NASCAR Week Busiest of Year for Elmira-Corning Regional Airport (KELM), New York

BIG FLATS, N.Y. (WETM-18) – The Elmira-Corning Regional Airport is heading into its busiest time of the year. The NASCAR race at Watkins Glen International has airport staff preparing for many more planes.

”It's kind of like the holiday season,” said Airport Manager Ann Crook.

As far as Crook is concerned, this might as well be a holiday week—this is NASCAR eve. The airport's busiest week of the year comes around the race, unlike the vast majority of the country's airports, where Thanksgiving brings the most air traffic. Crook said they aren't adding any more commercial flights. But she said the planes will have more people on them as they bring in fans, crews and media. Private planes represent the biggest increase, with about fifty jets expected.

"The teams, the pit crews, the drivers; all of them fly in on their own nice Jets," explained Crook.

And whether they get off a private jet or a commercial flight at ELM, most of them need something to drive. So rental car companies are bringing in five times as many cars as normal to deal with the NASCAR traffic.

"We have fans coming in to watch the race, but then again all of the teams and executives need rental cars as well,” said Crook. “We expect about 500 rental cars will be used, which is a huge amount."

Rental companies are holding the cars in an extra lot. Some of them are already marked with the names of teams and drivers. A National Car Rental spokesperson said they expect to have enough cars to meet demand. He recommended calling ahead to be sure.

After the race cars finish going around the track, the rental cars will be returned and the planes will leave. Crook says the day after the race is actually the single busiest day of the year for the airport. And all of those visitors leave one thing behind: sales tax.

“Because of the loss of the gas industry, or the slow down, and the loss of jobs at Sikorsky, our sales tax is off 6.5%, which for the community is more than $6 million less than the year before,” said Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli (R). “Events such as this help soften that blow.”

Story:   http://www.wetmtv.com