At Blue Grass Airport, Breeders’ Cup week is about to really take off.
“This will certainly be our biggest event of the year,” said Director of Marketing Amy Caudill.
“A lot of airlines have added additional flights or added larger aircraft, so instead of seeing 50-seat airplanes come through here you’re going to see 180-seat airplanes come through,” Caudill said.
They want to be sure all those visitors get a good taste of Bluegrass country.
“We are the first and last impression for so many people who are coming to our community and we really want to do our community proud,” Caudill said
For Breeders’ Cup Week, that means all purple, everywhere.
“We want everyone to get off the plane and have that Breeders’ Cup experience as soon as they get here. We have special activities planned, such as complimentary bourbon balls from Maker’s Mark. We have a call to the post at baggage claim that will play as their bags arrive,” Caudill said.
Caudill expects it to busiest after the races are over. She said there are 45% more flights Sunday, so if you’re flying out, you need to plan ahead.
“If you’re flying out on Sunday and Monday, we really recommend arriving to the airport two hours prior to your flight time. Certainly we’re going to get passengers through as fast as possible but we want them to have that extra time,” Caudill said.
It won’t just be the airline side of the airport that’s busy over the next few days. They also expect their general aviation ramp to be packed as well.
“We are looking at about 200 to 250 aircraft anticipating landing here,” said TAC Air General Manager Westley Williams. TAC Air is the fixed-base operator that handles private flights into the airport.
Williams said they had already booked all their parking for private aircraft. They’ve even had to improvise some new parking.
“One thing that’s different is we are actually utilizing runway 9-27. We’re closing it down and using it as a parking lot. That whole thing is going to be full,” Williams said.
Just like over the in the main terminal, TAC Air plans to give its visitors the Breeders’ Cup experience as well.
“We want them to see purple everywhere. We want them to see the Breeders’ Cup logo and everybody associated with it,” Williams said.
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