Orval Fairbairn wrote:

Years ago, in California, the California Pilots Assn. got the Division
of Aeronautics to conduct surveys to determine the economic value of the
state's GA airports.

Was this the 1991 Watsonville Airport Economic Study, prepared under
the direction of the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG)?

That's cited he

http://www.watsonvilleairport.com/facts.html

There was also a study of Manassas Regional in 2002 by Infrastructure
Management Group Inc. which found a $45.8 million impact on the local
and county economies and 562 jobs provided by the airport.

Glendale Arizona also did a study:

http://www.ci.glendale.az.us/Airport/impactstudy.cfm

Massachusetts:

http://www.edrgroup.com/edr1/library...economic.shtml

This includes profiles for individual airports. I found this especially
interesting as I've spent a fair bit of time flying into MA airports
for various reasons (though less so since they've mandated prop locks
on transients). Little Chatham Airport has almost 2000 MA visitors
a year (of which my wife and I have been a pair on occasion). That
quiet little strip generates over a million in salary and over four
million in sales.

Culpeper, VA:

http://www.culpepercounty.gov/Airpor...tesArticle.asp

There are plenty of these to be found. Anyone ignoring these has
some agenda that extends beyond the realm of facts involving economic
impact. Yes, airports may receive funds of one sort or another, but so
do roads. The benefits of having roads are pretty clear, but they occur
in ways that are hard to charge back to the road (unless you want toll
booths everywhere {8^). Airports are similar. There's no special sales
tax; they just pay the normal sales tax that everyone else pays. There's
no special payroll tax; just the normal payroll tax that everyone pays.

And so on.

To merely look at the funding provided and call it a drain, ignoring
the benefits, is akin to calling roads a drain because we pay for their
upkeep. It's false to fact, and the claim itself is, as I wrote above,
indication that facts are not the topic of discussion.

Looking at a more global level, there's "The National Economic Impact of
Civil Aviation" from 2002 at:

http://www.gama.aero/dloads/DRI-WEFA...mpactStudy.pdf

Even more global:

http://www.icao.int/icao/en/assembl/a35/wp/wp042_en.pdf

- Andrew