Last Mile in General Aviation—Courtesy Vehicles and Other Forms of Ground Transportation (2020)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

3 An airport representative relayed a pilot’s comment, “If I fly into your airport but can’t get to your community, I might as well be on an island.” Translation: I will not be able to support your local businesses and cannot contribute to your economy. I will probably not return. This is not the perception a community strives to achieve. After all, a community’s airport is the front door to the community and the last vision the pilot and passengers will remember. General aviation can be described as all civilian flying except scheduled passenger airline service. General aviation is composed of various types of flying such as recreational, instruc- tional, and commercial operations of aircraft of all sizes ranging from small single engine aircraft up to large turbine aircraft. These activities may benefit communities in several ways. A few services provided may include, but are not limited to, emergency medical evacuation, law enforcement, tourism, crop spraying, utility line inspections, and of course, delivering cargo and personnel to regional businesses. General aviation has an advantage of flexibility and may deliver services to airports not serviced by scheduled passenger airlines. Often, these include rural or smaller general aviation airports located outside the commercial business district, and there may not be a form of public trans- portation to connect the airport with the final destination, or the last mile of the traveler. Many airports are innovative in their assistance in providing transportation services to meet this demand. This may include various arrangements to provide such modes as public trans- portation, public-private partnerships, or donated vehicles. A common practice might be to provide an airport courtesy vehicle, which in many cases is simply the city donating an old police car prior to declaring it surplus property. On the other end of the spectrum, there are airport communities that are not supplying ground transportation and may be contemplating the development of a program to address acquisition, maintenance, liability, policy, and so on. This study will focus on the needs of general aviation airports to provide last mile service for travelers to connect them to their final destination. Representative airports utilizing general aviation were asked about their specific modes of transportation, programs, policies, and pre- ferred management practices to assist others with the development and implementation of a last mile transportation plan. Statement of Purpose The objective of this research is to compile options, existing resources, experiences, and effec- tive tools for a sustainable last mile strategy to connect users of small airports to the community. The audience for this synthesis of practice includes airport managers, operators, airport sponsor agencies, local elected officials, and fixed-base operators (FBO). C H A P T E R 1 Introduction

4 Last Mile in General Aviation—Courtesy Vehicles and Other Forms of Ground Transportation A Note on Airport Classification Terminology In 2012, the FAA completed a study that examined the roles that general aviation airports play in the national system. That report further divided airports into four asset categories of basic, local, regional, and national based on a number of criteria including levels of activity, types of aircraft, and other functions. The latest National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) report may be located here: https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/npias/reports/media/NPIAS-Report-2019- 2023-Narrative.pdf. The study may also include reliever airports and several commercial service airports with a strong general aviation component. Commercial service airports utilized will include small hub and nonhub as defined by the NPIAS. Scope of This Study General aviation supports a community economic ecosystem. Maintaining easy connectivity between the community and the airport is an important focus of airport owners/operators and FBO tenants. Travelers arrive and depart from small airports intending visits to diverse off-airport locations. Ground transportation between the general aviation facility and those locations may be less available at small community-owned airports without regular scheduled service. Last mile transportation could be supplied by a range of transportation services found regularly at large airports. Last mile solutions such as courtesy vehicles, shuttles, taxis, rental cars, public transit, transportation network companies (TNC), bicycles, and partnerships with non traditional vehicle operators can deliver connectivity. Nonprimary commercial service airports that may also have last mile connectivity issues will gain valuable information from this synthesis of practice, but specific practices to serve passengers at these airports are not included. This synthesis research compiles practice in last mile connectivity and provides a concise report with supporting appendices from information gathered including: • Background on the importance of last mile connectivity. • Compilation of existing literature on last mile transportation options. • Survey of airports and FBOs (diverse geography, size, community characteristics) on existing last mile transportation options: – Basic airport information. – How courtesy vehicles are procured, operated, insured, and maintained. – Types and numbers of courtesy vehicles. – Coordination strategies with potential providers such as rental car, local vehicle dealerships, taxis, transit, TNCs, and so on. – Protocols to manage arrangements, including risk management and security consider- ations, facilities/staging, equipment, operations—staging/lighting/access control, com- munication, marketing, and public information. – Fees, budgeting, and cost. • End user needs, challenges, and preferences. • Case examples from interviews of airport operators, FBOs, pilots, and/or transportation providers for each type of last mile solution describing genesis, results, challenges, and lessons learned.

