Community Relations and Communicating Your Value

Why Community Relations Matters

Most people in your community have never been to your airport. They do not understand what it does, who uses it, or why it matters to them. In the absence of information, assumptions fill the gap — and those assumptions are usually wrong. People assume the airport serves only wealthy hobbyists. They assume it costs taxpayers money without providing benefits. They assume it creates noise and pollution without contributing to the local economy.

These assumptions are dangerous because they shape political decisions. When a city council member does not understand why the airport matters, the airport's budget is vulnerable. When a county planning commission does not understand airspace protection, residential development gets approved in approach corridors. When a community does not see value in its airport, closure becomes a politically viable option.

Your job is to ensure that your community has accurate information about what the airport does and why it matters. You are not selling anything — you are filling an information gap that, left empty, will be filled by people who do not understand aviation.

Communicating Your Airport's Economic Impact

The most powerful tool in your community relations toolkit is specific, local, credible data about your airport's economic contribution. General statements about aviation's importance to the national economy are too abstract — your community cares about what the airport means for their county, their town, their tax base.

What to Measure and Communicate

• Jobs. How many people work at the airport and at businesses on the airport? Include FBO staff, flight instructors, maintenance technicians, airport management, and employees of any other on-field businesses. These are local jobs that would not exist without the airport.
• Payroll. What is the total annual payroll generated by airport-based businesses? This represents income flowing directly into the local economy.
• Business access. Which local businesses use the airport for travel, freight, or operations? Business owners who rely on the airport for customer visits, supplier access, or time-critical shipments are powerful advocates because their testimony connects the airport to jobs and economic activity that the community already values.
• Emergency services. Document the airport's role in medical evacuation, law enforcement operations, search and rescue, firefighting, and disaster response. These are services the community depends on, and many of them depend on the airport.
• Property tax revenue. Airport improvements, tenant improvements, and aircraft stored on the field generate property tax revenue for the local jurisdiction. Quantify this contribution.
• Capital investment. How much federal and state grant money has flowed into your community through the airport? AIP grants represent outside investment that would not exist without the airport — and that goes directly to local contractors and suppliers.

Engaging Your Stakeholders

ACRP Synthesis 65 documents effective practices that smaller airports use to develop and maintain stakeholder relationships. The research identifies several strategies that consistently produce results.

Know Your Stakeholders

Your stakeholders are broader than you might think. Beyond tenants and pilots, your stakeholder universe includes elected officials and their staff, local planning and zoning boards, neighboring property owners, business owners who use or benefit from the airport, schools and educational institutions, civic organizations, media outlets, and the general public.

Each group has different interests and different information needs. Elected officials care about economic impact and constituent complaints. Neighbors care about noise and property values. Business owners care about access and reliability. Tailor your communication to what each group cares about most.

Proactive Outreach

Do not wait for a crisis to communicate with your community. Build relationships and visibility during normal times so that you have a foundation of goodwill and understanding when challenges arise.

Effective outreach activities for small airports include:

• Open houses and airport days. Invite the public onto the airport for a day of tours, static aircraft displays, and conversations with pilots and airport staff. These events demystify the airport and give people positive experiences to associate with it.
• Fly-in events. Pancake breakfasts, fly-in drives, and aviation celebrations bring the aviation community and the general public together in a relaxed setting. They also generate positive media coverage.
• School partnerships. Work with local schools to offer airport tours, career days, and STEM education programs connected to aviation. Young people who experience the airport firsthand grow into adults who understand and support it.
• Civil Air Patrol and EAA chapters. Partner with CAP squadrons, EAA chapters, and other aviation organizations that already have community engagement as part of their mission.
• Local government participation. Attend city council, county commission, and planning board meetings regularly — not just when the airport needs something. Being a visible, engaged member of the local government process builds relationships and credibility.

Managing Noise Complaints

Noise is the most common source of friction between airports and their neighbors. At small GA airports, the noise levels are far lower than at commercial airports, but complaints still occur — especially from newer residents who moved into the area after the airport was established and did not fully understand what living near an airport would mean.

How to Respond to Noise Complaints

Take every noise complaint seriously, even if the complaint seems unreasonable. The way you respond to a single complaint can determine whether that neighbor becomes a long-term adversary or a neutral party. Some principles:

• Listen and acknowledge. Let the complainant describe their experience without being defensive. Acknowledging that the noise is real to them costs you nothing and defuses hostility.
• Explain, don't dismiss. Provide factual information about the type of activity (flight training, pattern work, helicopter operations), when it typically occurs, and what voluntary noise abatement procedures are in place.
• Document every complaint. Keep a log of all noise complaints including date, time, caller information, the nature of the complaint, and any actions taken. This record is important for identifying patterns and for defending the airport if noise becomes a political issue.
• Offer to follow up. If you can identify the specific aircraft or operation that generated the complaint, a follow-up conversation — letting the caller know what you found and what, if anything, can be done — demonstrates that you took their concern seriously.

Voluntary Noise Abatement

Many small airports publish voluntary noise abatement procedures that encourage pilots to use preferred runway configurations, avoid overflight of noise-sensitive areas when practical, and limit operations during early morning and late evening hours. These procedures must be voluntary — the airport cannot restrict access to an FAA-approved runway or prohibit legal flight operations — but they demonstrate good faith and can reduce the volume and intensity of complaints.

FAA Advisory Circular 90-66C provides guidance on recommended operating procedures at non-towered airports, including noise-sensitive operations. Publicize your noise abatement procedures through pilot handouts, signage in the FBO, the Airport/Facility Directory, and your airport's online presence.

Working with Media

Local media coverage of airports tends to follow a pattern: silence during normal operations, intense interest when something goes wrong (accidents, noise disputes, political controversy), and occasional feature stories about unusual aircraft or events. You can influence this pattern by being a proactive, accessible source of positive stories rather than a reactive one that only surfaces during crises.

Build a relationship with your local newspaper, TV station, and radio outlet before you need them. Invite reporters to cover airport events. Offer yourself as a resource when aviation-related stories arise. When the inevitable negative story does occur, a reporter who already knows you and has covered positive stories about the airport is more likely to present a balanced perspective.

Online Presence

Your airport should have a current, informative website or web presence — even if it is a single page on your city or county's site. At a minimum, provide the airport's location, contact information, runway information, fuel availability, hangar availability status, noise abatement procedures, and links to your master plan and minimum standards documents.

An airport with no web presence signals to tenants, transient pilots, and prospective businesses that the facility is not professionally managed. A basic but current web page signals that someone is paying attention.

The Long Game

Community relations is not a project with a finish line — it is an ongoing responsibility that requires consistent effort over years and decades. The airports that have the strongest community support are the ones where the manager shows up to planning meetings, invites neighbors to events, responds to complaints with professionalism, and consistently communicates the airport's value in terms the community understands.

The investment in community relations pays dividends in every other aspect of airport management. When you need a local match for a grant project, community support makes the appropriation easier. When a developer proposes incompatible construction near the airport, a community that values the airport pushes back. When your budget comes up for review, elected officials who understand the airport's contribution are less likely to cut it.

Community support is earned through consistent, honest engagement. There is no shortcut, and there is no substitute.