My Airport Is Not an Island

The most visible forms of airport-related economic activity are on-airport businesses and businesses located immediately adjacent to the airport. However, airports are inherently regional enablers of economic activity; their economic impact is not limited to the airport and its immediate vicinity. As only certain industries are reliant on aviation for core economic activities, this broader role will depend on the economic composition of a region.

Air transportation is not suited for all transportation purposes but does hold certain advantages over other modes in terms of its ability to provide speed, just-in-time and time-definite delivery, and access to remote areas. Because of these features, airports serve as important community and regional links to the outside world—enabling businesses to participate in broader national and international economies, and enhancing the economic competitiveness of regions in an increasingly global economy. In particular, airports:

Facilitate long distance deliveries thus enhancing the competitiveness of local industry sectors. Airports enhance regional production and sales by enabling local businesses in nationally and globally competitive industries to deliver goods to long distance markets, including manufactured products and perishables. Airports also enable local goods producers to “import” intermediate products and machinery in a time-efficient manner from outside the region from both domestic and international points of origins.

  • Provide long distance/fast connectivity for business travel.

    • There are certain industries that engage in a significant amount of longer-distance business travel for collaboration, marketing, sales, and customer support. For these industries, air transportation reduces the total resource costs incurred by businesses (in both time and out-of-pocket expenditure) to move workers, clients, and collaborators from place to place. Business travel can be facilitated both by commercial service and by based aircraft owned or leased by major regional businesses. In both cases, airports enable efficient travel, thus supporting the ability of businesses to serve markets that extend beyond the local area. In addition, general aviation enables businesses to service markets and clients scattered in a multi-county and/or multi-state region. For example, general aviation can make it possible for decision-making executives to attend multiple meetings hundreds of miles apart in a single business day.

  • Provide access by visitors to hospitality industries.

    • Airports extend the market reach of hospitality industries across long-distances. Although not involved in the movement of goods to markets outside a region, tourism is an “export industry” in the sense that goods and services are sold to people from elsewhere, thus bringing money into local or regional economies. While visiting, travelers will spend money on hotels or other lodging, food and beverages, off-airport transportation, entertainment and recreation, and retail goods, thus supporting local jobs at multiple income levels. Beyond leisure and other personal travel, the airport-reliant tourism industry also includes travel for business meetings, conventions, conferences and trade shows.

To continue exploring the role that your airport may play in supporting off-airport business activity, continue on to the Supporting “Traded Industries” topic under the Explore section.

Resources

  • ACRP Report 132 The Role of U.S. Airports in the National Economy

    Chapter 4, National Economic Impact of Airports in the NPIAS has a section addressing the value of commodities exported by air as a measure of the economic contribution of air cargo to the U.S. economy.

    Chapter 4, National Economic Impact of Airports in the NPIAS also discusses the on-airport contribution of international visitor spending to the national economy.

    Technical Appendix 4, Qualitative Research includes the findings from interviews with air reliant industries.

  • U.S. Travel Association: Travel Means Jobs

    Provides an overview of the economic role of the travel industry within the economy.

  • World Economic Forum: The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013

    Presents an in-depth comparative analysis of travel and tourism competitiveness globally, including an assessment of air transportation infrastructure.

  • South Dakota State Aviation System Plan 2010-2030

    Section 6.6, Visitor Spending describes the relationship between South Dakota airports and the tourism industry, including the special role played by aviation in supporting the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the state’s recreational pheasant hunting industry.

  • NBAA Business Aviation Fact Book

    Discusses the importance of general aviation in allowing businesses to grow in smaller communities with limited or no commercial airline service.

  • Business Aviation: An Enterprise Value Perspective, Part I and Part II

    A set of 2 studies commissioned by the NBAA to examine and document the competitive advantage offered by general aviation to businesses both large and small.