Recognizing the Audience

Understand the audience so that information is delivered at an appropriate level of complexity. Situations in which an audience includes a mix of the public, mass media, and more knowledgeable air service and economic development professionals can be challenging. Tailoring the presentation to the public and media will likely fail to persuade or engage the professionals. But guiding a discussion to the professionals may leave the others not understanding the key message on the airport’s contributions to a region. However, strong graphics and personalized stories or anecdotes can be persuasive means of helping many people understand (see below).

Developing Background Information on the Airport and Its Service Offerings

Include basic information on the airport, including

• passenger traffic (especially origin and destination traffic)
• number of nonstop destinations served (domestic and international)
• capacity (available seats and flights) provided, noting seasonality if relevant
• cargo and freight tonnage handled (inbound and outbound)
• Suggestions for how to display these types of information most clearly and effectively are found in Illustrating the Concepts.

Describing the Airport’s Market

Provide a descriptive overview of the market served, including the statistical area, either a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) or combined statistical area (CSA) and/or the catchment area (if quantified based on existing air service offerings). Again, maps of the catchment area or MSA/CSA will be useful for most readers. The basic socioeconomic metrics should include population and total employment (for certain audiences, this information should include employment in key industry sectors and/or major employers in the region that tend to rely on commercial aviation).

Explaining and Illustrating Economic Concepts

Depending upon the audience, different terms or concepts may need to be defined. Narrative descriptions or definitions are often not sufficient. Because different people learn in different ways, it may be necessary to use illustrations or examples to explain certain concepts, even for professionals and those familiar with economic concepts.

Icons or photos can help make these concepts more relatable. Different types of graphics are surveyed in Illustrating the Concepts.

Using Data, Models, and/or GIS Capabilities to Estimate Impacts and Locate Certain Types of Businesses (by industry sector)

Depending on the analysis needed (and the audience), the airport will need to use different sets of data and different models or estimating techniques to generate the results. Traditional economic impact studies will require one type of model (e.g., input–output models or other options). GIS models can reveal the location of different businesses within a given proximity to the airport. Local universities’ schools or departments of economics, businesses, or geography may have these models. Various consulting firms also have expertise in these types of analyses.

Identifying the relationship of changes in air service to a region’s economic strength by industry sector requires a different set of data and analyses. The analysis can be accomplished via spreadsheet applications like MS Excel, and the data can be obtained from various public sources.

Analyses of changes in connectivity require some modeling that can be accomplished using spreadsheet applications and the formula shown below and in the Technical Report.

The IATA connectivity index measures the number and size of destinations served, as well as the frequency of service to each destination and the number of onward connections available from those destinations. Service to airports with the highest total seat capacity (e.g., ATL) receive the highest weighting. Thus, the index recognizes that connections to major global gateways provide greater global connectivity than connections to the same number of spoke ends. The formula for the index is as follows:

Traditional White Paper Report with Executive Summary

Executive Summary Only

Graphic-Heavy Executive Summary (minimal text)

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Press Release