How is this possible?

This data, from the FAA website, seems to fly in the face of the
oft-quoted statistic that "we're losing 2 airports a month in the U.S.:

(In case the formatting gets screwed up, the data is showing a net GAIN
of 243 airports from 2002 to 2004!)
************************************************** *****************
Number of U.S. Airports =B9
(As of December 31)
2004 2003 2002
Total Airports................................ 19,815 19,581 19,572
Public Use Airports.................... 5,288 5,286 5,286
# with Paved Runways....... 3,941 3,938 3,940
# with Unpaved Runways.... 1,347 1,348 1,346
# with Lighted Runways....... 4,037 4,026 4,024
# with Unlighted Runways... 1,251 1,260 1,262
Private Use Airports.................. 14,532 14,295r 14,286
# with Paved Runways........ 4,771 4,678 4,632
# with Unpaved Runways... 9,761 9,617 9,654
# with Lighted Runways...... 1,301 1,223 1,183
# with Unlighted Runways.. 13,231 13,072 13,103
Public use airports abandoned... 10 19 16
Private use airports abandoned. 117 214 121
Certificated Airports*.................. 599 628 633
Civil .................................... 542 555 558
Military ................................ 57 73 75
Source: AAS-330
As of: 12/31/04 (202) 267-8752
=B9 Includes civil and joint-use civil-military airports, heliports,
STOLports, and seaplane bases in the U.S. and its territories.
* Certificated airports serve Air Carrier Operations with aircraft
seating more than 9 passengers seats. (FAR Part 139).
************************************************** *********
Heck, even the number of public use airports appears to have risen.
Why is AOPA saying otherwise?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
This data, from the FAA website, seems to fly in the face of the
oft-quoted statistic that "we're losing 2 airports a month in the U.S.:

(In case the formatting gets screwed up, the data is showing a net GAIN
of 243 airports from 2002 to 2004!)
************************************************** *****************

If you examine the figures, the growth is in private airports. Most of those
are non-factors if you're using aviation as transportation.

KB

Almost all new airports are old airports that were not official.

Insurance is more nearly affordable if your airplane is limited to
operations at FAA designated airports. Some owners have been finding
it cheaper to make their airports official than pay for off-airport
landing insurance.

Also, lots of local governments have been putting pressure on private
airport owners to bring the facility "up to code" and make it an
official airport. Most keep them private, but some actually go public.

I'm personally aware of 3 instances of this in Michigan.

So, I'm thinking the AOPA doesn't count them because they're not new
airports, they're old airports with new paperwork. But that's a guess.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
This data, from the FAA website, seems to fly in the face of the
oft-quoted statistic that "we're losing 2 airports a month in the U.S.:
[...]
Heck, even the number of public use airports appears to have risen.
Why is AOPA saying otherwise?

Well, either the FAA stats are wrong, or AOPA's wrong, or you're misquoting
AOPA (where do they say that?). (The number of public airports that closed,
according to the FAA stats, is indeed more than one per month, even though
more than that have opened.)

--Gary

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
This data, from the FAA website, seems to fly in the face of the
oft-quoted statistic that "we're losing 2 airports a month in the U.S.:

I've often wondered about that number. It might be true but I wish it had
some type of verifiable reference, and the reference has the airport name,
location, annual operations, and closure reason.

"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
news
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
This data, from the FAA website, seems to fly in the face of the
oft-quoted statistic that "we're losing 2 airports a month in the U.S.:
[...]
Heck, even the number of public use airports appears to have risen.
Why is AOPA saying otherwise?

Well, either the FAA stats are wrong, or AOPA's wrong, or you're
misquoting AOPA (where do they say that?). (The number of public airports
that closed, according to the FAA stats, is indeed more than one per
month, even though more than that have opened.)

Each one tell their own truth, that's politics both are right but not
correct!

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
[...]
Heck, even the number of public use airports appears to have risen.
Why is AOPA saying otherwise?

Off the top of my head, my recollection is that AOPA's figure is the number
of airports that are closed per time period (week, month, year...whatever
fits their current PR best). Of course, that does ignore the number of
airports that are opened. They aren't talking "net".

It appears that the 2004 numbers don't really match up with "2 airports a
month", but it's easy to see how they translated the 2003 numbers to that.

Anyway, it's just marketing. Even the numbers you post don't tell the whole
story, since they don't address questions such as runway length, proximity
to the urban area served, facilities at the airport, etc. You could open 10
unattended 2000' runways, and still not compensate for the loss of an
airport like Meigs, for example.

Pete

On 14 Aug 2005 09:46:36 -0700, "Jay Honeck" wrote
in . com::

... the data is showing a net GAIN of 243 airports from 2002 to 2004!

It would be interesting to know how many of the new airports are
actually heliports.

"Brien K. Meehan" wrote in message
oups.com...
Insurance is more nearly affordable if your airplane is limited to
operations at FAA designated airports. Some owners have been finding
it cheaper to make their airports official than pay for off-airport
landing insurance.


???. I don't pay more to land at grass strips and private facilities.

Deb

--
1946 Luscombe 8A (his)
1948 Luscombe 8E (hers)
1954 Cessna 195B, restoring (ours)

Interesting, but not really realted to what I said.