An Assessment of Economic Benefits From Airports: The Building of a Model

Abstract

Past research indicates that significant economic impacts are generated from airports. Over time several airports am statewide systems of airports have been studied am economic impacts determined. However, many airports remain unstudied and the knowledge of community economic impact is vital for airport public relations programs to demonstrate worthiness. Using a recent airport economic impact study conducted by the Illinois Department of Transportation data were subject to multiple regression and correlation procedures in order to build an estimation equation. The results of the study indicate that a very strong relationship exists between several typical airport operational variables such as employment, total based aircrat't, and annual enplanements and total economic impact. Two regression equations were developed for commercial airports and non-commercial airports. These equations were found to be statistically useful as estimating tools for determining total economic impact at a given airport.