PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A new study says the three Berkshire airports generate $37.5 million and 298 jobs for the county.
The statewide economic impact study completed by the state Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division released on Tuesday looked at all of the state's airports in terms of economic activity and related jobs. The totals were derived from on-site impacts — such as flight schools, aircraft maintenance, sponsors, military, operations — added to off-site impacts — such as spending at restaurants, hotels and entertainment as well as capital improvement projects.
The Walter J. Koladza Airport in Great Barrington is directly responsible for the employment of 38 people and about $1 million in payroll and benefits, which translates to $2.5 million in total economic output, the report says. The Pittsfield Municipal Airport employs 125 with a payroll just short of $5 million with an overall economic impact of just under $18 million. Harriman & West Airport in North Adams is responsible for 135 jobs, a payroll of about $5.3 million and a total impact just short of $17 million.
"The airports of the Berkshires are proven economic engines for the commerce and tourism in the region, creating jobs directly while making many more jobs possible in the private sector," said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Richard A. Davey in a press release.
To no surprise, the biggest contributor to the statewide economy is Boston Logan International Airport, which is responsible for nearly 95,000 jobs and an economic impact nearing $9 billion. Overall airports contribute to the employment of 124,369 people with payroll and benefits accounting to close to $4.9 billion with a total economic impact of $11 billion. The state estimates $576 million is collected in tax revenue because of the airports.
"The economic impact study confirms what the aviation community statewide understands about the vital role our airports play in providing safe transportation for commerce, military, and recreational users," Christopher Willenborg, MassDOT Aeronautics Division administrator, said in the statement.
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Oh, since it's national general aviation month, I think I'll go out and buy a plane. What a bunch of crap. What was the price of oil/aviation fuel when these reports were crafted? How do they know how much people spend at restaurants?
What's one of the first industries to feel the pinch when the price of oil increases?
Short-term, short-sighted thinking.
I'd like to see a report that takes those millions of dollars and invests in the large number (and growing) of CSA's, small raw milk dairies, composting, or almost any kind of small farm and see what the economic impact would be to the area. Both in jobs created and low cost healthy food.
Thanks for the link. Based on this document, it would appear that the type of study done was an Input/Output Model.
"Input/Output (I/O) Models. These are essentially accounting tables which trace the
linkages of inter-industry purchases and sales within a given county, region, state or
country. They utilize information on both technologies ("What inputs from other
industries are used to produce a dollar of product for each specific industry?") and
local trade ("How much of a given industry's purchases are supplied by other firms
located within the study area?"). The I/O model yields "multipliers" that are used to
calculate the total direct, indirect and induced effect on jobs, income and output
generated per dollar of spending on various types of goods and services in the study
area."
The document offers the following warning about the I/O model:
"However, I/O models have
significant limitations because they do not cover dynamic impacts over time. Used
alone, they assume that there are no impacts on wage levels, property values, prices
or costs of other product inputs or outputs, no change in labor or capital productivity
( the ratio of output per unit of input), and no change in population or business in/out
migration patterns."
Nor does the study take into account the huge amounts of pollution that is generated by the aviation industry.
I do not believe for a moment that the North Adams airport has 135 people working there.A small fixed base operation, TurboProp, Cole East and a small repair shop do not have anywhere near that amount of people.Where did they get these numbers? I recall a high and very inflated number given for flight operations at Harriman & West a while back and have to ask wher they get these numbers from.
