This study of the economic contribution of airports to their communities includes the 72 publicly-owned airports in North Carolina, including nine which offer scheduled, commercial air service. Airports provide a vital link to regional, national, and international markets to many businesses in North Carolina. A portion of the revenues generated by these local businesses can be attributed to the provision of access to the markets they serve. The economic contribution results are presented in three categories: direct, indirect, and induced impacts. The indirect and induced impacts capture multiplier impacts. Direct impacts result from firms that are directly engaged in the movement of people or goods through an airport. Indirect impacts represent the impacts of spending by airportrelated firms on products and services provided by support businesses (such as office supply companies, property maintenance, etc.). Induced impacts result from payroll expenditures of employees of directly- and indirectlyrelated firms that produce successive spending (which is money that is re-circulated in an economy resulting in additional economic activity). The direct contributions for general aviation airports came from surveys of airport management, tenants, and major users; while the direct contributions for commercial airports were derived from operations at the airports. IMPLAN (IMpact Analysis for PLANning) multipliers (from the Minnesota IMPLAN Group) were used to generate the indirect and induced contributions of the airport activity, which was also utilized for the tax analysis.

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