In article 4UO9e.5395$r53.732@attbi_s21, Jay Honeck wrote:
Why is aviation in France statistically out of proportion with its
population, as compared with the US, if NOT because of cost?

Cost is certainly one of the most important factors, but I wager even if
avgas was tax free in France, you'd still not see the activity level you
get in the US (due to more reliable and cheaper methods of convenient
high speed transportation, and the shorter distances).

Case in point: aviation isn't really any cheaper in the Isle of Man, but
there are quite a lot of privately owned planes given our small (78000)
population - we have two active GA airports. This is because you can't
drive or take a fast train to Britain and Ireland's cities due to 60nm
of open water. Now compare League City, Texas, which has a population at
least as large as ours (if not larger) by now - which elected to allow
its only airport to have houses built on it, even though it could have
got 90% Federal funding for the airport.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"