A recent article from Georgia Public Broadcasting News explored impacts
of the economic recession on community airports finding that most
public-use facilities have been hit hard by the recession, meanwhile,
the Cartersville-Bartow County Airport is thriving.
Where most
have faltered in the past four years, a study from the Georgia
Department of Transportation shows that the Cartersville airport
contributed more than $50 million to the local economy in 2010.
Supporting 436 jobs with a payroll of $15.7 million, the airport
accounted for $37 million in operational output and $2.3 million in
visitor output combined with an economic impact multiplier of $13.3
million to create a total economic output of $52.7 million.
To
compare the Cartersville airport against others in the state, the
economic impact of $52.7 million outpaces two of Georgia's nine
commercial-service airports and is fourth in economic impact outside the
perimeter -- behind Fulton County-Brown Field, Cobb County-McCullom
Field and Gwinnett County-Briscoe Field.
Chairman of the
Cartersville-Bartow County Airport Authority Bob Hite places the overall
success of the airport on the shoulders of Phoenix Air.
"I don't
think there's any doubt, Phoenix is the driving force because they are a
worldwide operation. They've got big airplanes, expensive airplanes
that take a lot of fuel, a lot of maintenance," Hite said.
A
testament to the impact made primarily by Phoenix Air is the comparison
to nearby Russell Regional in Rome with a total economic impact of $7.5
million.
Phoenix Air is touted in the study as a primary
contributor to the airport's economic impact citing private and
government contracts for services ranging from air-ambulance and
high-priority air cargo transport to electronic warfare and
weapons-training defense.
Airport Operations Manager Fritz Dent
gives credit to the air-ambulance service for continued success during
the past four years.
"Our air-ambulance business is something
that has kept us going through the recession, we also have government
contracts that have helped us greatly, but the air-ambulance business is
something you can't cut back. So it has helped us greatly along the
way," Dent said.
The study also names Southland Aviation and RMZ
Aviation for their impact. Both are maintenance, repair and fabrication
shops housed at the Cartersville airport.
"Southland has got a
fantastic capability, they've probably got some capabilities that very
few people east of the Mississippi can do. For instance, right now,
they're putting the leading edge on an airplane that corrosion had
gotten to. Average run-of-the-mill shops don't have the expertise or
equipment to fabricate the leading edge of an airplane," Hite said.
"RMZ, he is into composites. More and more airplanes now are using
composite parts and there are not a lot of people that have the
expertise to repair them. I was in there the other day and he had a part
for a plane out of Oklahoma, somebody shipped a part in for repair.
"Those two facilities have a lot of expertise and I really think we're going to see RMZ grow."
Corporate
travel also was cited in the study, specifically naming Komatsu and
Goshen Corporation for their use of the airport to transport goods,
people and equipment. Hite added Walmart to that list as regular
corporate customers coming through the Cartersville airport as he spoke
to the impact of airports on economic development.
"We talk about
what brings plants -- libraries, schools, culture, but an airport has
more to do with locating business than anything else. Anheuser-Busch
would never have put a brewery here if we did not have an airport that
would accommodate their jets," Hite said. "People don't realize just how
important an airport really is."
Where other publicly-owned
airports are dealing with economic constraints, the Cartersville
airport's only limit is space. Hemmed in on every side, the airport is
unable to grow as needed. Under heavy regulation, airports must undergo
extensive planning before expansion can take place and the physical
limitations of the Cartersville airport's physical location adds to the
challenges of Federal Aviation Administration compliance.
After
adding 30 new hangars for general aviation aircraft just two years ago,
the waiting list for hangar space is now between 75 and 100 customers
long.
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