A recent post on Air Facts delves into the research of Dr. Michael Jones, which found that approximately 54% of the nearly 5,000 publicly owned airports in the United States are failing to perform as well as they should, mostly due to simple mismanagement.
Jones notes that “some small airports are great to visit, but many are economic ghost towns.”
“What’s worse is that because they’re owned by governments, they can linger like zombies for years, without anybody making effort to fix the problems,” he continued. “These airports are missed opportunity as airports should be dynamic; they should be economic engines actively helping towns to grow, to create jobs and businesses, and help young people find careers.”
He adds that airports are businesses, but because 83% of public use airports in the U.S. are owned by cities, towns, and counties, they are often mis-managed because “governments have difficulties managing for-profit businesses.”
In his study of 236 general aviation airports in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, Jones found “dozens of examples of politicians making perfectly logical decisions which were completely wrong for an airport.”
“A great example is closing the FBO at 5 p.m., or on public holidays, because all government offices close at 5 p.m. and on public holidays,” he said.
Examples of mismanagement abound, and like the ancient torture of “death by a thousand cuts” each mismanaged airport hurts aviation at large, according to Jones.
“Everybody remembers the tragedy of Meigs Field in Chicago, but that’s just one instance of many. There is an airport in a northern climate that has to beg the highway department for snow removal services.”
“Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, is the airport where they made Piper airplanes for more than 40 years, but now the new city council intends to sell off the airport because it ‘costs the town too much.’ In Camas, Washington, an aloof Port Authority manages both a marina and an airport and is so uninterested in the airport they actually have refused federal grants. City officials in Watsonville, California, plan to close a crosswind runway and build 500 homes on the land. In Monroe, N.C., a base customer reports that, ‘The airport manager thinks he has only one customer, and that customer is the city manager.’”
Jones details much more about GA airports in his post, which you can read here. It’s well-worth the time to check it out as there are secondary findings and the promise of more research.
Why is that important?
As Jones said: “It should be no surprise that better management produces better outcomes. But what’s unique, what’s really new here, is this study actually quantifies the havoc created by an inappropriate organizational chart. It defines the cost of having a boss who either doesn’t care about the business or doesn’t understand the business. Knowing how much money is lost can justify the effort and investment to change the system.”
….and don’t forget about the unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. The motto of “we’re not happy, until you’re not happy”, comes to mind!
What I don’t see here is the recognition of the “off budget” monies that flow to the community and not the airport. Sales taxes, property taxes, and gas taxes go off the airport but it never gets credit for the money. Airports shouldn’t make money – they should reinvest into itself for a stable future.
I think the mistake is thinking that a city/county run airport should be profitable. If you look at public libraries, zoos, aquariums, museums, etc., they all require tax money to operate. They take in money from “customers” to help offset costs but they all wouldn’t likely survive without the government money that keeps them going. Airports are no different. There may be profitable businesses on the airport, but the airport itself shouldn’t be seen as a profit-making entity.
Years ago, my city-run airport was turned over to the town’s Public Works Dept. when the airport’s director retired. The Public Works folks had no clue about aviation and that move nearly killed the airport. The pilots banded together and made the city see the error of their ways, which then hired a new proper director.
“governments have difficulties managing for-profit businesses.” Well, of course. Government’s primary focus is self-perpetuity, ie creation and maintenance of government jobs. They are rewarded by the tight relationship with government works contractors who play the system to provide a constant flow of gold-plated “improvements” to government-owned airports with little interest in the ROI to taxpayers. I was a member of the NCAA (North Carolina Airports Association) for a few years and was shocked to see the level of cronyism that exists, and this includes the Aviation Division of the NCDOT. Private airports that are truly private (see BQ1 in NC, for example, home to the popular PiknPig BBQ restaurant and James McConnell Aviation Museum) are thriving, and without a cent of taxpayer support and minimal government meddling. Thousands of private grass strips exist, and more are being created as especially sport aviators flee the high cost and unfriendly environments of government-owned airports. There really is only one solution to the problems at government airports – sell them off to private investors. Some will turn a profit and survive. Others won’t, which is also good for taxpayers. With a $34T national debt, cuts are coming soon anyway.
I’m sure the non-pilot taxpayers in many small communities would be thrilled to stop paying any monies to run the local airport they never use. But when the unprofitable local airport closes down, the GA pilots in those communities won’t be quite as happy.
Winter Haven (KGIF) is a good example. While it’s a nice airport with a good restaurant that’s about all I can say. I was going there for a wedding and I called the FBO and Hertz rent a car and told them I was on the way, but would be about an hour late due to Weather. They close at 1900 and I got there at 1830. Found out Hertz gave my car away and the only airport employee there was in the process of closing up. Fortunately that employee there was a good one and he waited for me to unload and close up the aircraft. He gave me a ride to the hotel because there is no Uber or Taxi service in Winter Haven. If it wasn’t for that concerned employee I would have had to sleep in the plane that night.
‘Consultants’ are paid to reach conclusions. Usually , the conclusion is most likely the one that the client wants (pays) to hear.
There are a couple of interesting conclusions in this research, as follows:
“In my opinion, many municipal-owned airports don’t perform well because governments have difficulties managing for-profit businesses”.
“Privately-owned and/or “privatized” airports (where the operations are outsourced to a private company) almost always under-perform”.
So publicly-owned airports don’t perform well, and privately-owned airports almost always under-perform. Maybe the problem here is thinking that every airport needs to be high-performing and profitable. In many small communities I suspect that’s just not likely, and I would guess that if these communities had to rely on a profitable, privately-owned airport, they wouldn’t have an airport at all.