GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport is, once again, preparing to host the president and Air Force One.
“It’s always exciting to see the different aircraft and people in, so we’re looking forward to a great event,” says Airport Director Marty Piette.
President Trump is scheduled to land in Green Bay sometime on Thursday. He will take a helicopter to Marinette Marine for a tour and speech there – and hold a town hall segment with Fox News at the Jet Air hangar while at the airport. The order and exact time of those events remain unclear.
“I understand President Trump likes to do these town halls at airports, so it was a logical place to do it. Then Jet Air has quite a facility to be able to host such an event,” Piette says.
While even Piette doesn’t know the specific details yet, a presidential visit is something the facility is used to handling.
“We’re still two days out and the schedule seems to change hourly, so we’re still trying to find out from the White House ourselves what that schedule looks like…I’m honestly not even sure if the town hall is before or after his trip to Marinette,” Piette tells WTAQ News, “This is something that we have done in the past, so I would say that we’re pretty well seasoned at handling it. But it does take quite a bit of time and energy as far as coordinating events.”
The coordination of the event is a complicated process, requiring communication between the airport, Secret Service, White House, and other various teams that are working to get the president to town.
Heightened security is certainly expected, but that’s more of a Secret Service function, not something the airport provides. But even with that coordination, regular operations don’t change much.
“For the most part it doesn’t impact operations or commercial operations and as we get closer to the day things get a little bit busier, but we’ve done it before so we’re prepared and ready to go,” Piette says, “We just help coordinate their activities on the airfield and around the airport itself, but there’s definitely an increased presence.”
Trump’s visit is also likely to draw attention from the community, whether it’s supporters or protesters. If either of those groups show up at the airport on Thursday, there will be designated areas for them. Piette says the specific spots haven’t been determined, but security will direct them where they need to go.
