County Airport Braces For World Series Surge; Rental Counter Reports 'Unprecedented Demand' For Compact Cars

WAUKESHA — Waukesha County Airport announced Thursday it is adding a second shift to its single ticket counter in anticipation of the Brewers' appearance in the World Series, projecting an additional 220 passengers through Nov. 8 at a facility that typically processes somewhere between four and eleven passengers a day.

The airport, a general aviation field best known for flight instruction and a biennial fly-in pancake breakfast, does not offer commercial airline service. Airport officials said the projected surge refers primarily to private and charter aircraft, along with a marked increase in foot traffic to the single rental car counter inside the terminal, which is operated by Hertz.

Compact Vehicles At A Premium

That counter, staffed most days by one employee, reported pre-bookings up 180 percent compared to October 2025, with every compact vehicle in the branch's six-car lot reserved through Nov. 9. The branch's lone minivan was booked by a party of nine traveling from Oconomowoc who described themselves only as 'extremely committed.'

"We had one gentleman book a Chevrolet Spark eleven days out and then call back twice to confirm it was still a Spark. I told him it was still a Spark both times."

— Diane Oskowski, Hertz counter supervisor, Waukesha County Airport branch, 47

Oskowski said the branch's usual fleet of six compacts, four midsize sedans and one minivan has not changed, but demand has. She said she has begun keeping a laminated waitlist on a clipboard behind the counter, currently at fourteen names, the longest it has been since a regional cheerleading competition filled the lot in March.

Wrong Stadium, Right County

Oskowski said the bigger adjustment has been fielding directions. She estimated she has corrected travelers asking for 'Miller Park' roughly nine times a day since Monday, up from a baseline of about once a week. The stadium has been called American Family Field since 2021.

To speed things along, the counter has started handing out a single laminated index card with turn-by-turn directions to American Family Field, including a note that the exit for the stadium's lot is not the same exit as the one for the Harley-Davidson Museum, a mistake Oskowski said has happened twice this week alone.

Staffing Up

Airport public information officer Carla Resh, 44, said the facility's single-person administrative office has added a part-time staffer through Nov. 9 to handle parking overflow and to answer phone calls from travelers confirming the airport does not, in fact, have gate numbers.

Resh said the airport's 38-space public parking lot has not required any changes, since it has not come close to filling, but said staff have begun proactively directing charter clients to the gravel overflow area near the maintenance hangar 'just in case,' a contingency that has been activated zero times as of Thursday afternoon.

She said the airport's projection of 220 additional passengers through Nov. 8 is based on manifest requests from charter operators and does not include the rental counter's walk-in traffic, which she called 'a separate and frankly more interesting number.'

A Short Runway, A Long Waitlist

Oskowski said she expects the clipboard waitlist to clear by mid-November regardless of how the series goes, though she noted that if the Brewers' run extends past Nov. 8, she has already pre-written a sign for the counter that says, simply, 'We are out of compacts. We have been out of compacts.' She said she hopes not to need it.

The branch's one remaining midsize sedan, a white Nissan Altima with 61,000 miles on it, was being held Thursday afternoon for a customer Oskowski described as 'someone who called ahead, which I respect.'