Introducing ImpactAir: The Aviation Edge for Communities

I have followed Robert Frost’s advice: I took the road less traveled, and it has made all the difference. 

I  believe that all communities deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential, and my efforts to accelerate economic growth have included serving for 14 years as a Minnesota State Representative. I am also a founding member of Golden Shovel Agency, the leading communications partner dedicated exclusively to economic development, and an avid commercial pilot. 

I am driven by curiosity, and I have had a non-linear career path as a result. Yet all my experience with economic development, my passion for helping communities thrive, and my love of flying have led me to the intersection of aviation and economic development. 

It is, as I have said, an intersection that is little visited. Because while economic growth and vitality is discussed in economic development offices, city council chambers, and state legislatures across the country, economic growth and vitality is discussed, airports are too often muted or excluded from the conversation.  

That's the gap this series exists to close. And, if you need a place to start the conversation with community leadership, complete the Aviation Opportunity Scorecard. 

The premise

Every community with an airport is sitting on a piece of infrastructure that in ideal circumstances will behave less like a transportation amenity and more like an economic development lever. Yet the local airport is chronically underused, underfunded, and misunderstood by the people who could be putting it to work. Not because the opportunity isn't real, but because aviation rarely gets a seat at the table where growth strategy is discussed.

Economic developers plan for water, power, broadband, and workforce pipelines. Airports show up, if at all, as a “nice-to-have’ line item. Meanwhile, the data is clear about the opportunities an airport of any size can provide: general aviation returns tens of dollars in local economic activity for every dollar invested. Corporate site-selection decisions increasingly hinge on aviation access. Hangar capacity, runway lengths, fixed base operators (FBO), and repair facilities are quietly determining which communities capture growth and which ones lose it to the next county over.

ImpactAir: The Aviation Edge for Communities is built to make that case, one topic at a time, to the audiences who each hold a piece of the solution: economic developers, airport executives and managers, and elected officials.

Download ImpactAIR: The Aviation Edge for Communities
 

Where we're starting

The series opens with two connected articles that set up the core thesis.

Hangar Shortages: The Hidden Bottleneck examines how a nationwide shortage of aircraft hangars is quietly capping aircraft sales, airport revenue, and the broader economic activity communities could be capturing from general aviation. It's the clearest, most concrete example of an infrastructure gap that's invisible until it isn't.

Data Centers and the Airport Infrastructure Gap examines the data center rush to chase land, power, and tax incentives into rural and exurban communities and explains how the general aviation infrastructure needed to support that investment (corporate flight access, hangar space, ramp capacity) is too often an afterthought. The article makes the case that airport readiness belongs on the same pre-recruitment checklist as water, power, and fiber.

Together, these two articles make the opening argument of the whole series: aviation infrastructure isn't a downstream amenity that follows growth. It's a precondition for capturing it.
 

Who this is for

If you're an economic developer building a recruitment strategy, an airport executive making the case for capital investment, or an elected official deciding what gets funded this budget cycle, this series is written for you. Aviation offers an edge to communities willing to see it. ImpactAir is the case for why.

Want help using your airport to drive economic development? Request a meeting today.

Ron Kresha is an avid pilot and aviation strategist. He is a leading voice for airport strategy development and economic development. He frequently presents his research at aviation and economic development conferences. He is a founding member of Golden Shovel Agency.