CAA: GA News, "Business activity turns many people off to local airports"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@cwnet.com>]

Friday, March 17, 2000

Business activity turns many people off to local airports
GA News


WASHINGTON, DC — Just halfway into a research project, the National Air
Transportation Association is shaking up conventional thinking about the
public’s perception of airports.

The project, known as the American Aviation Access Initiative, began as a
way to collect information that would hopefully encourage Congress and other
policy makers to place greater emphasis on funding general aviation
airports.

After receiving proposals from 14 consulting firms, NATA selected Weber
McGinn to handle the project.

The study has two phases. First Weber McGinn held eight discussion sessions
in four areas of the nation. Now it’s conducting a series of telephone
interviews.

At the roundtable sessions, private citizens who live near airports were
invited to discuss their views on those airports with a discussion leader.
The airports near where they live are each involved with some sort of
controversy. They are:

- Van Nuys, California, the busiest general aviation airport in the United
States. Its operators are under local pressure to restrict night operations.

- Palwaukee, near Chicago, which is in need of runway extensions.

- Flying Cloud, near Minneapolis, is under pressure to stay small.

- Solberg, New Jersey, also in need of runway extension.

Ten people were selected for each focus group. All live within five to 10
miles of an airport. The groups included an equal number of airport
supporters and opponents.

The discussions brought to light several interesting points. Noise and
pollution, thought by many in aviation to be a problem, turns out to be a
non-issue. The fear of turning a general aviation airport into a major
facility with commercial traffic is a real concern for many neighbors,
particularly near Flying Cloud. They also don’t trust government officials
to restrict airports to general aviation.

No one in any of the groups expressed knowledge of technology that makes
engines quieter. Most did not realize that extending a runway actually makes
operations safer. At Van Nuys, some of the “anti-airport” people didn’t even
know there was an airport within 10 miles of their homes.

Since Solberg Airport is in an affluent area, discussions of economic
development fell on deaf ears. That group simply doesn’t want to see their
airport grow to the point where it’s accepting overflow traffic from Newark
International.

The sessions are just one part of the study and should not be taken as an
all-encompassing voice of the nation, warns NATA spokesman Cliff Stroud. A
full report will be released in May at NATA’s annual convention.

Stroud confesses that NATA will be challenged by the prospect of using the
information it gathers to increase support for general aviation airports.

As long as I have been involved with aviation — more than 40 years — I have
disagreed with the industry’s obsession with business. Aviation leaders are
astute business people, so it’s logical for them to believe that the entire
world revolves around business. And while it does in many ways, a
considerable portion of the public doesn’t see it affecting their private
lives.

Funny that the industry complains about the FAA’s “one size fits all”
regulations, for it has been using the same approach in the way it promotes
airports of all sizes, shapes and colors.

About 25 years ago, officials in a county near Washington, DC, wanted to
build a new general aviation airport. The county, in fact, had graded the
land for the runway, only to see a group of residents stop construction. I
met with some of the residents. As it turned out, the airport supporters’
strong emphasis on bringing new business and industry to the area was their
death knell. Residents concluded that more industry, more jobs and more
business also meant more road congestion, and a need for more schools, more
police and more firefighters. They feared their residential county would be
destroyed.

A similar situation occurred in Florida regarding a runway extension, where
a community of predominantly retired people felt threatened by business,
factories and the possible destruction of their way of life. They weren’t
necessarily opposed to the airport itself or the airplanes that would use
it.

Perhaps this NATA project will help people in the aviation community realize
that nobody really wants to buy an airplane, but they will pay hundreds of
thousands of dollars for what an airplane does for them. And, nobody really
wants an airport, but people will welcome a facility that serves as a good
neighbor and helps the community accomplish what it wants in life.

As a great salesman named Red Motley once said, “Sell the sizzle, not the
steak.”

*****************************************
California Aviation Alliance: General Aviation Airport List E-mail Commands
To subscribe to the GA News List, send an email, from the email account you wish to receive your posts on, addressed to listserv@californiaaviation.org and place the following in the first line of the body of the message:
 Subscribe ganews YourFirstName YourLastName YourJobTitle YourAirport/Company 

To unsubscribe from the GA News List, send an email, from the email account you have been receiving your posts on, addressed to listserv@californiaaviation.org and place the following in the first line of the body of the message:
 Unsubscribe ganews YourFirstName YourLastName