"Economic Impact: Florida airport $3.6 billion dynamo"

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Airport $3.6 billion dynamo for area
Study shows economic impact in 2005; new terminal big generator of business
By Laura Ruane 
The Fort Myers (FL) News-Press


Southwest Florida International had a $3.6 billion impact on the region's
economy last year; Page Field General Aviation Airport contributed another
$50.7 million.

That's according to Ricondo & Associates, Cincinnati-based consultants who
did the $27,700 study released Monday at a meeting of Lee County
commissioners and the airports' advisory board.

The international airport long has been called an economic engine for the
region. Airport director Bob Ball found it only mildly surprising the total
economic impact for the airport was about 74 percent greater than in the
last comprehensive study done by Ricondo for county airports, in 1999. 

"For our airport to be generating $3.6 billion a year for the local economy
- that is what we should be doing," Ball said following the meeting at the
airport's training and conference center.

To add context, Commissioner John Albion asked Ricondo and airport staff to
bring economic impact figures for comparably sized airports to an airport
board meeting in the near future. 

"My impression is we're doing better than similarly sized airports," Albion
said.

In 2005, the international airport's total economic impact represented 8
percent of the total for the region's five counties of Lee, Collier,
Charlotte, Hendry and Glades.

And, even though it's just a year old, the $438 million passenger terminal
south of the runway played a major role - chiefly through increased
employment and higher gross sales at airport shops and restaurants, said
Malcolm Klein, Ricondo director. 

Klein said his firm evaluated direct and indirect impacts of the
international airport to reach the $3.6 billion figure.

Direct impacts include money spent by companies and agencies that do
business at the airport; by visitors who arrive by air; and by travel
agencies within the airport's service area. 

Indirect impacts are the effects of increased employment and spending
created by successive rounds of local spending and hiring.

Lee County's lifeblood, the $2-billion-a-year tourism and hospitality
industry, relies heavily on the airport and airline service. About
two-thirds of Lee's more than 2 million visitors a year arrive by air.

Other findings of the study, which used December 2005 airport statistics as
a reference point: 

   . Jobs: More than 2,500 are based at the international airport, almost
double the 1,400 jobs in 1999.

About 60 percent of the jobs are with airport concessions; employment by
airlines and government agencies each account for about one-fifth of the
total. 

   . Page Field General Aviation Airport: Jobs produced by airport tenants
increased nearly 50 percent, from 154 to 230.

The impact of Page Field Commons, a retail complex that opened in 1999 on
land leased from the airport, was not part of the study.

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