Airport manager Tom Wetherbee tells the Leelanau Ticker that daily air traffic is way up at Woolsey Memorial Airport in Northport. “I assume, but don't really know, that it is related to COVID-19. I think people are looking for places to go that are away from everything.”

He adds that the amount of jet traffic is also above average. “A fractional jet ownership company has been making many Pilatus PC-12 flights in each week; sometimes multiple flights per day. The PC-12 is a turboprop aircraft designed for both big airports and grass fields like ours.”

He explains that the company, Plane Sense, has a fleet of 40, and clients can purchase as little as 1/8th of an aircraft. “That means you get to use a plane 1/8 of the time. When you want to fly somewhere, you call and make a reservation. Plane Sense sends an aircraft and crew to pick you up, and off you go.”

Meanwhile, Wetherbee would like to share official word that the 2020 Northport Lions Drive-In and Fly-In Pancake Breakfast, scheduled for August 1, 2020 is cancelled. The annual breakfast typically draws a few hundred visitors, and showcases more than 40 airplanes, along antique cars and trucks and performances by the Northport Community Band.

Photo: PC-12 turboprop aircraft at Woolsey Airport by Tom Wetherbee