“To be honest, FAA would really like to do away with GA. It is a nuisance to them. “
(For those not knowing, GA is General Aviation; single engine, light twins, and other type of airplanes; non-commercial in nature, although, GA airports are used for mail and package companies, charter companies, and other commercial ventures. These airports are simply classified as GA for discussion purposes to distinguish them from the larger commercial airline airports.)
There is the calculus of the story. GA provides half the revenue for GA airports but commercial airports provide many times that in revenue. I fly out of Centennial(KAPA), one of the largest GA airports in the country. We provide $700 million in local revenue and influence. A smaller GA airport out in the sticks might provide at best $1 million, if that, while Denver International Airport or Atlanta or Dallas or LAX are well into the billions of dollars in revenue and influence.
Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) also usually do not like GA airports as they get paid much more for controlling larger commercial airports. Their pay at a GA airport is about 75% of what they could make at a larger commercial airport.
Fuel companies prefer commercial airports as they sell thousands of gallons per airplane versus a few dozen gallons for GA airplane. (A single engine airplane has about a 40 gallon capacity. A Being 757 has 11,500 gallon capacity.)
Counties prefer larger commercial airports as that is billions in revenue versus hundreds of millions or less for GA airports.
What is short sighted is that without the GA airports there would be no place for pilots to train, or mail and package routes for outer lying areas, or medical transport for outer lying areas, or emergency management, or any of the varied services provided by GA airports.
All true but I’m more cynical about why the FAA would like to see GA dead... FREEDOM.
It is possible in other countries to have a private airplane. In some countries and places it is a necessity. Ownership is usually very limited though it can be done. I have an acquaintance outside of Aberdeen that has a hangar, a flying off field and an Auster.
I the US though those that want to experience the freedom of flight still can without being uber wealthy. The average moderately successful man can fly if he really wants to. I should know.
Look at flight aware some day and track the number of GA flights. They are few that file flight plans but there are a lot of small planes flown by just people enjoying the freedom of going where they want to go and when the want to go all across the United States.
Maintenance of the small GA airports is expensive for the FAA and local governments but it is part of our tradition and it does fill all the niches you mention that are of benefit to all of us.
My home field is dying though. There are more dead airplanes on the ramp and in hangars that will never fly again than there are air worth planes. The people with a yearn to fly and the means to fly are dying off. They have lost medicals and so forth but they hang on to the dream and pay for a hangar to put it in. Kids don’t even want to have driver’s licenses any more.