When we talk about Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport, we naturally think about where it can take us for business trips, family vacations, and weekend getaways. But there is another side of the story that is just as important:
Our airport brings the world to us.
On average, about 40% of the passengers using AZO are people who are not from the Kalamazoo area. Many are coming here to visit family and friends, but importantly, others are here to attend a meeting or conference, interview for a job, visit a customer, meet with a supplier, or explore an investment opportunity. This provides real economic value to the Southwest Michigan.
That statistic is a reminder that an airport is a two-way door. It doesn’t just help local residents get out; it gives people from other communities a convenient way to get in.
Consider the perspective of a local company recruiting an executive from another state. Or a local manufacturer inviting an important customer to tour its facility. The visitor’s experience begins long before they arrive at the company’s front door. How easily can they get here? How many connections are required? How far will they have to drive after landing?
Being able to tell that customer or prospective employee, “Fly into Kalamazoo,” has real value beyond the airport’s property lines.
It also matters when companies are deciding where to locate or expand their operations. Economic developers and site-selection consultants consider a wide range of factors, including workforce, utilities, available property, transportation infrastructure and access to markets. Airport access is one part of that equation because companies need to move people as well as products.
And this isn’t just a consideration for major metropolitan areas. Columbia, Missouri, offers a compelling example. Like Kalamazoo, Columbia is a regional community with much larger airports within driving distance. Rather than simply accepting that residents and businesses would drive to those airports, Columbia invested in strengthening its own regional airport.
More importantly, the community viewed air service as part of its economic-development strategy, recognizing that better access could help attract and retain businesses, employees and investment. An airport doesn’t have to offer nonstop service to everywhere to be valuable. It needs to provide businesses with convenient access to the larger markets where their customers, employees and business partners are located.
The value of AZO isn’t measured only by how many nonstop destinations appear on the departure board. Its value also lies in the people who can reach Southwest Michigan because those flights exist.
A passenger connecting through Chicago or Detroit may ultimately be headed to Kalamazoo to do business with a local company. Those connections have an economic value that isn’t always visible on an airport’s passenger count.
We often talk about roads and highways as critical infrastructure because they connect our businesses and communities to the rest of the country. An airport does something similar on a much larger geographic scale. It provides an on-ramp to the national and global transportation network. And that on-ramp works in both directions.
AZO helps Southwest Michigan reach the world. But just as importantly, it gives the world a way to reach Southwest Michigan.
That’s why having a commercial airport in our community matters—not simply for where we can go, but for who can come here, what businesses can accomplish here and what opportunities can find their way to our doorstep.
Our airport doesn’t just connect us to the world. It brings the world to us.
