Development of an Airport Choice Model for General Aviation Operations

The general aviation airport choice model is used to estimate general aviation (GA) person trips and number of aircraft operations through a set of airports given initial trip demand (GA person trips) from a set of counties. a pseudogravity model embedded in the model is used to distribute the intercounty person trips to the set of airports. the interairport person trips are then split into person trips by aircraft type (single, multiple, or jet engine). to split the trips, an attractiveness factor is developed on the basis of average occupancy, level of use, a distance distribution factor, and number of operations of each aircraft type. the person trips by aircraft type are then converted to aircraft operations with the use of occupancy factors for each aircraft type. the final model output is the number of aircraft operations by each aircraft type, in the form of three interairport trip tables. the estimated GA operations provide a means of assessing the impact of GA activities on the National Airspace System. the model output may also be used to assess the viability of GA aircraft as a competitive mode of transportation for intercity travel.