Introduction 5 Background on the Importance of Last Mile Connectivity A community’s airport should be recognized as a valuable asset contributing to the local economy. General aviation airports are extremely valuable to the nation’s economy. The Air- craft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) lists the following statistics on its website (http:// download.aopa.org/hr/Report_on_General_Aviation_Trends.pdf): • General aviation is all civilian flying except scheduled passenger airline service. • An estimated 65 percent of general aviation flights are conducted for business and public services that need transportation more flexible than the airlines can offer. • More than 90 percent of the roughly 220,000 civil aircraft registered in the United States are general aviation aircraft. • More than 80 percent of the 609,000 pilots certificated in the United States fly general aviation aircraft. • *General aviation generates more than $150 billion in economic activity annually and creates 7.6 million jobs. • *Nationally, civil aviation contributed 5.1 percent of the GDP, but at the state level, the value of contribution to a state’s GDP ranges from a high of 19 percent (Hawaii) to a low of 0.5 percent (Delaware). * Economic impacts from the 2017 report from the FAA, “The Economic Impact of Civil Avia- tion on the U.S. Economy: Economic Impact of Civil Aviation by State.” FAA state economic impact analysis conducted using the RIMS 2 macroeconomic modeling tool. https://www.faa. gov/about/plans_reports/media/2017-economic-impact-report.pdf. The AOPA presents impressive statistics that may not be known to many persons in local general aviation communities. Many local citizens, businesses, and even governmental officials do not realize the importance of general aviation and the current and potential impacts the local airport contributes to the economy. The general aviation airport is vital to the community for its welcoming and departing per- ception. The airport is a vital component for economic development and enhancement. It has demonstrated general aviation delivers economic activity to the nation’s communities. It is equally vital communities roll out the red carpet and welcome their general aviation pilots and passengers. This process should acknowledge the ground transportation options to deliver these guests to their final destination. Study Methodology Literature Review Available literature on topics associated with general aviation ground transportation alterna- tives to include courtesy vehicles was reviewed using searches in the open web (Google). Avail- able literature found is located in the Bibliography of this report. Previous related ACRP research and synthesis reports formed the important and relevant resources for this study. They include ACRP Report 146: Commercial Ground Transportation at Airports: Best Practices and ACRP Report 17: Airports and the Newest Generation of General Aviation Aircraft, Vol. 2: Guidebook. Survey There were 60 general aviation airports contacted to participate in the survey. For the purpose of this study, the research team focused exclusively on general aviation airports from

6 Last Mile in General Aviation—Courtesy Vehicles and Other Forms of Ground Transportation all FAA asset categories including basic, local, regional, and national categories. This included a number of nonprimary commercial service and reliever airports when the research team anticipated scalable results that may be applicable to smaller airports. Additionally, a wide geographical representation was sampled with 32 states and all FAA regions included in the survey group. The survey sample was diverse not only geographically but also in size of general aviation airport with varied community characteristics. The locations of the airports in the survey are depicted in Figure 1. A summary of survey responses is in Appendix B. Interviews and Case Examples The research team conducted follow-up interviews with airports willing to be interviewed and/or if their survey responses indicated unique contexts and practices for executing a ground transportation plan at their airport. Interviews also included state aviation associations, state departments of transportation—aeronautics divisions, and pilot perspectives. The case exam- ples are located in Chapter 5. Data Analysis The literature review, survey, and case example interviews were analyzed to identify practices that were effective for delivering last mile ground transportation to users of general aviation airports and the communities that they serve. The research team examined forms, agreements, and other documents in use by airports to draw out common themes and tools that may Figure 1. Airport location map. (Source: AirportAdmin, LLC, Survey Results, Google Maps.)

Introduction 7 provide resources to airports contemplating development of ground transportation alterna- tives. Graphical representation of the data is presented in the report when applicable to support relevant industry practice and present findings. General aviation communities may find themselves with limited resources requiring unique innovations to get the job done. Through interviews and surveys, this research report discovered airport operators implementing creative approaches to providing the last mile connectivity while meeting budgetary and liability concerns.