The host airport of the 59th Annual Wisconsin Aviation Conference to be held May 5-7 at the Patriot Center in Wausau-Rothschild is Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA), located in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
One of the newest municipally-owned, public-use airports in Wisconsin, Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA), was built in 1969 as a non-hub commercial service primary airport, centrally located in the state between Stevens Point, Wausau and Marshfield, with excellent highways north, south, east and west connecting to other major cities. United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines provide commercial air carrier service.
CWA is jointly owned by Marathon and Portage Counties with liabilities proportionately shared based upon each county’s property valuation. A seven-member Central Wisconsin Joint Airport Board governs the airport.
Tony Yaron is airport manager; Julie Ulrick is the administrative specialist; James Olson is director of operations and maintenance; and David Drozd is the accountant. In addition, the airport employs 21 full and part-time operations, maintenance, and custodial personnel capable of providing aircraft rescue and firefighting services, facilities and airfield maintenance, and a full line of air service operations services.
CWA receives roughly one-half million visitors, and has 150,000 boardings, annually.
Since its inception, CWA has continued to expand its facilities and services. The airport has built assets totaling $45.3 million. Of these assets, the most important of them from a practical standpoint are the runways.
The airport has two runways: Runway 17-35, 6,500 X 150 feet; and Runway 8-26, 7,650 X 150 feet. Both Runway 8 and 35 have ILS precision approaches. Each runway has full-length parallel and connecting taxiways.
Other noteworthy capital improvement projects include remodeling of the airport terminal (1987); construction of the air traffic control tower (1990); an addition to a terminal concourse with hold rooms and boarding bridges, making CWA one of the first regional airports in the country to provide boarding bridges for passenger safety and comfort (1998); extension of Runway 17-35 from 5700 to 6500 feet (1998); and the reconstruction of Runway 8-26 and its associated parallel and connecting taxiways (2003).
In 2004, the Central Wisconsin Joint Airport Board moved to expand of the terminal area.
In 2011, the airport began construction to replace the utility infrastructure of the airport.
Construction of the terminal building is taking three (3) years to complete. The first phase west terminal was completed in 2013. The east terminal construction began in October 2013 and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2014. The central remodeling construction, original parking lot reconstruction, landscaping and wayfinding signage are expected to be completed by the summer of 2015. The new terminal design is expected to eliminate the dysfunction of the space brought on by baggage screening operations by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
The “Fly Away Café” is located in the terminal concourse area past the security checkpoint from 4:45 a.m. to 7:45 a.m., and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Car rental and taxi service is available.
CWA is home to several corporate flight departments including Wausau Papers Corporation, L&S Electric, and County Materials. The airport is also home to the aircraft maintenance operations for Endeavor Airlines (formerly Pinnacle Airlines). This facility employs an average of 65 airframe and powerplant mechanics to service Bombardier CRJ 200 jet aircraft for Delta Air Lines.
“Central Wisconsin Aviation,” a full-service fixed base operation with charter, flight training, aircraft maintenance, and fuel sales, serves general aviation.
The Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics was commissioned to complete an economic impact study in 2012. The report of the study states that the airport is responsible for 457 jobs and a $14.8 million annual payroll, which has resulted in a local economic impact of $61.9 million. When combined, the direct impact results in 564 jobs, $16.4 million in wages, and $71.5 million in economic output or sales.
Tony Yaron, Manager
Central Wisconsin Airport
Tony Yaron started his aviation career in the late ’70s when he enrolled in a private pilot ground school. The passion for flying continued through the acquisition of a commercial pilot certificate and instrument and flight instructor ratings.
Yaron continued to give flight instruction when he began his career as manager of Taylor County Airport in Medford, Wisconsin in 1989 – a position he held until 1994.
Yaron left airport management from 1994-2000 to work as a human resources director and quality director, but returned to the career he loved in 2000 to become the director of operations and maintenance at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, Wisconsin. He was named airport manager in 2006.
Yaron has brought his own management style to the manager’s position, and has been working to complete the multi-year reconstruction of the terminal area of the airport, which is expected to be completed in the fall of 2015.
Yaron resides in the Village of Kronenwetter, Wisconsin, with his wife Rachel.
For additional information on Central Wisconsin Airport, refer to its website www.fly-cwa.org, or call 715-693-2147.
