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Dawna L. Rhoades: Assistant Professor at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.
Blaise Waguespack Jr : Assistant Professor at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.
Seth Young: Assistant Professor at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This research was funded by a grant from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida, USA.
Introduction
Over 3.2 million passengers pass through US airports each day. By the year 2009, total US scheduled passenger enplanements per year are expected to reach one billion. In addition, the number of international visitors is expected to double to 100 million. These figures on passenger traffic represent a rise of almost 60 percent (Kansas City Star, 2000). It is estimated that US airports create US$380 billion a year in economic activity. This includes 1.6 million jobs on airport property itself and another 4.2 million in local US communities. The vast majority of these benefits and jobs center on the 30 largest US airports, the so-called (large) hub airports (ACI, 1999). In fact, almost 90 percent of US passengers travel between the largest 75 airports (Barclay, 1997).
It is also estimated that US airports will require an investment of approximately US$60 billion over the next six years in capital development projects such as runways, terminals, access roads, safety and security, and noise mitigation in order to meet future demands (ACI, 1999). Unfortunately, the trend has been heading in the wrong direction; the USA has invested less in public infrastructure over the past 25 years than any other G-7 nation (Thurow, 1996). After months of wrangling, the US Congress has passed a US$40 billion bill to fund aviation programs over the next three years, much of it targeted at airports and air traffic control systems. The bill also approved an increase in the passenger facility charges (PFCs) that can be levied by individual airports to raise funds.
Airports, consumers, and policy makers must now deal with the questions of how, where, and on what the money is to be spent. The different groups must select the airports that will receive funding and determine when and on what the money will be spent. While individual airports may conduct research on service quality issues specific to their airport and various transportation...