"Indiana airports participating in SATS study"

Saturday, March 12, 2005 

Area airports participating in aircraft study
SATS project looks to reduce congestion at big airports, on roads
By Bill Engle 
The Richmond (IN) Palladium-Item


The Richmond Municipal Airport is participating in a fact-finding mission
that is an early stage of a study that could greatly increase use of smaller
airports here and in other Indiana cities.

The project is called SATS, small aircraft transportation system, and is
riding new developments in airplane technology, namely the development of
high-speed and highly fuel-efficient engines on smaller jets.

To relieve congestion at major airports and on highways, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration has begun a study of SATS and is
looking for help from the Indiana Business Research Center in Indianapolis.

The research center is conducting the study of the Richmond airport, the
Connersville Airport and three other airports in Indiana.

"It's an early stage but this is a very, very important issue," said David
Lips, a consultant for Morton Marcus, an economist at the research center.
"It is a great way to get information about Indiana airports and the
opportunities that SATS has to offer them, as well as obstacles they face."

Lips distributed questionnaires to Richmond Aviation Board members to be
given to several Richmond business leaders in the days ahead.

Aviation board president Bill Smith heard Thursday's presentation and was
excited about the future possibilities.

"Using Richmond as a hub to fly passengers to bigger airports could be an
economical thing for larger airports and could be a boon to us here," Smith
said.

Tony Foster, Richmond director of metropolitan development, said research
center officials were looking for area zoning maps and information on the
airport's budget and operations.

"It was more of an information-gathering exercise," Foster said. "But it
cannot do us any harm. If in the future these types of planes do come to
fruition, I would think we might have an upper hand in landing some of that
type of business."

"In terms of economic development it has the possibility of really helping
the airports and communities in places like Richmond or Connersville," Lips
said.

Marcus was not available for comment Friday.


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