By Judy Anderson Chances are, a fair number of Hale County residents have never set foot in the Plainview-Hale County airport. In fact, most air passengers hit the interstate first, driving 35 minutes to Lubbock to board their commercial carriers of choice.
So why is airport Manager Mike Hutcherson planning a $2 million airport improvement project?
Here’s why: Wal-Mart … Excel … Cargil … Pioneer HiBred … ADM Milling … Koch Industries … Peterson Farms … McCoy’s Building Supplies … United Supermarkets.
Personnel from virtually every major corporation in Plainview take off and land at this Panhandle general aviation airport, which logs about 30,000 operations each year. Transportation experts estimate the airport contributes more than $ IO million to the local economy.
“It becomes a gateway to the community,” said Linda Howard of the Texas Department of Transportation.
General aviation airports support air transport for everything except scheduled passengers and the military. This includes regular delivery of goods to distribution centers, flights of entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses in town and the lifesaving transport of ailing patients to big-city medical facilities.
County airports constitute a fair portion of the Lone Star state’s air system. Of Texas’ 300-plus airports, 84 are county-owned general aviation airports and another 19 are under a joint city-county partnership, according to Howard, director of TxDOT’s Aviation Division, Planning and Programming Section.
A county’s commitment to its airport can have a major impact on the potential rippling effect an airport can trigger in the local economy.
Just ask the folks in Karnes County.
Playing Catch Up
The folks of the city of Kenedy and Karnes County received a rude awakening when two businesses up and left the vicinity, taking families, jobs and revenue to boot. Their reason, the runway at the Karnes County Airport was too short.
Since then, the powers that have spent substantial sums of money updating the facility, according to a report prepared by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University and TxDOT.
On the positive side, the airport houses an aircraft restoration business that attracts clients from as far away as Alaska. In addition, the town’s Wal-Mart chose to locate in the area because of airport accessibility.
Houston County Judge Chris von Doenhoff tells a similar tale.
When GTE asked the county if it had plans for its airport, the county said, “No.”
GTE said, “Thanks,” and proceeded to pull its regional office out of Crockett. Its reason, GTE has minimum airport requirements, and the airport wasn’t up to par.
Another significant employer, UPS agreed, and took its business elsewhere because of airport inadequacies.
Since then, a runway that was once too short and narrow is now longer and wider, according to the A&M report. And businesses are once again considering Houston County for operations.
A Values Lesson
Practically every committed airport manager can cite numerous ways an airport benefits its community, including provision of access and attraction of industry.
However, assigning a dollar value to an airport calls for in-depth analysis. As part of, its Airport Master Plan, Aransas County decided to investigate just how much its airport meant to the community, monetarily.
Researchers found the total economic significance of the Aransas County airport is approximately $7.6 million.
The study cited two primary areas of significance:
1. Transportation benefits, defined as time saved and costs avoided by travelers who use the airport over the next best alternative.
2. Economic impacts, explained as regional economic activities such as employment and wealth that can be attributed to the operation of the local airport.
Within the scope of economic impact, experts researched the direct, indirect and induced impacts of the airport.
- Direct impacts are immediate consequences of on-site airport activity (jobs, aerial spray operators, flying clubs, etc.).
- Indirect impacts occur off-site, including services provided by hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and retail establishments that serve business and recreational travelers.
- Induced impacts are tallied by applying appropriate multipliers to direct and indirect values. For example, an airport mechanic spends his paycheck, causing a multiplier effect. Experts estimate $1 turns over between one and three times in the local economy.
In conclusion, the study estimated that the Aransas County airport provided a transportation benefit of about $4.1 million and an economic impact of $3.5 million, resulting in an economic significance of $7.6 million.
While other counties may not have succinct dollar quantifiers, they can justify their airport commitment in just a few sentences, as testified to transportation experts at Texas A&M and TxDOT:
- Tyson Chickens would not have settled in Carthage if there had not been an airport facility – the Carthage/Panola County Airport, to be specific.
- Lowe’s chose Franklin County’s Mount Vernon as one of four distribution centers in the United States, thanks to the local airport.
- Industries such as Reynolds Metals, Oxy-Chem, DuPont, Aker-Gulf Marine, Brown and Root, and McDermott all have planes based at the T.C. Campbell Airport in Ingleside, located in San Patricio County.
- The clientele of the Gamer Field Airport in Uvalde is global, with aircraft from around the world brought in for refurbishing by Sierra Industries. The Chamber of Commerce estimates the airport’s business activity generates “$20 million per year – money brought into the community from outside sources, not just recirculated within the community.
Editor’s Note: Julie Anderson is a contributing writer for the Texas County Progress. This article was first published in TCP December 1999.
