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RESEARCH PRODUCT

REGIONAL AIRPORT: STUDY ON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROFITABILITY

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Using Geomatics and GIS technologies, the aim of this study is the recovery of a regional economy focused on the areas that are marginalized and depressed, or with an emerging tourist industry, to reach explanatory variables of the airport impact on the regional economy. This analysis is conducted on the basis of geographical data and socio-economic features that characterized the area taken into account. Next to the main activities relating to international air traffic, which absorb large flows of traffic and offer primary and supplementary services, today airport is identified by their irreplaceable role in modern economic life, especially in the connections between places that, for geographi- cal reasons or otherwise, have the characteristics of difficult accessibility by other modes of transport and levels of demand not so high as to justify international and/or intercontinental air services. The functionality of these services also depends on policy choices in terms of airport facili- ties and their distribution in the territory compared to the docks and the traffic volumes that interest them. In this respect, the analysis must be conducted according to geographical data and socio-economic features of the area taken into account, in particular, on a regional scale, the recovery in the economy of the region, and the depressed or marginalized areas emerging from tourism. The choice of location of the airports must be made within the framework of general guidelines at the national level via the joint-state region, given that planning at the regional level, by itself, is not able to consider and assess the many aspects of the problem territories that may exceed those that are exclusively regional. Air services outlined, included among those listed services in the short to medium range, may allow, without significant financial commitments and without complex infrastructure, the presence of air transport in urban, industrial and tourist centers, away from major airports and in large agglom- erations that have a small airport. The best prospects we have, however, are in relations to traffic to and between islands, given the slowness of shipping and the need for social and economic relations that should be frequent and fast. Besides, in addition to public interest, the social aim is more easily achieved employing the links between southern Italy and the marginal locations than the industrial and economic centers, thus facilitating the objectives of revitalizing areas socially and economically less developed. Thus, the airport is seen as a service to the territory, similar to that of a hospital, a school or a cultural center. It is necessary, even in the case of a regional airport, to provide the area of influence and activities that allow the best and most appropriate use and development according to national and regional planning. Hence, the need to identify a methodology that allows explanatory variables of the airport to impact on the regional economy is to be reached.