and some team members that ran the RNC last year in Milwaukee who will be up here throughout the four- or five-day event.”
Everett said there will be some differences to normal day-to-day operations.
“It’s a little more scheduled. We know who is coming in a lot more of the time,” he said. “It’s a fun event. It’s a great way for the rest of the world to see Green Bay. That’s what we highlight as we walk into this.”
It’s not lost on Jet Air or Avflight that first impressions of Green Bay start with flight service at the airport.
Timmerman pointed to one big advantage in the case of the draft.
“During a normal Packers game, one team leaves happy, one team leaves upset, because one loses, and one wins,” he said. “Here, I think this is going to be a win for everybody if it goes the way we expect, with the concerts and the fireworks and all the other stuff going on. It’s exciting.”
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