Seven Reasons Why Local Airfields are an Important Asset to the Community

1. Airfields are important conduits for economic activity, attracting businesses, and generating jobs. 

When it comes to receiving bids and new contracts for businesses in the region, having access to nearby airfield transportation links is a major benefit. If an airfield is close enough, domestic investors and those from abroad are far more likely to select a town or city with a local airfield as a place to invest. 

Those directly involved with and employed at the airfield are not the only ones who benefit from its existence. All sorts of ancillary services and business, from ground and building maintenance and taxi companies to suppliers of food, fuel, and flowers, find new customers at the airfield. 

Airfields are the training ground for all kinds of aviation jobs. The trainee that begins a part-time job at an airfield gains valuable experience for a career in air traffic control, at major airports, or with the airlines. Airfields are the starting point for ab initio student pilots who one day fly airliners.

2. Airfields are a wildlife haven 

Airfields have wide-open areas on both sides of the runway and a secure border. Although the area immediately surrounding the runway is barren of trees and vegetation, and the grass is cut regularly, there is ample room for wildflowers, nesting birds, and small animals along the boundary regions. 

These areas are devoid of all but minimal human interference, allowing flora and fauna to live there undisturbed. At airfields all over the UK, it’s not unusual, as we watch an aircraft departing, to hear the fading sound of its engine replaced by that of a skylark hovering nearby. 

In the 1980s, while learning to fly at Southampton Airport, I was on final approach, focusing on my Flight Instructor’s instructions, when the operator in the control tower informed us that deer were crossing the runway and we should terminate our landing and execute a go-around. Airfield landlords and managers are aware of the environmental issues and are willing to make positive changes in these border areas.

3. They offer opportunities for training and education in aviation-related disciplines.

Airfields frequently include sites adjacent to them for light industrial units, educational institutions, and recreational facilities. Solent Airport is a great example of this. It has an industrial park to the east and recreational areas to the north. 

These integrated airfields provide additional places where people may learn, work, train, or play. In addition, the enormous open areas of the airfield itself may be used for gatherings such as community events, car boot sales, charity events, or historic celebrations.  

4. Airfields preserve the wide-open spaces 

The sale of airfields for housing projects is an all-too-frequent occurrence but the sale may not result in an immediate building project. 

Would you prefer that the runway was turned into a storage facility for hundreds of unsold cars? Or perhaps a dump for old car tyres or some other form of waste or storage? 

Both options would result in a large increase in HGV vehicles in the surrounding roads. Both would result in an eyesore of a site where few people were employed and from which local businesses gained little benefit. 

After the end of the Second World War, many airfields were returned to agricultural use, and after the Cold War others were dismantled and given over to recreational use, as in the case of Greenham Common where nature, wildlife, and leisure have replaced those darker days. 

However, those that remain in the fragile network of airfields and airports need to be preserved. You may have no desire to fly as a passenger from your local airfield, but your child or grandchildren may one day embark on a career thanks to the first job or the inspiration that the airfield down the road provided. 

5. Airfields are bases and staging posts for the emergency services 

Air ambulances, SAR (Search and Rescue) services, police helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft all make use of regional airfields. During the critical early stages of an emergency during which life is at risk, every second counts, and the ability of all these aircraft to operate from an airfield closer to the scene of the incident can quite literally be a matter of life or death. 

During civil emergencies like floods or wildfires, local airfields provide convenient staging posts for the emergency services where supplies and personnel can congregate. The airfield itself may become the centre of operations under such circumstances. 

6. Airfields preserve the heritage of a locality and encourage tourism 

Each airfield within the UK’s network has a unique history. Its existence maintains the heritage of the area and is living proof of its military or civil use during the past one hundred years or more. Heritage preserved in this way, in an active and vibrant airfield, is vastly more educational than a plaque or artifacts in a museum. 

Such locations attract tourists and visitors from the UK and abroad who are eager to learn about the area for a variety of reasons. They may have an ancestor or some other family connection, or they may simply be aviation enthusiasts keen to see the airfield and to experience it first-hand.

7. Smaller, regional airfields are the future 

The arrival of electrically powered aircraft will revolutionise regional airfields. Aircraft with all-electric motors already exist, as well as larger planes capable of transporting a dozen or more passengers between cities. It’s only a matter of time until these electrical planes (which are quieter) start flying in our skies. 

The idea of urban air mobility (UAM) is a phrase that’s frequently used to describe the part of aviation that involves small, passenger-carrying aerial vehicles within and between cities. They’ll need bases to operate from, which means your local airport is the best option. 

Reduced number of automobiles and coaches on the roads, going the long distances to and from major airports, is one result.