Analysis of the role and needs of business aviation users in Texas: The development and application of a business airport functional category

The Texas Airport System is one that has developed over time in a fairly unstructured manner. Many of the airports now in the system began as private airstrips or were military airfields that have subsequently been transferred to public entities. Since 1970, the state began to view the airports in a system context and to plan accordingly, establishing goals and objectives to evaluate their importance to the state and to identify areas of need. While work has been done to determine how well the general aviation airport system meets the needs of the state in terms of general criteria and system plan goals, little has been done to address the needs of perhaps its most important users, the business community.; This research uses survey data collected from business aircraft users in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana to develop a business jet functional category. The data includes information on the aircraft, locations, airports, facilities, and services used by business aircraft users in Texas in an effort to establish their needs. It also examines the users with respect to the type and size of the company and the aircraft they use. A new functional category is developed and applied to determine if such a planning approach of focusing on the needs of business aircraft users can improve the state's airport system. Also, two of the state's system plan objectives are evaluated to determine how well the state's airports provide access to the economic centers of the state. The new functional category provides a means to do this and the evaluation includes how well they provide business jet access to these economic centers. This research also examines the role of business jet airports in the economic growth of the areas they serve.; Results show that Texas' airports do provide adequate access to business aircraft users as measured by population and economic activity within a 25-mile radius of the state's economic centers. Additionally, the presence of a business jet airport did not significantly contribute to economic growth but some business jet airport functional category elements did prove to be significant for economic growth.