Pick up (or click on) any writing about more affordable air taxi services coming soon and you will find no shortage of
words about the new VLJs (Very Light Jet) in development, and a few entrepreneurial air taxi companies, namely,  
DayJet, POGO, and Linear Air, all planning to use these jets.  Other than brief mention that new air taxi systems will  
service thousands of underutilized small airports, there is nothing about these airports' state of readiness to handle VLJ
traffic.

This spawns a few questions: How many small airports have the necessary guidance and communications equipment?  Is
this known?  Does it matter?  Is the only requirement some minimum length paved runway?  I suspect not, however, one
might get that impression from reading VLJ landing/take-off needs in these articles.

One organization paying attention to the small airport development issue is the Consortium for Aviation System  
Advancement (CASA) in Florida, which notes that while aircraft technology is maturing, airport infrastructure is being
ignored.  CASA is carrying on the work of the Southeast SATSLab and the NASA-sponsored  SATS (Small Aircraft
Transportation System) program, which ended in June 2005.  Since there was never a common definition of a SATS
airport, CASA plans to work with air taxi companies to identify what they need at the airports to be serviced, and with
equipment providers to determine optimal configurations.

Another aspect of readiness is the people/attitude factor, as in organized public resistance to allowing jet traffic into "our"
airport.  How many will be rendered unavailable for this reason?

I would like to poll all small airport management with this question.  If the VLJs started flying today, would you be ready
to bring them in and out of your airport tomorrow?  If not, what is the impediment?

Responses to this question, or about the subject, are invited by email.  Results will be compiled and presented in a future link from this page.  Let us know if we can quote your email directly including your name (or anonymous).  

Properly equipped, jet-friendly small airports -- the vision of VLJ air taxis flying most anywhere will fade without them.

2/19/06