b'40 ATW SPECIAL EVENTSAppleton Intl HandlesNFL DraftTraffic During Major Expansion ProjectBY JODI RICHARDSEarlier this spring, Abram Weber,mark last year. Before that, volume had nearly doubled since airport director at Appleton2013, and non-stop destinations increased from seven to 19 in the International Airport (ATW), couldlast decade. Were trying to accommodate all of this additional not help feeling like he was on the clock. Thistraffic through the same space that weve had for 25 years, years National Football League Draft wouldexplains Weber. be held just up the road (40 minutes north) inThe airport broke ground for Elevate in November 2023 and Green Bay, WI, and ATW was in the midst of acompletion is expected by the end of this year. The expansion $66 million expansion called Elevate. ABRAM WEBER will add 47,000 square feetmore than doubling the current Although the April 24 to 26 Draft wasnt the driver behindconcourse sizeand increase ATWs gate count from six to 10.Elevate, it did affect overall scheduling and provided a hardThis spring, however, the entire ATW team was busy preparing deadline for some projects. The real driver was increasing capacityfor a traffic spike associated with the NFL Draft. I feel very for everyday operations, as ATW passed the 1 million passengerconfident in the plans that have been put in place and how were May | June 2025AirportImprovement.com'