Why would they close the airport? Looking at AirNav, it's the only viable
non-private airport in Iowa City. Unless they were to build another
airport, they would be commiting economic suicide to close a major route of
commerce. It shouldn't be a matter of making the airport itself profitable,
but rather a matter of how much commerce the airport provides to the city.
How do people commute, how do goods and services flow into and out of the
city? What kinds of business can they hope to retain and attract in the
future, etc. etc.

Not sure how far Cedar Rapids is from Iowa City though...

I'd be glad to give you business on my way up to Minnesota/Wisconsin from
Texas one of these days though!

Jason Kennemer

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:NRGTa.130627$N7.18387@sccrnsc03...
Many of you know that our local newspaper has been on the war-path to
close
our local airport. Oh, they don't say it *that* way -- they couch it in
terms of "profitability" and "taxpayer's subsidies" -- but that's what
they
really mean. No one -- from the Mayor on down to the citizenry --
seriously
believes that the airport (a GA airport all the way) could be made
"profitable".

But what if we could close the gap a bit? Our inn has come a long ways in
the first 11 months we've been open, and we're generating a pretty steady
stream of fly-in visitors from all over the country -- which has helped --
but what if we could make Iowa City a "one-stop shopping center" for you
airplane owners?

What if you could come here and visit a first-class avionics shop, along
the
lines of a "Pacific Coast Avionics"? And what if you could get your
interior reupholstered here, too? And how about a paint shop, while
we're
dreaming?

Currently Iowa has successful versions of all these services, but they are
scattered all over the map. We've got a paint shop in little Maquoketa,
and
an aircraft upholstery shop in Clinton, and an avionics place in Waterloo.

Getting anything done is a royal pain in the butt. Wouldn't it be
cool --
and beneficial to ALL -- if we could consolidate them all here in Iowa
City?

A pilot (such as yourself) could come visit for a few days, enjoy a Big
Ten
basketball/football/wrestling/baseball (whatever!) game, take in a play or
performance, enjoy the college town ambiance, stay at our aviation themed
inn -- all while having your new leather interior installed! Or while
having that GNS-430 put in the panel.

I personally think this would be great for ALL the businesses (sort of the
same theory as putting all the car dealers on the same stretch of road in
a
city), and would generate a self-sustaining perpetual motion machine of
aviation business in Iowa City -- thus saving the airport, and (of course)
enhancing our business.

But how? How the heck do you attract business like this to your airport?
Any ideas?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"