Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The establishment of airports and air services brings with it the need for techni-
cal support, which extends from governmental administration through to qualified
mechanics. The training and quality-control requirements result in improved total
industrial capability. This technological spin-off has a particular part to play around
airports in developing regions, where the airport can form a base for local industry.
Indeed, the airport is often the only place where clean water and a consistent supply
of electrical power can be found. The effect of an airport can then be beneficial both
technically and through increased job opportunities, and real meaning can be attached
to the multiplier effect. The principal benefits are, however, unlikely to show up in the
short term in calculations of economic contribution, input-output or cost-benefit
analyses since they are embodied in the changes in local skills and perspectives.
Difficulties in quantifying benefits
Many criticisms have been levelled at the ways in which the impacts of airport activ-
ity have been quantified in applying the FAA methodology. This includes, first, the
way in which all other sectors of the economy could claim corresponding indirect
and induced effects. Second, this includes the way in which the multiplier argument
can only be applied to self-contained regions that provide no alternative consump-
tion (so that it can be assumed that if the consumer refrains from buying an air
ticket, he or she will neither buy anything else nor invest it where it would be spent
by someone else). Third, there is the way in which the indirect effects and multiplier
effects can easily be double-counted (Karyd and Brobeck, 1992). The UK CAA has
noted several of the more important objections (CAA, 1994), pointing out that
there are cross effects of increased air transport on other modes, both by diversion
from another mode and from increased loading of the airport access systems. More
importantly, it is the additional impact of investment in airports over and above the
impact that would accrue from alternative investments that matters. Also, trade and
tourism operate in both directions. Not only is it the net effect which should be cal-
culated; but the result depends upon how the denied passenger would have behaved.
These demand-side benefits may redistribute economic activity, and thus assist
in regeneration, but they will not give an overall net long-term benefit to the national
economy unless they are accompanied by supply-side improvements. These may arise
through improving the level of competition; economies of scale (agglomeration econ-
omies); improved labour markets, productivity or skill levels; and locational effects
(DETR, 1999). Improvement in the efficiency of production will be reflected in user
benefits. The other net effects will vary in importance case by case, and are much
harder to quantify. Even most of the benefits of regenerating an economy are likely
to be captured in user benefits. Furthermore, the unit benefit probably reduces as
activity expands, while the unit cost of additional infrastructure probably increases
(Grayling, 2001). However, a positive sign is that aviation is a highly productive sec-
tor of the economy (Oxford Economic Forecasting, 1999).
Given the preponderance of UK holidaymakers among UK regional airport pas-
sengers, the net effect on the UK region's economy might well be negative, even
though most of the holiday spending goes to UK airlines, airports and tour opera-
tors, rather than to foreign economies. On the other hand, the psychological impact