Coat Check Returns to Mitchell Airport

Many travelers flying out of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport this winter will be doing so so escape the typically long and cold Wisconsin winters. With this in mind, Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport is bringing back its coat check service so you can travel without lugging around your heavy winter coat.

The service, available from November through March, is provided in partnership with airport retailer Paradies Lagardère and it allows travelers escaping Wisconsin’s winter for warmer climes to leave their heavy winter coats behind at any time, seven days a week for $2 a day or $10 maximum for the whole trip.

The coat check is offered out of the Summerfest Marketplace area in the airport, before security. “Travelers can leave their coats, gloves, and other items unneeded for a warm-weather getaway with a friendly-attendant,” the airport said in a statement. “Each coat is hung in protective plastic and kept safely locked away until it’s claimed by the owner.”

The service was first introduced in 2018, and Airport Director Brian Dranzik said in a statement, “Our coat check service remains one of our most popular winter amenities.” In 2020, when the airport announced the return of the service that year, Dranzik noted that as far as the airport could tell, Milwaukee was the only one in the country currently offering it.

The annual announcement is also an opportunity for the airport to remind shivering Wisconsinites that they offer direct flights to a number of warm, even tropical, locations. This year, the airport is plugging flights to Cancun, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico; Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and Montego Bay in Jamaica.

Passengers flying internationally will need to take the shuttle from the international terminal back to the main terminal.

But for those seeking sunnier locations stateside, the airport also offers a number of nonstop flights to much warmer cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, Tampa Bay, Ft. Lauderdale and Ft. Meyers.

Airport officials have been working to convince more local residents to fly out of Milwaukee as opposed to Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Aiport spokesperson Harold Mester told Urban Milwaukee, “In the end, our message to the community is this: The more we all choose to fly from MKE, the easier it is for airlines to add service from Milwaukee. Flying from other airports hampers our ability to get more flights and nonstop destinations.”

Oh, and keep in mind: O’Hare does not offer a coat check service.